Attitudes Towards Gender Equality in Denmark, Sweden and Norway

V12B Attitudes towards gender equality in Denmark, Sweden and Norway Jørgen Goul Andersen & Ditte Shamshiri-Petersen Department of Political Science Aalborg University [email protected], [email protected] draft Paper presented at the 2016 Annual meeting of the Danish Political Science Association, October 27-28, Vejle, Denmark Indhold 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Data .................................................................................................................................................... 5 3. Country and gender differences ........................................................................................................... 6 3.1. Gender role attitudes ..................................................................................................................... 6 3.2. Gender equality as an ideal ........................................................................................................... 8 3.3. Perceived distance from the ideal ................................................................................................ 10 3.4. Policy instruments to promote gender equality ............................................................................ 13 4. Generational diversity ....................................................................................................................... 15 References ............................................................................................................................................ 16 1 V12B 1. Introduction This paper explores the attitudes of Scandinavian women and men towards gender equality and various political instruments to promote gender equality. It is based on a comparative survey conducted in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 2015. It is the first Danish survey of the whole population to explore such attitudes at length, and it is actually the first comparative Scandina- vian data set on the issue. Oddly enough, gender issues have not played a very significant role in most ongoing surveys like the election surveys, probably because such attitudes did not appear to have much independent impact on voting (Evans, 1993). One might expect that such attitudes were rather uniformly favourable of equal rights. The Nordic countries are typically perceived of as pioneers regarding gender equality. Equal rights and opportunities for men and women has been a sort of hallmark of Scandinavia (Lang- vasbråten, 2008:33; Borchorst, 2009:30) – and an integrated part of these countries’ national self-images (Freidenvall, Dahlerup & Skjeie, 2006; Heidenreich, 2012:153). In her seminal work Welfare State and Woman Power: Essays in State Feminism (1987) Helga Hernes introduced the term ‘woman-friendly welfare states’ and pointed to the Nordic democracies’ progressive alli- ance between women and the state : A favourable combination of state feminism from above and feminization from below (Hernes, 1987:153). At the same time, Hernes underlined that equality between men and women had far from been achieved. To stipulate from her model, however, it would be a question of time. With solid backing from the people, it seemed plausible that remaining barriers would gradually erode. Thirty years later, the situation has indeed improved, but it is also obvious that there is still quite some distance to go. As revealed by e.g. the Nordic Power Studies (SOU 1990:44; Christiansen & Togeby, 2001; Togeby et al., 2003; Østerud et al., 2002; Østerud et al., 2003), and the Swed- ish Women Power Study (SOU 1998:6), the distribution of power positions between men and women has remained highly skewed, in particular in business life. Women have obtained more equal pay, but the gender gap remains, even if we take account of gender differences in job functions, and job functions remain different, partly reflecting that women’s career opportunities remain more constrained. There are remedies for that – such as introducing gender quotas for different positions in the public and private sector, introducing parental leave schemes that force fathers to take their part of family obligations (and suffer the same career breaks as women) etc. 2 V12B Needless to say, not all political decision makers want to promote such instruments. But they have also met resistance, both among men and women. In the United States it has emerged that what previously looked as a straight line towards more equal gender roles has been broken (Cotter, Hermsen & Vanneman, 2011). It could appear that in the US, the feminism from below has to some extent run out of steam. But what about the Scandinavian countries? How is public opinion towards gender equality? Do women still pressure for higher gender equality, and are they followed by men? Does the young generation of women take more or less radical positions than the older generations? It has previously been predicted on the basis of Danish youth surveys conducted in 1979 and 1988 (re- vealing little change in levels) that attitudinal changes might not be irreversible (Togeby, 1995a), but how does it look 30 years later? Below we shed some light on these issues. More specifi- cally, we examine various aspects of gender equality attitudes across the Scandinavian countries. Unfortunately, as pointed out long ago, empirical measures as regards gender issues have tended to be highly skewed towards gender role attitudes (Stacey & Thorne, 1985). This situation has not changed very significantly (Kane & Whipkey, 2009); even measures of “feminist” attitudes have often relied much on gender role questions (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004). The gender gap in voting is well analysed (e.g. Chaney et al., 1998; Abendschön & Steinmetz, 2014; Emme- negger & Manov, 2014; for the latest Danish accounts, see Goul Andersen, 2015, 2016). Quite some effort has been put to analysing gender differences in general political attitudes (e.g. Ingle- hart & Norris, 2003; Norrander & Wilcox, 2008; Oskarson & Wägnerud, 1995; Oskarson & Rohdén, 2002; for Danish studies, see Togeby, 1994a,b,c; Goul Andersen, 1984, 2016). But attitudes towards the politics of gender inequality and towards policy instruments to counter this inequality has not very often been measured empirically. Most time series, in particular from the US, are on attitudes towards gender roles or, at best, very general measures. But even though it was a slogan of the feminist revolution in the 1960s and 1970s that “the private is political”, most gender role attitudes are rather “private” attitudes. When it comes to goals and instruments of gender equality policy, even conceptualization and measures are not very well developed. In this paper, we suggest to distinguish between the following aspects: Attitudes towards gender roles Attitudes towards gender equality as an ideal Perception of the current state in terms of distance from the ideal, and 3 V12B Attitudes towards particular policy instruments to promote gender equality. Undoubtedly, these dimensions are highly correlated, but from a conceptual point of view, they are different, and one might very well expect to find somewhat different determinants of these attitudes (c.f. Togeby, 1995a). In this paper, we shall examine differences in attitude patterns across the dimensions above. One could expect that most people in Scandinavia – both men and women – have aban- doned traditional gender role perceptions. Still, this can be differentiated. One question is whether people believe that men and women should have the same roles in relation to the labour market and family responsibilities (household, upbringing of children etc.). Another question is whether women and men are considered equally qualified for top positions in political life and in business life. Undoubtedly, there may be a certain “social desirability bias” when people – in particular men – answer such questions, but one could none the less expect that traditional gender role perceptions tend to be more resilient when it comes to professional positions than with respect to labour market participation and family responsibilities where double earning families has been the norm for nearly half a century.1 Next, we examine the differences between men and women across these dimensions. To what extent do Scandinavian men support gender equality policies? One might expect that gender differences tend to increase as we move from gender roles to perceptions of the current situation and in particular to attitudes towards policy instruments to remedy gender inequalities. But we actually know less about the gender distribution of attitudes in this field than across most other policy fields where attitudes towards e.g. welfare, taxes, warfare (just to mention a few issues where gender differences are almost universal across countries). Finally, but not least, we shall compare the Scandinavian countries. Over the last couple of decades, quite significant differences have developed in public policy as well as in political discourse. In Norway, the dominant discourse has articulated women’s particularity and distinc- tiveness. Thus, being different to men, women are entitled to make particular political claims (Heidenreich, 2012:165) and historically the state has played an active role in promoting gender equality. In Denmark and Sweden ‘the difference argument’ has never gained ground. On the contrary, the dominant feminist ideology has seen

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