Sexualization of Public Space

NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin

NIKK - Nordic Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Research Photo: Espen Bratlie/Samfoto

A certain Female Body

The vision of the Swedish IKEA low price furnishing empire now reigning in more than 30 countries worldwide is “to create a better everyday life for t many people”. Presently this is done by portraying naked young women from behind in open fields on huge billboards advertising a sofa, which is hardly noticeable in the picture.This is just one example of a trend, which can be described as mainstreaming of pornography – or the so-called porn chic tre This concept describes the current cultural process in which pornography slips into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element. Two different trends seem to work together here: First, a clean-up, which finds expression in the increased interest by the mass media in pornography, is translated into television documentaries and articles on pornography in newspapers and magazines. Secondly, there is a tendency in advertising, the fa ion industry and the music industry to use signs and symbols, not in themselves pornographic, but which refer to a pornographic universe. This development is closely related to the drastic change of the cultural status of pornography over the last ten years as a result of developments with information and communication technology. The supply of pornography has increased; it has become more easily accessible to the individual consumer and consumption has become potentially anonymous by means of mobile phones and the Internet. These representations seriously deviate from the norms and values that for the last thirty years have dominated the Nordic countries, with their conce for welfare and gender equality.We know very little about the way which this increased exposure of pornography affects children and young people, ab their attitude to what they see, and about the way pornography relates to their perceptions of sexuality and gender and to their own sexual experienc The few Nordic researchers who have studied this problem disagree on whether exposure to hard-core pornography has any effect upon well-balance children and young people and, if it does, what kind of effect we are dealing with. This is the background for a major research project now launched in the Nordic countries which studies the way in which the spread of pornography affecting young people's perception of gender. The project, which is run by NIKK and comprising researchers from all Nordic countries, is presented in the lead article in this annual English issue of NIKK magasin. Another article by one of the researchers in this project discusses some of the issues within, and analytical challenges for gender and media studies concerning questions of sexualization, femininity, masculinity and visual representation - or what is nowadays referred to as the sexualization of public space. As the IKEA advertisement demonstrates so well, a certain female body is the most commonly spread eroticised symbol for desires such as consumption, and representation of sexuality in the public domain. But the question raised in this issue, is whether this form of sexualization just as much is a representation of ideas about masculinity. NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 3

YOUTH, GENDER AND PORNOGRAPHY To what extent does the mainstreaming of pornography into mass culture affect young people’s perceptions of gender and sexuality? This is the main question raised in a new Nordic research project run by NIKK engaging researchers from all Nordic countries. PAGE 4

MIRRORED MASCULINITY? Gender and media researcher Anja Hirdman turns the perspective of sexualisation and representation around. She argues that the sexualizations of the female body in the public domain is also a representation of ideas about masculinity. PAGE 8 content

MAKING VIOLENT FATHERS INVISIBLE In her doctoral thesis in sociology – In the shadow of Daddy: family law and the handling of fathers’ violence – Maria Eriksson documents a number of problems in con-

NO. 3 - 2004 temporary Sweden in protecting children and mothers/ NIKK magasin co-parents from post-separation violence from fathers. PAGE 31

Looking at Men Gender in Peacekeeping through Literature Why mainstreaming gender into peace- the Literary analyses show how the prob- keeping has become a part of the UN’s y Sexualization lematisation of masculinity is closely con- agenda on peace, war and security dur- nd. of Public Space nected with the idealisation of women. ing the past decade.

NIKK - Nordic Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Research PAGE 12 PAGE 24 and NIKK magasin 3 - 2004 ISSN 1502-1521 ash- PUBLISHED BY: The Long Waves The Interview II NIKK – the Nordic Institute for of Women’s Movements Professor Drude Dahlerup is known as in Women's Studies and Gender Research r, The internationality of women’s move- a bridge-builder between the women’s CHIEF EDITOR: movement and Women’s Studies in the Solveig Bergman, director of NIKK ments has played a crucial role for all ern [email protected] forms of women’s activism since the Nordic countries. th bout EDITOR: 19 century. PAGE 27 ces. Trine Lynggard [email protected] d PAGE 16 TRANSLATORS: Crossing Borders Heidi Granquist, is Madelene R. Edelstein, The Interview I A new comprehensive anthology on n Sara Bannock, Finnish politician Elisabeth Rehn has international women’s movements. Birgitte Svane Lomborg an international career as relentless GRAPHIC DESIGN: PAGE 34 Alien Design defender of women’s rights in crisis PRINTING: areas. CDDU Grafisk PRINTED IN: PAGE 21 11.000 copies COVER PHOTO: Michael Daugaard / Samfoto 4 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

Youth, Gender and Pornography NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 5

SUSANNE V. KNUDSEN & ANETTE DINA SØRENSEN Project Managers, NIKK [email protected] [email protected]

A major research project has been launched in the Nordic ever, is also closely related to the main- countries which studies the way in which the spread of streaming of pornography – the so- pornography is affecting the perception of gender by young called porn chic trend (McNair 2002). people. The background for this project comprises changes in This concept describes the current cul- the cultural status of pornography that have followed in the tural process in which pornography wake of the development of new media. slips into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element. Mainstream- rom newspaper articles, always voluntary. As an element of ing of pornography manifests itself anthologies and a handful of aggressive promotion by producers of particularly clearly within youth cul- Frecent individual studies, in pornography, the internet has become ture: from teenage television and which young people are allowed to an important medium for exposure lifestyle magazines to music videos and voice their own opinions, we know that through SPAM mails, banner advertis- commercials targeted at the young. teenagers of both sexes watch pornog- ing and pop-up windows. This trend emphasises the need for raphy, their motives being partly curi- This research project is also unique a discussion of what defines pornogra- ous, partly sexual and partly connected in the sense that it directly involves phy. Originally the word pornography with their need for information about young people between the ages of four- meant ’pictures of or writing about sexuality (e.g., Mossige 2001, Håvold teen and eighteen: in quantitative and harlots’ (from ’porne’ = harlot + and Moen 2003, Søndergaard 2002). qualitative surveys they will be asked ’graphi’ = writing or picture). Today On the other hand, we have no con- about their attitudes to pornography. there are almost as many definitions of crete knowledge about the way that Teenagers of today may perceive pornography as there are researchers increasing exposure affects children pornography differently and have a less within the field. However, it is possible and young people, about their attitudes critical approach to pornography than to outline three basic definitions: (1) to what they are watching, and the way their parents’ generation did. An explicit depiction of sexuality, that this relates to their perceptions of which serves to arouse the spectator sexuality and gender and to their own Mainstreaming sexually and stimulate sexual fantasies, sexual experiences. The few Nordic of pornography initiating or followed by masturbation. researchers who have studied this prob- The launching of this research project (2) Obscene or offensive descriptions. lem disagree about whether exposure to is to be seen in the light of the histori- (3) Degrading and grossly exploitative hard-core pornography has any effect cal processes of change witnessed by presentations, usually of women and upon well-balanced children and the Nordic countries and by most of children (McNair 2002, 40, 211). young people and, if it does, what kind the Western world. The cultural status Furthermore, it is open to debate of effect we are dealing with. of pornography has changed drastically whether depictions of genitals consti- In many ways this research project over the last ten years as a result of tute pornography, or whether the is unique. It focuses on an area in con- developments within information and depictions must include exposure of stant development and in which the communication technology. These genital contact and/or penetration in new media play an important role. The developments have reduced the costs of order for us to define them in this way. access that children and young people producing pornographic material and have to cable and satellite television have simplified distribution. As a Power and gender and the internet as well as their con- result, the supply of pornography has Power and gender are central elements sumption of products of mass culture increased; it has become more easily in pornography. Regardless of the have increased their chances of expo- accessible to the individual consumer, pornographic genre we are dealing sure to pornographic material – both and consumption has become poten- with, power and gender serve as the regular pornography and main- tially anonymous by means of mobile driving forces behind the relations and streamed, fragmented references to the phones and the internet. sexual activities portrayed. Researchers pornographic universe. Exposure is not The change in cultural status, how- disagree, however, about the way these 6 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

representations of power and gender in impossible demands. Instead of satisfy- values are aspects such as reciprocity, pornography are to be interpreted. A ing men, pornography, according to equality, willingness, emotions and – if radical-feminist approach is to see Lynne Segal, in fact exploits male sexual not actually neutrality of power – at pornography as being underpinned by a frustrations, and, by focusing on male least power that ‘floats’ between the par- ‘phallic imperative’ (Stoltenberg 1991). sexuality, helps create for men a phallic ties irrespective of gender. Staging male dominance and female reign of terror (Segal 1990). This discrepancy between the fic- oppression, pornography is not simply tion of pornography and contemporary to be seen as a symbol of male domi- Pornography versus sexuality social norms and values also applies on a nance but as a crucial element in the Regardless of the way we interpret the more overall level to depictions showing social oppression of women, according representations of power and gender in the nature of sexuality. Though sexual to Stoltenberg. In opposition to this pornography, these representations seri- preferences may vary according to the view, Lynne Segal maintains that men, ously deviate from the norms and values pornographic genre (homo, animal, too, are victims of pornography. With that for the last thirty years have domi- S/M, violence, faeces, etc.), pornogra- its focus on the size of the penis, on nated the Nordic countries, with their phy mainly depicts sex between anony- technique and the capacity to perform concern for welfare and gender equality, mous people, who are complete endlessly, pornography contributes to and which have found expression in lit- strangers. The identity of these people is performance anxiety which itself helps erature on sex guidance since the end of deemed irrelevant; the fantasy depicts a foster pornography by facing men with the 1950s. Central to these norms and brief, non-binding encounter between

