About me
My ongoing post doctoral research When experience entered the law. Knowledge claims in contemporary governmental gender equality pursuits (2025-2027) focuses on two legislative reforms that established the notion of experience into legislation concerning gender equality and diversity in Finland: the Trans Act in 2023 and the Equality Act in 2015. Since enforcing The Trans Act reform, a person’s own account of their gender has been an adequate precondition for legal recognition. The Equality Act reform added gender identity as a basis for discrimination. In both of the Acts, identity is defined as a person’s experience, however no definition of experience is disclosed. The two legal reforms mark a shift in the knowledge base of governmental pursuits regarding gender equality and non-discrimination. Individual’s experience represents different kind of knowledge than the one traditionally utilized in governmental pursuits of gender equality. Previously, relevant information in such pursuits has been statistical information, information concerning what women and men as groups do, and also information that rests on identifying patterns and societal structures. The research material of this study consists of documents in the two legal reform processes. I analyse the documents that were produced both as part of the preparative work for each of the governmental proposals and during the parliamentary proceedings. The documents include citizen’s initiatives, committee reports, government proposals and comments to the proposals (delivered by gender equality officials, NGO’s, legal, medical and other experts, individual citizens), amendments, and minutes of the parliamentary readings. I include also the international regulations and agreements such as from World Health Organization and European Union, that bind Finland. I identify the epistemological foundations that the knowledge claims presented rely on. Additionally, I examine what kind of activity the knowledge claims generate in terms of concrete acts. The research is funded by Kone Foundation.
My doctoral thesis Narrating Affective Tensions. Women's experiences of heterosexual relationships focuses on women's narration on their heterosexual relationships. The point of departure in investigating heterosexual relationships is that of critical heterosexuality studies, which foregrounds the formative role of heterosexuality in generating intelligible social relations. The doctoral thesis includes three empirical analyses. The analyses show that the tellability of gender hierarchy that takes place in heterosexual relationships rests on a temporal order of progress. Progress narrative as a temporal order organized both the societal conditions for couple relationships and the experiential dimension of women’s life course. Progress narrative formed a complex basis for women’s pursuits to dissolve gender hierarchy as it took place in their heterosexual relationships.
My doctoral research is part of Academy of Finland funded research project (2015-2019) Just the Two of Us? Affective inequalities in intimate relationships (31213265711).
I have worked as a researcher in the project Hallituksen tasa-arvo-ohjelmien vaikuttavuus ja toimivuus (TAOVA), which focuses on Finnish governmental equality programs as instruments for initiating gender equality.
Fields of expertise
My areas of expertise are feminist theory, feminist methodology, affect theory, critical research on heterosexuality, couple relationship as a site of power and inequalities, queer theory, queer temporalities research, qualitative methods, interview, discourse analysis, narrative research, experience.
Selected publications
Jurva, Raisa (2025) Lapset mukaan töihin -päivä ja puuttuva luokan taju. Alusta! 21.11.2025. ISSN 2323-1084.
Jurva, Raisa (2025) Sukupuolen määritelmä kokemuksena tuo ratkaisemattomat ongelmat tasa-arvopolitiikan kentälle uudessa muodossa. Alusta! 4.9.2025. ISSN 2323-1084.
Jurva, Raisa (2024) Narrating Affective Tensions. Women's experiences of heterosexual relationships. Tampere: Tampere University Press. trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/160825
Elomäki, Anna; Ylöstalo, Hanna; Jurva, Raisa & Lamberg, Emma (2023) Hallituksen tasa-arvo-ohjelmien vaikuttavuus ja toimivuus. Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan julkaisusarja 2023:41. julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/164980
Elomäki, Anna; Koskinen Sandberg, Paula; Räsänen, Tapio; Simanainen, Miska & Jurva, Raisa (2022) Koronakriisiin vastaava päätöksenteko ja talouspolitiikka. In Merita Mesiäislehto and colleagues (eds.) Koronakriisin vaikutukset sukupuolten tasa-arvoon Suomessa. Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan julkaisusarja 2022:46, pp. 144-167. julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/164176
Jurva, Raisa & Lahti, Annukka (2019) Challenging Unequal Gendered Conventions in Heterosexual Relationship Contexts through Affective Dissonance. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 27(4), 218-230. doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2019.1682662
Jurva, Raisa (2019) The Affective Politics of Progress Narratives: Women Talking about Equality in Intimate Relationships. In Julia Carter & Lorena Arocha (eds.) Romantic Relationships in a Time of ‘Cold Intimacies’. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 285-307. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-29256-0
Jurva, Raisa (2018) Independence and Vulnerability. Affective Orientations in Imagining Futurities for Heterosexual Relationships. In Tuula Juvonen & Marjo Kolehmainen (eds.) Affective Inequalities in Intimate Relationships. New York: Routledge, pp. 128-140. routledge.com/Affective-Inequalities-in-Intimate-Relationships-1st-Edition/Juvonen-Kolehmainen/p/book/9781138092747
Jurva, Raisa (2018) Sukupuolisopuilua vai sietämistä? Muutoksen affektiivinen politiikka seksuaalisessa häirinnässä. Sukupuolentutkimus-Genusforskning 2018 (2), 47-49. journal.fi/sukupuolentutkimus/issue/archive
Sihto, Tiina; Lahti, Annukka; Elmgren, Heidi & Jurva, Raisa (2018) Naisvalitus ja parisuhteen epätasa-arvo. In Petteri Eerola & Henna Pirskanen (eds.) Perhe ja tunteet. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, pp. 279-297. https://www.gaudeamus.fi/teos/perhe-ja-tunteet/
Pietilä, Ilkka; Jurva, Raisa; Ojala, Hanna & Tammela, Teuvo (2017) Seeking Certainty through Narrative Closure: Men's Stories of Prostate Cancer Treatments in the State of Liminality. Sociology of Health & Illness, 40(4), 639-653. doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12671.
Jurva, Raisa (2012) Seksuaalinen painostus ja väkivalta heteroseksuaalisessa kohtaamisessa terveystiedon oppimateriaaleissa. In Päivi Atjonen (ed.) Oppiminen ajassa - kasvatus tulevaisuuteen. Joensuun vuoden 2011 kasvatustieteen päivien parhaat esitelmät artikkeleina. Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura, pp. 293-305. finna.fi/Record/jykdok.1239891/TOC