The research project

The research project ‘Youth, Gender and sidiary elements: a quantitative, internet-based inquiry using ques- Pornography in the Nordic Countries’ is being tionnaires, a qualitative study based funded by the respective Nordic ministries of gen- on interviews and a media analysis. der equality, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and From the 22 applications, covering the different Nordic countries and NIKK (the Nordic Institute for Women’s Studies the three subsidiary projects, NIKK’s and Gender Research). NIKK will carry out this team of researchers have chosen seven projects based on such criteria as pro- project in collaboration with a group of fessional background, interdiscipli- researchers from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, nary research, research experience, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. relevance, the quality of the project proposals, geographical representation, and gender representation, as The project began when the Danish Officials on Gender Equality set up well as the distribution of funds Knowledge Centre on Gender as part of the Nordic Council of between single projects seen in rela- Equality prepared the report Ej blot Ministers. NIKK and the Danish tion to the total budget. The project til lyst – pornografi i et ligestill- Research Centre on Gender Equality will conclude with a number of pub- ingsperspektiv [Not just for fun – (the former Knowledge Centre) pre- lications in the summer of 2006. pornography in a gender equality pared a project proposal for the ÄK- Throughout the period, information perspective] (Cawood and Sørensen, JÄM. After several revisions of the about the project will be published in 2002). The report established that proposal, the ÄK-JÄM decided to Nordic languages very little research had been conduct- commission a research project that on www.nikk.uio.no. ed within the field, and as a result the would throw light on ‘the way that launching of the project was pro- the spread of pornography affects the . posed by the Danish Gender perception of gender by young peo- Equality Minister at ‘ÄK-JÄM’, the ple of both sexes.’ Nordic Committee of Senior The project comprises three sub- NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 7

two or more strangers, an encounter tudes and sexual experiences. that does not subsequently result in a Another more comprehensive sub- more permanent relationship. sidiary project consists of a series of Moreover, hard-core pornography is qualitative studies of the way in which usually characterised by a very limited young people perceive, view and definition of sexuality. Its main function respond to ‘pornification’. The project is is to arouse the viewer sexually; this is based on interviews with teenagers in achieved through a detailed depiction of focus groups and/or in-depth inter- the sexual act, limited to exposure of the views. These interviews will be semi- genitals, genital contact and penetra- structured and with predetermined tion: vaginal, anal and/or oral penetra- themes. The interviews will be analysed tion. The culmination of the sexual act as texts in which the researcher will look is usually defined by the ejaculation of for processes employed in the accounts the male actor/actors, also known as the of each person interviewed – including ‘cumshot’. That there may be more to both verbal and non-verbal statements – sexuality is a point not normally made as well as noting shared matter and the in hard-core pornography. Thus the unique aspects of individual accounts concepts of ‘foreplay’ and ‘post coital (Knudsen 2001). Furthermore, in the relaxation’, which within the culture of qualitative studies some of the sexuality are considered norms of ‘good researchers make use of the ‘memory- sex’, are toned down or non-existent in work’ method, employing a kind of hard-core pornography. ‘stream of consciousness’ or non-stop writing on a given topic. The three approaches In the third subsidiary project The few Nordic researchers to have researchers will conduct different media REFERENCES dealt with these problems disagree analyses. One media analysis will focus Cawood, Sarah Højgaard and Sørensen,Anette Dina, eds. (2002): ”Ej blot til lyst – pornografi i et ligestillingsperspek- about whether exposure to hard-core on youth television in Finland as trans- tiv”, København:Videnscenter for ligestilling. [Not just for pornography has any effect at all on mitted on the national channel, on local fun – pornography in a gender equality perspective. Copenhagen: Knowledge Centre on Gender Equality.] well-balanced children and young peo- channels, and on Nordic and global Håvold, Berit and Moen,Vigdis (2003): ”Sex og media – ple, and – if it has – what that effect channels. The study comprises a con- Hvorvidt får ungdom sin seksuelle informasjon fra media?”, eksamensopgave i sexologisk rådgivning, Høgskolen i might be: whether the effect is psycho- tent analysis, interviews with heads of Agder. [Sex and media – whether young people gain their logical or whether it affects their atti- programmes within public service tele- sexual information from the media. Examination assignment in sexological counselling. Folk High School,Agder.] tudes or their actions. It is for this rea- vision, and policy studies investigating McNair, Brian (2002):“Striptease Culture – sex, media and son that we have launched this research the rules governing the media regarding the democratisation of desire”, London, Routledge project in the Nordic countries. This material they are permitted to broadcast Knudsen, Susanne V. (2001):“Kan græsset blive for grønt? – metodologiske overvejelser i forbindelse med forskning research project comprises three sub- to children and young people. In med/i kvalitative data og køn”. I Kønsblik – på bachelorud- sidiary projects with opportunities for Sweden and Norway researchers will dannelser, red. Kirsten Reisby. København: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet. [Can the grass become too cross-referencing. All three subsidiary analyse the sexualised self-portraits green? –methodological considerations in connection with projects will concentrate on young peo- teenagers have uploaded onto frequent- research in qualitative data and gender.] In Kønsblik - på bacheloruddannelser [Gender perspectives – in the bache- ple between the ages of fourteen and ly visited Nordic internet sites. The lor programme, ed. Kirsten Reisby. Copenhagen:The eighteen. point of departure will be a picture Danish University of Education] Mossige, Svein (2001): ”Ungdoms holdninger til seksuelle One of the subsidiary projects will analysis comparing the uploaded pic- krenkelser og overgrep”, Oslo, NOVA, rapport 16/01. [The be an internet-based inquiry using ques- tures of young men and women, focus- attitudes of the young to sexual offences. Oslo, NOVA, tionnaires. It will be conducted in each ing on the kind of sexual codes and ref- report 16/01.] Segal, Lynne (1990) “Slow Motion. Changing Masculinities, Nordic country using websites frequent- erences they use and the kind of sexual Changing Men”, London:Virago ly visited by young people. Such an gender structures they produce. This Stoltenberg, John (1991) “Pornography and Freedom”, pp. 60-71 in Kimmel, Michael S. (ed.) Men confront pornogra- inquiry has the advantage of allowing visual self-presentation will be seen in phy, New York: Penguin. complete anonymity. The response rate the context of a week’s media supply of Søndergaard, Per Straarup (2002): ”Ung i en pornotid”, Århus, CDR-Forlag. [Young people in a porno age. Århus, is usually high and easy to utilise. In docusoap plus internet activity and real- the CDR Publishers.] addition, this type of inquiry will enable ity television targeted at young people. Sørensen,Anette Dina (2003):“Pornchic – køn og pornografi i massekulturen”, I Perspektiver på ungdom og us to compare the results country by krop, red. Bibi Hølge-Hazelton, Roskilde, Roskilde country. The aim of the inquiry is to Universitetsforlag. [Porn chic: gender and pornography in gain an insight into patterns of con- mass culture.] In Perspektiver på ungdom og krop [Perspectives on youth and body], ed. Bibi Hølge-Hazelton, sumption, the situations in which this Roskilde, Roskilde Universitetsforlag. [Roskilde University consumption takes place, as well as atti- Publishers.] 8 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004 Mirrored Masculinity? Turning the Perspective of Sexualization and Representation around

By ANJA HIRDMAN

Researcher, Departement of Journalism, Media and Communication Stockholm University [email protected]

In the public domain a certain female body is the most commonly spread eroticised symbol for desires such as consumption, and representation of sexuality. But this form of sexualization is also, and maybe more significantly, a representation of ideas about masculinity.

his article seeks to discuss some of the issues within and analyt- Tical challenges for gender and media studies concerning questions of sexualization, femininity, masculinity and visual representation - or what is nowadays referred to as the sexualization of public space. Sexualization is often discussed as an issue concerning women and femininity. I will argue that we need to shift this perspective and study the visual display of femininity, not just as symbolic constructions of the female, but also as representations of concepts of masculinity. Gender representations do not primarily refer to individuals, so much as to a social relationship. Including mas- NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 9

culinity into an analysis of representa- The notion of public space refers to, various genres and formats such as tions of femininity is also to underscore on the one hand, our actual surround- tabloids, television, commercials, the the process of gender construction as, ings - streets, walls, public transport internet and magazines. and always as, a relation, even when (buses, underground stations, etc.) and only one party of this relation is depict- the images that fill them. On the other Hard and soft pornography ed. hand, it includes the media outlet in When talking of sexuality and the media, the division between the genres of hard and soft pornography needs to be addressed, at least briefly. While hard porn usually shows two or more persons engaged in some sort of sexual activity with the overt purpose of sexually arousing its audience, soft porn images usually depict one person and are loaded with sexual connotation. These images have a more complex purpose of arousing all kinds of desires – consumption not the least. And while I find hard porn difficult to categorise as subordinating women as a genre, soft porn continues to reproduce some of the more traditional myths of feminine identity and sexuality. Soft porn images are also character- ized by their accepted social status. This mainstreaming process is a result of its aesthetic definition as “non-pornographic”, although the motif can be highly sexually motivated. A common feature since the mid- eighties is that in both genres, women are the ones communicating sex to the audience. In hard porn this is due to conventions of the directed gaze and focus on their verbal and facial expressions, countered by the male performer’s diverted gaze, and non-facial expressions (Hirdman 2002). The core definition of soft porn is its communication of female accessibility and the alluring desire suggested by poses and gazes. Today this sexualized rhetoric is widely used in public and mediated visual representations of sexuality.

Sexualization Sexualization refers to a process whereby a cultural and historic meaning interpreted as sexual, or that which symbol- izes sexuality, be it by means of gesture,

Photo: Jørn Areklett Omre/NN/Samfoto pose, clothes, gaze, or colour, is applied 10 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

to somebody or something. This sexual bolic representation, that an important time, its constant presence as an idea. As fetishism is often symbolized by a cer- aspect of the sexualization of public Richard Dyer points out: “Male sexual- tain gender, a certain body and a certain space lies. ity is a bit like air - you breathe it in all age, and connected to a certain purpose: When studying ideas about sexuali- the time, but you aren’t much aware of consumption. Although the eroticised ty and gender, three issues become evi- it” (1985:28). young male body does circulate in the dent. This is the area of male power. The representation of male sexuality public media today, it is by far outnum- This power should not be seen as just a is thus not easy to grasp, since it tends to bered by the female figure. practical function but also as a process escape both its own categorization and Sexualization is commercial both in its of defining oneself and others. In its symbolic form (even in hardcore aesthetic and purpose, but the form - its public form, ideas about sexuality are so pornography it hides behind the genital visual expression - is also a sign for cer- firmly connected to ideas of gender that focus of the female). And the advantage tain aspects of masculinity. they seem to blend together – gender of this (subject) position is that it does As much research has shown, becomes sexuality as sexuality becomes not have to show itself – it is rather women to a much greater extent than gender. aimed at. It takes the form of an imagi- men, are portrayed as representatives for Throughout our modern history nary beholder who is always there, but something outside themselves and in definitions of femininity have circulated never to be seen. contexts not directly related to the indi- in the public domain as a way to articu- vidual (van Zoonen 1994, Warner late its distinction from masculinity – The problematic concept 1996, Hirdman 2000). This is due to that is, the production of meaning of “the male gaze” the symbolic status of femininity where through difference. Therefore the way While this argument touches upon the- meanings of all kinds flow through the to define masculinity has always been ories of “the male gaze” I think that figures of women, presenting them as a related to definitions of femininity. there are some fundamental problems means for communication of ideas and Although masculinity is of course also with this concept, or rather the use of it. values, not always communicators discussed and defined in relation to One of these is an analytical tendency to themselves. This representational female other men, as in the case of hegemonic divert the attention towards femininity form can have several meanings; partly masculinity and homosociality, the and not masculinity. femininity per se as form – woman-as- notion of femininity still plays a crucial Theories about the male gaze have image – and partly as the form of/for part - in the first case for the placing of been around since 1975, and have had something or somebody where the rep- men on a hegemonic or non-hegemon- an enormous impact on gender studies resentation is symbolic in nature. ic scale, and in the second, male-bond- concerning popular culture and visual ing is founded on a distinctive position analyses. But now that almost thirty Constructed sexual relation in relation to women. years have passed we can also conclude Representation can be seen to operate at that they are still being used to study the two levels. At the first, representation is subject in front of that gaze.1 equated with speaking for someone, or Femininity as representation The psychoanalytic framework in for a certain group. What is emphasised of masculinity which this theory was grounded did at the second level is instead the rhetor- So, in the public domain a certain offer explanations to why and from ical and ideological transformation, in female body is the most commonly where the gaze emerged (Mulvey 1975). which representation consists of the spread eroticised symbol for desires such Apart from my own disagreement with forming of the subject (Ganguly 1992). as consumption, and representation of this formulaic explanation2, it still did If applying this argument to the sexuality. But this form of sexualization not analyse the constructed masculinity function of femininity as figure and is also, and maybe more significantly, a on which this gaze was formed (and symbol for/of something or somebody representation of ideas about masculini- since psychoanalysis was at stake, mas- outside herself, then the forming of the ty. culinity was not even considered as a subject does not just have to concern To regard the visual display of femi- construction). the one represented (the female) but ninity as a representation of masculinity What is said to constitute the male rather what or whom she is there to rep- does not imply a closed, determined sys- gaze is an active and more controlling resent. tem. It is rather an effort to move away spectator position, reflecting a male We know, and have known for a from the focus on femininity and to dominated culture which asserts that long time, that in the public image divert our attention to the position of men have a right to look, that the repre- world women’s bodies mean sex, while masculinity in our culture in general sentation of femininity is in the service at the same time the sexual subject in and to sexuality in particular. of men’s voyeurism and that men assert our culture is male. And it is in this con- One of the most striking character- domination by the gaze. And while this structed sexual relation between femi- istics of male (hetero) sexuality is its is most certainly an issue, we need to ninity and masculinity and in its sym- physical, visual absence, and at the same broaden the relational analysis. To NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 11

tion of semi-masturbatory men in public images - a convention which is widely accepted in representations of the female - while at the same time ideas about male sexuality as pleasure oriented and un-problematic is generally accepted? What does this tell us about the contradictory form on which masculinity is constructed? And how can we understand the complex combination of normative masculinity and indivudali- ty? Since gender relations and their definitions are part of an ongoing process we should ask ourselves: what kind of process are we witnessing today, what kind of relational representations circulate at the moment, not least in the sexualized public space? Under what conditions are these representations accepted – and what do they tell us about the relative positions of femininity and masculinity?

Photo:Amundsen/Samfoto Sigve Paul How this perspective may be used and what kinds of results it might pro- understand the visual display of femi- But the theory of the male gaze, thus duce regarding the nature of gender rela- ninity as notions of masculinity is to go far, has been used as a theory where the tions today remains to be seen. So far I beyond the definition of a male gaze as elaborated analyses concern femininity am just sketching out some thoughts. I merely a “right to look”, and to decon- and not masculinity. am certain, however, that it is in finding struct the gender relations expressed new ways to integrate and problematise through representations at different his- Deconstructing masculinity constructions of masculinity in gender torical times and contexts. To deconstruct masculinity through theories that we have to start. One of the reasons that the focus has femininity is to position the image, the been mainly on femininity is of course representation, in a political and histor- REFERENCES the problematic implications for female ical context of relations where power, Alloula, Malek (1987),The Colonial Harem, Manchester: Manchester University Press. beings in a culture where woman is desire and mutual needs are at stake. Berger, John (1972),Ways of Seeing, London: BBC Penguin made an image, or, to paraphrase John The aim is also to stress the visual dis- Books. Dyer, Richard (1985),‘Male Gay Porn’, Jump Cut 30/85. Berger (1972), where she turns herself play of eroticized femininity as a strate- Gibson Pamela & Gibson Roma (1993), Dirty Looks. into an object – and most particularly gy of representation for masculinity and Women, Pornography, Power, London: British Film Institute. an object of vision, a sight. But other gender relations. Hirdman,Anja 2000,‘Male Norms and Female Forms’, in aspects concerning these sexualized rep- For example, sexualized representa- Picturing Politics,Visual and Textual Formations of resentations need to be addressed as tions of femininity, of accessibility Modernity in the Swedish Press, Karin Becker,Tom Olsson, Jan Ekecrantz (eds.). JMK skriftserie. well. through illusory intimacy and subordi- Hirdman,Anja (2002),Tilltalande bilder. Genus, sexualitet When making an analysis of other nation, do not just represent male och publiksyn i Veckorevyn och Fib aktuellt. Stockholm: Atlas. power relations with the help of (visual) power and desire. They can also be Mulvey, Laura (1975/1989),‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative representations, such as class or ethnici- understood as an expression for some of Cinema’, in Visual and Other Pleasure, Basingstoke: Macmillan. ty, the point of departure has been to the paradoxes and contradictions con- Tagg, John (1988/1993),The Burden of Representation. underline their function as reflecting nected with masculinity. This would Essays on Photographies and Histories, London: Macmillan. Warner, Marina (1996), Monuments and Maidens:The and defining those in power, the ones include the problematic connection in Allegory of the Female Form, London:Vintage. not represented themselves. Here, this our culture today between the male van Zoonen, Liesbeth (1994), Feminist Media Studies, kind of mirrored image is first and fore- body and heterosexual desire, and its London: Sage. most seen as a referent for a conceptual- implication for masculine identity. 1 They have also generated studies and arguments about a isation and self-perception of the one From the perspective of decon- female gaze (see for example Gibson & Gibson 1993). 2 Not at least because of its ahistorical approach to the outside the frame (see for example Tagg structing masculinity, how can we construction of gender and its genital explanation of sub- 1988, Alloula 1987). understand the tabooing of the depic- ordination. 12 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

Looking at Men through Literature

By JØRGEN LORENTZEN Researcher at the Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research at the University of Oslo [email protected] Photo: Henrik Sørensen/Bam/Samfoto NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 13

Literary analyses show focussing on meaning in his work meaning. Therefore literary analysis, how the problematisa- Aesthetic Theory (1969). Adorno made like literature, is always an exploration it clear that hermeneutics, the practice of the relation between human beings, tion of masculinity is of interpreting meaning, would always language and the world. Language will closely connected with misunderstand a work of art. always mediate people and the world, the idealisation of Interpretation would always end up as and it is language that we as readers of misinterpretation. This is simply literature have access to. women in the works of because the hermeneutic reader will Similarly, nearly all research within important European never totally understand the work, the social sciences and humanities is modernists. There are no unless its aesthetic dimension is empha- research into the way language gives us sized first and foremost. access to an understanding of human ideal models of masculin- nature and the world. At the same time, ity in these texts. The The rhetoric dimensions it must not be forgotten that literary For a researcher in the field of literature research is part of the human sciences, creation of difference (or of film or art, for that matter) who is that is, research into human beings. In between men is also also a gender researcher, this is a great combination with gender studies, it essential in male hege- dilemma. For a gender researcher, becomes research into gendered human Adorno’s aesthetic theory is impossible beings, but gendered human beings as monic practices. The defi- to use as a theoretic point of departure, linguistic beings. With the dilemma in nitions of manly and since one must behave as a hermeneutic literary analysis on the relation between reader in order to be able to understand the aesthetic and the ethical in my back- unmanly prove to be what gender represents in a given liter- pocket, and Derrida’s problematisation continuously floating and ary work. At the same time, one’s inter- of linguistic concepts as potential bear- changing. The notion pretative mode is often so influenced by ers of their own opposite (medicine can gender political concerns that one runs be poison), I, as gender researcher, may knapsu, meaning woman- the risk of totally overlooking the fact be able to make a contribution to the ish, which the author that the literary work always has been debate by saying something about the Mikael Niemi ponders and always will be an aesthetic piece of problems of interpretation within gen- work. Without understanding the rhet- der research. over in his book Popular oric dimensions of the text, one Music, is the actual defi- absolutely risks totally misinterpreting Forms of masculinity the work. Unfortunately, gender studies One way of doing this is to show that nition of the limit for within comparative literature are full of men and women not necessarily are male actions and behav- examples of this. Somebody thinks they contradictory signs. When, for example, iour. have found the truth about man or a male artist writes about the feminine, woman, without realising that it is pre- he is perhaps telling us more about the cisely this truth that the work is masculine. Because of its close relation attempting to deconstruct by the use of to gender politics, gender studies con- here are continuous discus- metaphors, images, metonymy, irony stantly runs the risk of generalising and sions within the field of liter- and paradoxes. One believes one has simplifying scientific results. It is easy to Tary analysis on the relation found the medicine, but it turns out to regard a woman as a woman and man as between aesthetics and ethics, between be the poison. a man without considering ways in art and meaning. Is literature above all Literature is like nature. There are which the borders between what is male an aesthetic work, or a work producing no absolutes, only sliding transitions and female are actually blurred, or how meaning? Should the analysis of litera- and potential paradoxes. In his explo- the relation between being powerful and ture value and appreciate its rhythm, ration of the Greek notion farmakon, powerless is seldom stable. In my work form, rhetoric, musicality, beauty, or Jacques Derrida has shown most radi- on central male Norwegian authors dur- should it emphasize the interpretation cally how a concept can contain two ing the latter half of the 19th century, I of the contents of the text, its discourse totally opposing meanings. Farmakon find that a critique of patriarchal mas- of history, psychology, theology, pain can mean both “cure” and “poison”. The culinity is an essential element of their and hope? Theodor Adorno was perhaps life-giving equals the deadly. In this way, literary texts. Writers such as Henrik the first who clearly warned against language can always dupe us and evade Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Arne 14 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

Garborg, Alexander Kielland and Jonas Lie consistently offer a problematisation of the existing forms of masculinity in a way that makes it difficult to imagine how the history of female emancipation can be written without these authors being part of it. This problematisation is partly seen in the way traditionally male, rational linguistic and narrative structures start to crumble so that these can no longer be seen to deliver meaning, and partly by producing texts that at the level of signification tell stories about women who want to break free, whilst men stagnate and fall.

Idealisation of the feminine Ibsen, Bjørnson, Garborg, Kielland and Lie are among the first modern European authors. The later, central modernists display this problematisation even more clearly, as in for example James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Samuel Beckett. In his excellent study of the relation between masculinity and modernism, Gerald Izenberg discusses three Photo: Oscar Mattsom/Mira/Samfoto other important European modernists: Thomas Mann, Frank Wedekind and men’s hypocritical and morally ambigu- This ambiguity is obvious also in Wassily Kandinsky. In Modernism and ous, lecherous lack of integrity. We find Kandinsky, where creativity is identical Masculinity (2000), he tries to show no ideal models of masculinity in with the feminine principle, which he, how the problematisation of masculini- Wedekind’s texts. All men are part of an however, is able to fully encounter only ty is closely connected with the idealisa- authoritarian and rational bourgeois in his abstract paintings, and not in liv- tion of women in the works of these middle class, desperate emasculated ing women. modernists. Or to put it another way, men, melancholy artists or brutalised Neither Mann nor Kandinsky how the idealisation of women is linked misogynists. attributes the bourgeois-realistic male to the problematisation of masculinity. In his critique of the emerging, culture with any potential for creating Let me use a bit of space on Gerald modern, market-oriented liberalism and something new. It is the break from this Izenberg’s reflections on how the rela- male-governed world, Wedekind thus culture that makes these artists turn to tion between femininity and masculini- does not find any masculine ideals to the idealised woman as the locus of ty appeared in the works of such central which he could attach his creativity. opportunity in their revolutionary mod- modernists as Mann, Wedekind and And it is precisely in this absence that ernist art. Kandinsky. All three artists operated not the feminine is idealised. Gerald Izenberg’s arguments con- only with idealised notions of the femi- Thomas Mann and Wassily vincingly show how the idealisation of nine as guidelines for their creative and Kandinsky use completely different the feminine by these artists and their artistic lives, but they also critiqued and forms of an entirely different nature identification of the feminine as the deconstructed contemporary forms of when positing the eternal feminine as source of creativity and the transcen- masculinity through art and literature. the divine object of their desires. In the dental, is connected with the crisis in In Wedekind’s drama, we find a mix works of the self-denying Thomas masculinity – both for them personally of sound female sexuality and femme Mann, this eternal feminine is hardly to and in the culture at large. The idealisa- fatale – the characteristic man-eating be found in real women of flesh and tion of the feminine is thus fully com- woman of the period. This double por- blood, but rather in the creative power prehensible and is made visible not only trait illustrates women who are both which he finds either in the female spir- as a temporary choice, but almost as an sounder and truer than men, and it or in the feminine passive longing and integral element in masculine self- women who possess a far greater power the female virtues that are enshrined in denial, and ultimately as the only means through their seductive sexuality than divine love. of regaining a masculine self. NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 15

Differences between men community in northern Sweden, A risky manoeuvre My point is that gender is not necessar- Mikael Niemi’s fantastic novel Popular The life values of men have been char- ily a decisive factor in somebody being a Music (Eng. 2003, orig. Populärmusik acterised by a strict code as to what a feminist or not. Besides, what is read as från Vittula 2000) also contains reflec- man should be like, and by the thought a male fantasy about femininity could tions on the narrow paths one must that each breach of this code of behav- also be seen as a story about the crisis of tread in order not to risk being unman- iour is a risky manoeuvre which might masculinity. The seeming medicine is ly. The notion knapsu, which Niemi lead the man into an existence in the carrier of the poison, and the poison can ponders over in his book, is the actual marshy territory of unmanliness. be the medicine. Thus literature tells us definition of the limit for male actions Behind the persistent assertion of “the that each attempt to maintain clear bor- and behaviour. In the local Finnish real man”, there always lurks the tacitly ders between man and woman, between dialect, knapsu means womanish, and, acknowledged possibility of accusations the feminine and the masculine must be as Niemi writes: “You could say that in of unmanliness: either by virtue of tak- a hermeneutic masterpiece. The inter- Tornedalen the male role boils down to ing too much alcohol (or too little), pretation will unavoidably turn into a just one thing: not being knapsu.” having too much femininity, being too misinterpretation. In the old days, it was relatively easy cowardly, or too fat, having too many It is, however, not only the bound- for men to avoid being knapsu. They feelings, or displaying other bodily or ary between what we call woman and felled trees, hunted elk, floated timber personal features that might marginalise what we call man that is difficult to and took part in fights on dance floors, men. The delineation of the border maintain. The relation and conditions while women changed curtains, knitted, between the manly and the unmanly is between the genders is one thing, the milked by hand, watered the house- unclear. Sometimes the struggle to relation between the participants in plants and carried out similarly obvious assert what is masculine is persistent and each of the gender categories is another. feminine tasks. But when welfare and diligent; sometimes whether you end up Western women’s studies has taken modernity arrived, things were no as manly or unmanly is determined somewhat too light an attitude to the longer so simple. Engines were clearly merely by coincidence. Thus the con- conflicts and differences between masculine, but what about the sewing cept of masculinity can be seen as a far- women, a fact which has been criticised machine and the electric mixer? Is it makon. It can be difficult to be sure by non-Western feminists for a long possible for a man to vacuum-clean his whether you are good or bad, the cure time. Within men’s studies it was neces- car without being knapsu? Modern or the poison. Chance or bad luck sary to start by establishing the differ- activities made it even more difficult: might decide whether you are one day ences and conflicts between men, in What about eating reduced-fat mar- characterised as a hero or knapsu. order to dissolve the one-dimensional garine or using hair gel or sticking plas- Niemi allows us to watch the strug- understanding of masculinity. Through ters? Wearing goggles when swimming? gle around masculinity at a distance and close readings of male texts from the Putting dog poo in a plastic bag? All this laugh at it. Thus literature provides us 18th and 19th centuries, the Nordic made it far more difficult to be a man in with a language and a set of images that research project Menn og modernitet the Tornedalen community. Niemi can enable an understanding both of the (Men and Modernity ) has shown that therefore divide the Tornedalen men fanaticism of gender relations and the this creation of difference between men into three categories. The first are the complex phenomenology of gender. has been essential in male hegemonic real macho men, silent ones who carry a practices. The struggle has, to a large knife in their belts. Their opposite, the Jørgen Lorentzen has recently published extent, been about the relation between unmanly men, useless in the forest, or the book Maskulinitet. Blikk på mannen the manly and the unmanly, a field in when out hunting, often ended up as gjennom litteratur og film (Masculinity. which definitions prove to be continu- healers or naturopaths. And then there Looking at Men through Literature and ously floating and changing. You can was the third group, the majority in the Film.) Oslo: Spartacus forlag 2004. This never be absolutely certain whether you middle, where single acts might deter- article contains reflections on his book. are sufficiently masculine, or are about mine whether you suddenly end up to fall into the dangerous category of being knapsu: for example wearing a red REFERENCES Adorno,Theodor:Aesthetic theory.Translated by C. unmanliness. woollen cap. The boy who did that had Lenhardt. London : Routledge 1984. to go on the rampage and fight for Derrida, Jacques The importance of not being weeks afterwards in order to get rid of Izenberg, Gerald: Modernism & Masculinity. Mann, Wedekind, Kandinsky trough World War I. Chicago: unmanly the knapsu label affixed to him. It was University of Chicago Press 2000. One of the latest Nordic best-sellers possible to free oneself from the unman- Lorentzen, Jørgen: Mannlighetens muligheter. Oslo: Aschehoug forlag 1998. focuses precisely on this set of problems. ly stigma by behaving in a violent and Lorentzen, Jørgen: Maskulinitet. Blikk på mannen gjennom Besides perfectly crazy drinking bouts macho-like manner. litteratur og film (Masculinity. Looking at Men through Literature and Film. Oslo: Spartacus forlag 2004. and sauna evenings in the Finnish- Niemi, Mikael: Populærmusikk fra Vittula.Oversatt av Erik speaking areas in the Tornedalen, a Krogstad. Oslo: Pax forlag 2001. 16 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004 The Long Waves of Women’s Movements

By Prof.Dr. (emer.) UTE GERHARD Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main [email protected]

The internationality of women's movements has played a crucial role for all forms of women's activism since the 19th century. Therefore it is surprising how late Western feminists have come to recognize changes at the international level and the significance of international women's policies. Since the 1980s local and global women's movements and women's initiatives have emerged, together regarded as “Third Wave Feminisms”.

“The feminist movement is global in the sense that women in almost every coun- Photo: Stenberg/Mira/Samfoto Roger try of the world are engaged in various struggles to change their lives.” This and learning from the feminist move- tion, ranging from satellite television to statement appears on the website of the ments of the West. Events like March Internet, has further contributed to the network “Women living under Muslim 8th, The International Women’s Day, or globalization of the movement.”i laws“- WLUML. It continues: „This decennial conferences held by the United This positive assessment of women’s trend of globalization began in the latter Nations are aspects of internationaliza- movements, particularly those of the part of the nineteenth century with the tion. Today many states take at least sym- West, at present may surprise, especially rise of feminist consciousness in Asian bolic action in order to show interest in since it is uttered without resentment and African countries, both as a result of improving the status of women. The for- toward the internationality of women’s international dynamics of these societies mation of global systems of communica- movements, organizations, means of NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 17

communication or practices dating from of women’s power and enhance their feminist politics privileged or included the turn of the twentieth century. presence in government organs. But it is ‘only’ rights of mothers and children, Noteworthy as well is the line of tradi- precisely here that the problem begins: thereby making maternalism an alterna- tion drawn to include present women’s some held that having attained suffrage, tive pillar of the welfare state.vii But given initiatives, especially the women’s world the women’s movement had become real power relationships, the central con- conferences inaugurated by the United superfluous. Others, however, sensed an tract between capital and labour, which Nations in 1975, where many more than opposite danger, that of being co-opted built the basis for the modern welfare simply Western feminists had their say. by political institutions and parties, state in several European countries after In two ways, international initiatives and exhausted and made invisible. The World War I, was a compromise at the influences on women’s issues in other International Alliance for Woman cost of women.viii In effect, the claim to countries have been playing a crucial role Suffrage (IAW) recognized the problem, equality was annulled by the many wel- for all women’s movements since the resolved however in 1920 not to dissolve fare provisions defining women’s differ- 19th century: On the one hand, aware- but instead – (…) – to broaden their ence: emphasis on their claims as moth- ness of identical problems and exchange mandate. In addition to suffrage, the ers, widows and wives had been made about similar or the same experiences of entire palette of civil rights inalienable to the starting point for welfare provision, a injustice show that it is possible to equal participation was added: the strug- position linked to demands for a family change one’s own situation by undertak- gle for civil rights in private law (for wage and conservative vision of marriage ing similar political actions; on the other instance in opposition to patriarchal and family. On the international level, hand, international women’s organiza- privilege in family law) as well as social bitter disagreement reigned between tions have been giving practical aid in rights of women, especially mothers and those who emphasized gender difference organizing for women’s interests at the children. These aims were then expressed and called themselves “new feminists”ix national level. (….) in a new title, the “International Alliance and so-called egalitarians or equality of Woman Suffrage and Equal feminists where protective legislation for Welfare and Equality Citizenship.” mothers was concerned. Although the Feminism In fact, women’s organizations in var- women’s movement in continental Ilse Frapan titled her collection of essays ious European countries were confronted Europe formed a rare alliance on this We women have no fatherland, a book by diverse social and legal conditions so issue with social democrats and socialists, which, at the beginning of the 20th cen- that their options for action were tied up all of whom felt that protective legisla- tury, was often read and cited by the with specific political constellations: tion for mothers, maternal stipends and German women’s movement ii because it among Europeans, active and passive suf- insurance constituted an important obviously reflected that feeling of exclu- frage on all political levels belonged strand in social politics, representatives sion, of foreignness in a male state as well before the war only to Finnish (1906), of the Anglo-American movements x as the experience of discrimination in all Norwegian (1913) and Icelandic women feared in particular that protective legis- areas of society (…). “We women have (with Women’s lists from 1908). In most lation would anchor gender specificity in no fatherland because we’ve never had a countries where suffrage was later intro- law and inevitably lead to discrimina- state that serves us except in a pragmatic, duced, it happened as a consequence of tion. On the international level, this split goal-oriented way.” This statement was war influenced by whether the nation between opponents and proponents of made by Ina Merkel at a rally of the had won or lost as a bid to refashion the protective legislation became evident at Independent Women’s Organization map of Europe. (….) the world congress of the ICW in Berlin [Unabhängigen Frauenverband] in Now, it seems as if it didn’t matter so in 1929 with the founding of an Open February 1990 in Berlin, founded to rep- much if women contributed to social Door Council.xi Difference feminists resent East German women after the fall reform as full citizens or instead, eventually won out over the egalitarians of the Wall. The association aimed to put deprived of suffrage, as social workers because, on the one hand, their vision the breaks on a too rapid union of the operating behind the scenes, interwar supported a patriarchal model of the wel- two German states.iii Does this distanc- feminism is known in the literature as “ fare state and, on the other, could be eas- ing and scepticism vis-à-vis the state welfare feminism“iv or “feminist mater- ily co-opted by conservative and fascist identify a seminal problem of feminism nalism.”v (…) This concentration of movements and political parties. even in the twentieth century? feminist activity on social questions in The acquisition of suffrage after the the 1920s that contributed greatly to the Equality and/or difference First World War was supposed to have founding and profile of welfare politics These conflicts show that contemporary regulated the women’s movements’ rela- was a pragmatic strategy with impressive arguments over equality or difference are tionship to the state once and for all. It success that proved it possible to take a not new to the women’s movement. On seemed logical that the multipartisan maternalist approach to increase equality the contrary, as Carole Pateman has associations that composed the women’s for women.vi Risks, however, were signif- shown, the paradox involved in urging movement (…) would lead to awareness icant. On the one hand, this version of equal rights while recognizing difference 18 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

can be found in documents written as or women-friendly. Hence, progress and cal system.”xvii This position derives from early as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A achievements were not only diverse but a pragmatic approach, as Nancy Fraser Vindication of the Rights of Women in also non-simultaneous, according to the notes,xviii one well anchored in American 1792.xii Nonetheless, the thesis contends political, social and cultural context. political theory. Nonetheless, if we want that the problem could only be clearly Moreover, gains and losses were per- to answer questions of gender justice not defined after the Second World War ceived in a variety of ways. This would only in terms of theory but also politics, when in most Western democracies and explain why radical French feminists in offering practical legal solutions, we real-socialist East European states’ con- the 1970s were already speaking of the must place them in a socio-historical stitutions guaranteed women full and end of the feminist movement, while context.xix How significant these histori- equal civil rights. Not unlike the years West German feminists in the 1980s cal and political differences are, even if following the First World War, these tri- were still fighting over the first institu- limited to Europe, emerges from the umphs after 1945 led in nearly all tional achievements in equal opportuni- variety of welfare systems and culturesxx nations to “doldrums”xiii of feminist ty politics, which some also called a based on a gender order. Equality is not activity if not to a complete shutdown. betrayal of the autonomy principle or an an absolute principle or invariable meas- The departure of a new women’s “incorporation of autonomous poli- ure but a concept pregnant with histori- movement at the end of the sixties was tics.”xiv At the same time, the equality- cal struggle and controversial interpreta- nourished on this experience and disap- oriented welfare politics of Scandinavian tion. A dynamic concept, it is bound up pointment, activists having learned that countries prepared the ground for a so- with “the historicity of gender differ- formal equality is far from sufficient. The called state feminism which partly took ence“.xxi Equality as a principle of rights new movement understood itself there- the edge off radical feminist ideologies presupposes that the individuals are dif- fore not as a civil rights movement alone, (…).xv Despite these differences the new ferent from each other, but it demands but rather as a liberation movement with feminist movements have something in that they are treated/looked upon as a strong legal component mobilized common: Because the role of the nation equals. That means, equality of rights around abortion rights. Of highest state has fundamentally changed with can only involve equality in specific and importance were self-determination in growing global economic interdepen- relevant respects, but equality never tar- questions concerning the body, interro- dencies, international treaties, trans- gets at realizing identity or sameness gating so-called “sexual liberation” to national organizations and new state [Angleichung].xxii New women’s move- women’s detriment, and condemning communities like the European Union, ments have mainly been concerned with violence in private relationships. these movements are generally more crit- debating these relevant aspects of equali- The new “wave” of women’s move- ical of and less oriented toward state ty, urging recognition of equality in the ments that spread almost simultaneously policies. In this context, it is all the more face of difference also among women, in various European and American coun- surprising how late feminists in Western and thus created new standards of jus- tries in the late 1960s was also signifi- countries, while bemoaning the stagna- tice. Realizing these standards remains cantly influenced by the outside world. tion or backlash of women’s movements the task for continued feminist agitation From the very beginning, it also had an in their respective nations, have come to and movements. international orientation, yet it worked recognize changes at the international in a different manner than the “old” level and the significance of internation- Women’s Rights and women’s movements. This new women’s al women’s policies. Human Rights movement was not organized in associa- The “new feminism” is not to be Given various contexts, Western femi- tions i.e. in a strict hierarchical structure described in a singular, but rather as a nists have been bemoaning the end of the of representatives, but was rather made stream composed of various tributaries, new movement since the 1980s, but at up of an informal network of groups. aims and political interventions. (…) We the latest with the fall of the Iron Like the other new social movements, can see, however, that controversy con- Curtain, a backlash became evident as feminists opposed established organiza- tinues to revolve around the axis of political priorities were re-set and a mar- tions and parties with their policies, and equality and difference. (…) In contrast- ket neo-liberalism under the slogan of instead searched for alternative and non- ing equality and difference, many parties globalization won the day. At the same parliamentary strategies of interference, to this debate conclude, we are consider- time, however, and independent of thus developing a new public sphere of ing false alternativesxvi having fallen into Western feminism, local and global civil society and putting topics like vio- an “intellectual trap” and “impossible women’s movements and women’s initia- lence against women on their political choice,” in Joan Scott’s words. Scott con- tives have emerged, together regarded as agenda. However, the relationship tinues: „Feminists cannot give up‚ differ- “Third Wave Feminisms”.xxiii Their start- between new feminist movements with ence’; it has been our most creative tool. ing point was the UN Decade for their respective states and institutions We cannot give up ‚equality’, at least not Women from 1975 to 1985. Of particu- were evidently different in individual as long as we want to speak to the prin- lar relevance to “Third World” Women countries – labelled either as patriarchal ciples and values of a democratic politi- have been the subsequent UN Women’s NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 19

Cambridge/Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University World Conferences, appropriate to inter- The question of rights, and that Press, 1992. viii national networking as well as to empow- means, the basic political meaning of GERHARD Ute/ SCHWARZER Alice/ SLUPIK Vera (Ed.), Auf Kosten der Frauen. Frauenrechte im Sozialstaat. ering women locally. Among global ini- women’s rights as human rights and their Weinheim, Beltz, 1988, p. 11-37. tiatives Women Living under Muslim recognition as a precondition for demo- ix BANKS Olive, 1986, op.cit., p. 167. x On Great Britain see LEWIS Jane, Models of Equality for Laws (launched 1997) was already men- cratic relations and world peace, gestures Women, in: BOCK Gisela/ THANE Pat (Ed.), Maternity and tioned (…).xxiv We can also list Women in toward the possibility of a common fem- Gender Policies.Women and the Rise of European Welfare States 1880-1990, London/New York, Routledge, p. 72-92 Black and the Madres de la Plaza de inist platform in the opening years of the (83). Mayo in Argentina as well as the Center 21st century. Under the motto “for the xi See REMME Irmgard, Die internationalen Beziehungen for Women’s Global Leadership which power of rights against the right to vio- der deutschen Frauenbewegung vom Ausgang des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1933, Berlin: Ph.D.diss., 1955, p. 114; GER- organized a campaign under the motto lence,” the women’s rights and peace HARD Ute, Unerhört. Die Geschichte der deutschen “Women’s Rights as Human Rights.”xxv movement supported by Bertha von Frauenbewegung, Reinbek, Rowohlt 1990 xii PATEMAN Carole, Equality, difference, subordination,The (…) Claiming human rights as women’s Suttner had already in 1899 called for politics of motherhood and women’s citizenship, in: BOCK rights and thereby radicalizing the prom- intervention and gathered a million sig- Gisela/ JAMES Susan (Ed.), Beyond Equality and Difference, Citizenship, Feminist Politics and Female Subjectivity. ise of freedom and equality for all natures on the occasion of the first Hague London/New York, Routledge, 1992, p.17-31. humanity began with a reformulation of Peace Conference for Women of all xiii See RUPP Leila/ TAYLOR Verta, Survival in the xxviii Doldrums.The American Women’s Rights Movements 1945 the Declaration of Human Rights of Nations. Today similar claims for to the 1960’s, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 1990. 1789 by Olympe de Gouges, who women’s human rights have only xiv KONTOS Silvia,“Von heute an gibt´s mein Programm” - penned the 1791 Declaration of the increased in currency in other parts of the Zum Verhältnis von Partizipation und Autonomie in der Politik der neuen Frauenbewegung, in: Forschungsjournal Rights of Women and Citizens.xxvi A world because rights are neither given nor Neue Soziale Bewegungen, Sonderheft, 1989, p. 52-65. xv human rights orientation accompanied possessed but must be continually fought BERGMAN Solveig,The Politics of Feminism - Autonomous Feminist Movements in Finland and West the women’s movements of the 19th cen- for, defended and measured against cur- Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, Åbo, Åbo Akademi tury through various strands and mobi- rent standards of justice. That the Nobel University Press, 2002. xvi FRASER Nancy, Falsche Gegensätze, in: BENHABIB Seyla/ lizations around the world (…). A new Peace Prize in 2003 went to the Iranian BUTLER Judith/ CORNELL Drucilla/ FRASER Nancy (Hg.), international human rights discourse wit- human rights attorney Shirin Ebadi could Der Streit um Differenz. Feminismus und Postmoderne in der Gegenwart. Frankfurt/M., Fischer, 1993, p. 59-79; see also nesses the continued persuasive power of signal a new departure on the long and RHODE Deborah L.,The Politics of Paradigms, Gender this slogan but also suggests certain prob- bumpy road to women’s equal citizenship Difference and Gender Disadvantage, in: BOCK Gisela/ lems in its realization. Although in 1948 composed of political, civil and social rights. JAMES Susan (Ed.), Beyond Equality and Difference. London/New York, Routledge, 1992, p. 149-163. the U.N. gave the stamp of law to the xvii SCOTT Joan W., Gender and the Politics of History, “General Declaration of Human Rights,” Translator: Tobe Levin New York, Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 172. xviii FRASER Nancy, Pragmatismus, Feminismus und die lin- implementation and effectiveness remain guistische Wende, in: BENHABIB/ BUTLER/ CORNELL/ controversial and imperfect. The 1979 Extract from key note speech at the FRASER (Ed.) 1993, op.cit., p. 145-160. xix FRASER, ibid; see also FRAISSE Genevieve, Geschlecht U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Nordic conference Women’s Movements - und Moderne.Archäologie der Gleichberechtigung, All Forms of Discrimination against inspirations, intervention, irritation Frankfurt/M., Fischer, 1995. xx ESPING-ANDERSEN Goesta,The Three Worlds of Women (CEDAW) has been ratified by a June.10-12. 2004 Reykjavik, Island. Welfare Capitalism, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University number of states only if granted signifi- For the complete text: Press,1990 and followed by a rich feminist critic and social cant reservations and has been unable to http://www.nikk.uio.no/arrangementer/ policy analysis, for example SAINSBURY Diane (Ed.), Gendering Welfare States, London, Sage, 1994; with case hinder daily human rights violations konferens/index_e.html studies in a European comparison see GERHARD Ute/ xxvii KNIJN Trudie/ WECKWERT Anja (Hg.), Erwerbstätige against women. Nonetheless, such i SHAHRZAD Mojab,The Politics of Theorizing ‚Islamic Mütter. Ein europäischer Vergleich, München, Beck, 2003. legal instruments give voice to victims of Feminism‘, Implications for International Feminist xxi FRAISSE Genevieve, 1995, op.cit., p. 33f.; Movements,WLUML Dossier 23-24-05-islam-fem.rtf. xxii Thus Karl Marx with respect to Friedrich von Savigny, injustice. They promise an ensemble of ii FRAPAN Ilse,Wir Frauen haben kein Vaterland. Monologe see GERHARD Ute, Debating Women’s Equality.Toward a basic rights beyond those of national leg- einer Fledermaus, Berlin, Fontane, 1899; see LANGE Helene/ Feminist Theory of Law from a European Perspective, New islation, in the name of which individuals BÄUMER Gertrud (Ed.), Handbuch der Frauenbewegung, Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2001, p.7f. Berlin, Moeser, 1901, p. 107. xxiii WICHTERICH Christa, Frauen der Welt.Vom iii can formulate their experiences of injus- See KAHLAU Cordula (Ed.),Aufbruch! Frauenbewegung Fortschritt der Ungleichheit, Göttingen, Lamuv, 1995; see tice and translate them into the language in der DDR. Dokumentation, München, Frauenoffensive, also BASU Amarita (Ed.),Women’s Movements in Global 1990, p. 19. Perspective.The Challenges of Local Feminism, Oxford, of law. Since gender-specific experiences iv BANKS Olive, Faces of Feminism.A Study of Feminism as Westview Press, 1995. of injustice, injury to personal integrity a Social Movement, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986, p. 153ff. xxiv http,//www.wluml.org. v xxv and autonomy live on in nearly all cul- See BOCK Gisela/ THANE Pat (Ed,), Maternity & Gender On this see FRIEDMANN Elisabeth,Women’s Human Policies.Women and the Rise of the European Welfare Rights,The Emergence of a Movement, in: PETERS Julie/ tures as self-evident components of the States 1880s - 1950s, London/NewYork, Routledge, 1994; WOLPER Andrea (Ed.),Women’s Rights - Human Rights. gender order and thus part of women’s BOCK Gisela,Weibliche Armut, Mutterschaft und Rechte International Feminist Perspectives. New York/London, von Müttern in der Entstehung des Wohlfahrtsstaats, 1890- Routledge, 1995, p. 18-34. role, as a result, the discourse needs a 1950, in: DUBY Georges/ PERROT Michelle (Ed.), xxvi GERHARD, 2001 p. 38f. . movement to continue placing women’s Geschichte der Frauen. Frankfurt/New York, Campus, 1995, xxvii MAYER Ann E., Die Konvention über die Beseitigung p. 427-462 jeder Form von Diskriminierung der Frau und der politische vi human rights on the public agenda. On this see BLOM Ida, Demokratie,Wohlfahrt und Charakter „religiöser“ Vorbehalte, in: RUMPF Whether or not this “third wave” will Feminismus in Norwegen, in: GERHARD Ute, 2001, op.cit., Mechthild/GERHARD Ute/JANSEN Mechtild M. (Hg..), p. 38–63. Facetten islamischer Welten. Geschlechterordnungen, become a human- and women’s rights vii See SKOCPOL Theda, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers. Frauen- und Menschenrechte in der Diskussion, Bielefeld, movement remains to be seen. The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. transcript, 2003, p. 103-122. 20 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

From Military Defence to the Defence of Women

ELISABETH REHN interviewed by ANNA-LENA LAURÉN [email protected] THE INTERVIEW Photo: Cata Portin NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 21

Finnish politician to being self-reliant – and not only the region. Those few women who have Elisabeth Rehn was a when it comes to accessing the road managed to reach governmental posts in through knee-high snowdrifts. the Balkans often take on a masculine middle-aged mother of role and do their utmost to be at least as four when she threw Against all odds hard and uncompromising as their male Her voice is friendly and pleasant but counterparts. I suppose they dare not do herself into politics. She she has a look of steel. It is easy to otherwise,” says Rehn. was mocked both by her understand why this woman has upset opponents and members the male-dominated political establish- Merciless against exploitative ment in Finland. The world’s first UN aid workers of her own party as a female Minister of Defence, UN She directs merciless criticism against bourgeois society lady. Human Rights Rapporteur in the UN aid workers who exploit prostitutes Twenty years on Balkans and Kofi Annan’s appointed in the field. Such behaviour has, in fact, Special Representative has an irritating resulted in an increase of the trafficking Elisabeth Rehn can look capacity not to comply with the expec- of women and children. Since Elisabeth back at a meteoric rise tations which are imposed upon her by Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from the political establishment. Liberia published their report Women, in an international A middle-aged woman who has War and Peace, UN Secretary-General career as relentless been a housewife is not supposed to be Kofi Annan has introduced a rule of defender of women’s Minister of Defence. She is not sup- zero tolerance of UN aid workers who posed to act with the same sort of self- buy sexual services. rights in crisis areas. Her confidence and authority as one would “They get a one-way ticket home. latest project is to expect from a military general. She is But this should go much further and not supposed to rebuke the establish- men who buy women and children defend human rights, ment by almost being elected President should really be punished. During my especially the position of of Finland in 1994, even if all the odds travels I have met many 15–16-year-old women, during the were against her – as not only a woman, girls who have been abused by interna- but one belonging to the Swedish- tional aid workers, among them peace- rebuilding of the speaking minority of the country. And keepers. Abusing minors is a criminal Balkans. she is not supposed to still, at the age of act, and the perpetrators should be sued, 69, be impertinently disrespectful of either in the country where the crime any form of institutional authority. has been committed or in their home “I don’t need to bow down to the This, despite the fact that Elisabeth country.” authorities – I have reached an age when Rehn, as Chairperson of the Stability The problem is that UN workers one can say almost anything. It is a fact Pact Working Table overseeing democ- enjoy immunity in the areas where they that the international community is led ratisation and human rights in South work – an immunity which, says Rehn, by men, which means that there is often Eastern Europe, is part of the establish- they should be deprived of. She illus- a deterioration of the position of ment. But she refuses to adopt a courte- trates this point with the example of women in crisis areas when bodies such ous tone towards the international com- how top UN officer Sergio Vieiro de as the UN or the EU intervene,“ says munity. Mello (who later died tragically) acted Elisabeth Rehn. “I recently read an excellent report when he was in charge of the UN peace- We have agreed to meet in a café in on women’s organisations in Kosovo, keeping mission in East Timor. central Helsinki and Elisabeth Rehn which notes that the situation of “When a UN policeman in East appears on time. It has snowed exces- women has in fact deteriorated since the Timor was accused of having abused sively in southern Finland during the international community took charge. minors, de Mello decided to deprive last few days, which means that this one The political leaders in the Balkans are him of his immunity. The policeman, time parliamentary member, minister almost exclusively men, who now nego- who had committed this crime, was sen- and international diplomat has had to tiate with a number of men from the tenced, which was the only right thing rise early to shovel snow from her yard. EU and the UN. All decisions are made under the circumstances.” She lives in the countryside and is used by men, over the heads of the women of 22 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

Military lecture tours “This is what is new – it is not a Elisabeth Rehn: Elisabeth Rehn gives lectures to the mil- question of occasional violations by itary in all Nordic countries on the undisciplined soldiers, but of a system- 1979–1995: Member of the importance of respecting the rights of atic pattern of action. And since so Finnish Parliament women in the areas where they serve. many of the current conflicts are civil 1990–1995: Finnish Minister of Her latest visits have been to the Royal wars, the brutality has increased. Civil Defence Danish Defence College in wars tend to be particularly cruel,” says Copenhagen and the Finnish National Rehn. 1991–1995: Finnish Minister of Police School in Tampere. Her experience as Minister of Equality Affairs “I explain how important it is to Defence has been very useful in her 1994: Receives about 46 per respect the local women and not abuse humanitarian work. cent of the votes in the second them. If the men really cannot restrain “My career as Finland’s Minister of round of the Finnish presidential themselves until they return home, it is Defence in 1991–1995 has been a great elections. better that they do not embark on a advantage. I’ve learnt how soldiers think 1995–1997: UN Rapporteur for peace-keeping career at all,” says Rehn. – when they think.” the Situation of Human Rights Her personal involvement goes as far Laughter flashes in Rehn’s eyes. in the Balkans as helping individuals who are in trou- “But since I received my interna- ble. tional commissions, I have changed my 1998–1999: Kofi Annan’s “The most recent case was a woman opinion on certain issues. For example, Special Representative in the Balkans I helped who had got a child by a I no longer accept Finland’s refusal to Finnish peace-keeper. He admitted that sign the Ottawa agreement on the ban 2002: Publishes the UN Report the child was his, but he did not want to of anti-personnel mines. Of course, the ”Women, War and Peace” pay any support. I have now persuaded Finnish army does not place mines arbi- together with Ellen Johnson him to do so.” trarily, but every single placed mine is Sirleaf Rehn feels that it is her duty to act one too many. Even if you know where 2003-: Chairperson of the with consistency. the mines are, they must be removed, Working Table on democratisa- “Since I endeavour to maintain a which is immensely time-consuming tion and human rights, includ- principled stance, I cannot refrain from and dangerous work. Many accidents ing equality within the Stability helping those who really need it. But of happen before it is done. There is no Pact for South Eastern Europe course I have my limits. No matter how point in defending international con- (co-operation between the EU, much I want to, I do not have the ventions if one refuses to follow them the UN, the OSSE and the capacity to do something for every- oneself.” Council of Europe) body.” In several contexts Elisabeth Rehn Childhood experiences has said that women’s bodies have of war become “the new battlefield”. It is noth- How does a representative of a Nordic rors and poverty of war involve, since I ing new that men in war rape the welfare state manage to encounter the have experienced them myself.” enemy’s women in order to humiliate horrors of war in places like Bosnia and Elisabeth Rehn grew up, married him. What is new, is the perpetration of Herzegovina, and Sierra Leone? Is the young, got four children and stayed systematic rapes on a large scale, says contrast between these cultures not sim- home as housewife for seven years. After Rehn. ply too great? that, she worked in her husband’s com- “For example, in Rwanda the radio “I have a background that many pany and as secondary-school teacher. repeated day and night that all Hutu seem to be unaware of since so few “My husband’s company was suc- men should rape as many Tutsi women remember how terribly old I am. I was cessful and for a while we were even as possible. Particularly HIV positive born in 1935 and experienced war as a somewhat wealthy. Then the company men were encouraged to go out and little girl. Together with my two sisters I went bankrupt and we lost everything, rape. In the Balkans, there were prison was sent from our home in Finnish- even our home. As well as some camps for women where systematic speaking Mäntsälä to a Swedish-speak- “friends” who suddenly disappeared.” rapes were carried out. In East Timor ing boarding-school in Grankulla out- This experience taught Elisabeth the Indonesian army methodically side Helsinki. There we learnt to use our Rehn to stand up for herself. She has a abused local women, in Congo I did not elbows. We were given food made of very practical attitude towards difficul- meet a single girl over 12 years of age musty flour and worm-eaten peas from ties. They must simply be tackled, like who had not been sexually abused. In old army storage. When we visited everything else in life. the cruel civil war in Sierra Leone girls home, we were so hungry that we licked “I was elected into Parliament in are raped and mutilated. the plates like cats. I know what the hor- 1979. In the 1987 elections I got about NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 23

11,000 votes. At that point the party Gender issues are paltry four per cent that prevented her (the Swedish People’s Party) had to suppressed from becoming President of Finland in choose me as Chair of the Parliamentary Even if Elisabeth Rehn received a lot of 1994. This is a loss that would turn Group in order not to have to appoint attention in the media when presenting most politicians bitter, but not so Rehn. me the Party’s Minister. I will never for- her report on women in war, she finds Not that she suffers from false modesty. get how nervous the boys were before that gender equality is still a second-rate She would very much have liked to be our first press conference. They were issue in most international contexts. President. But she is far too busy with convinced I would make a fool of the “I chaired a working group during her new appointments to dwell on the whole Parliamentary Group.” the Stockholm Conference on Genocide past. Some men have, according to Rehn, and followed the whole conference from We conclude the interview and an innate fear that women will make beginning to end. When it was my turn Elisabeth Rehn drives to her office at the fools of themselves. to give my presentation, I declared that Ministry for Foreign Affairs for a few “I have encountered this attitude all I had followed the conference for three hours work. Then she will go to the hos- my life. They have always regarded me days without hearing the words pital to visit her husband, as she does as a dumb blonde, even if I have proven ‘women, conflicts and genocide’ being every day. Rehn navigates superbly the opposite so many times. Personally, uttered once. I added: I don’t suppose between her international commissions I have been more amused than hurt by this could be because this auditorium is and daily tasks such as shovelling snow, this. Besides, it has given me fighting full of men? The room went absolutely visiting the hospital and walking her spirit. I’ve thought, Damn it, I’ll show silent. If I had been an ordinary officer dog. them!” at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, I When we have parted, I think that I She has never cared about the ‘don’t would probably have been fired. But at can very well understand why she irri- think you are somebody’ attitude. Her this age I no longer need to bow down tates some people, since she is so obvi- apparent self-confidence has not been to the authorities.” ously aware of her own importance. She looked upon with approval in Finland, Rehn has several examples of how is neither modest nor self-effacing. All even if the country likes to boast of the issue of gender equality is routinely the same, deep down she does not seem being one of the most gender-equal suppressed in international contexts. to take herself seriously in the way that countries in the world. “Recently, I received an invitation to decision-makers often tend to. “As a female politician it’s not Tirana to give a lecture in April on the For Elisabeth Rehn the main thing allowed to think of oneself as a ‘some- importance of women in politics. In seems to be to enjoy what she is doing. body’. But I have always had a strong their invitation, the organisers empha- sense of self-confidence. I believe in my sized that they were not interested in own capacity. And I don’t care what they any ‘gender history’. The title they gave say about me. They may think what me was: ‘The importance, if any, of they like, I take my route, and usually women in politics’. Sometimes I really things have turned out very well.” Rehn have to try very hard to restrain myself says this with her characteristic mixture and not make myself impossibly diffi- of self-confident sarcasm and warm cult.” irony. Elisabeth Rehn has been very suc- This pattern is repeated with cessful, but she has also encountered Elisabeth Rehn’s international commis- great difficulties. The latest is deeply sions. When the UN needed a human personal – her husband fell seriously ill rights rapporteur to the Balkans in 1995 and was unconscious for three weeks. and enquired whether Finland would be “The doctors gave him a ten per interested, the Government responded cent chance of survival. I thought in that there was no suitable person avail- that case Ove is included in that ten per able for the task. cent! And he made it, despite the doc- “Then the German Foreign tors’ fears. Now he will soon be able to Minister Klaus Kinkel phoned me per- leave the hospital.” sonally and asked whether I would be interested in taking on this assignment. The most Of course I said yes, and worked as devastating loss Human Rights Rapporteur until 1997, ‘Never give up’ may be the basic princi- when Kofi Annan appointed me his ple of Elisabeth Rehn’s life. She has won Special Representative in the region.” a great deal, and sometimes lost. The most devastating loss is probably the 24 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004 Gender in UN peace OPERATIONS

By TARJA VÄYRYNEN Research Director,Tampere Peace Research Institute (Tapri) [email protected] Photo: Scanpix United Nations peacekeeping – or peace support operations as peacekeeping is now called – has been used as an instrument for international intervention in armed conflicts for over fifty years, but the organisation did not issue specific requests for women peacekeepers until the 1990s.

ince the Beijing conference in prevention and resolution of conflicts support operations is a step towards 1995, requests have been made and in peace-building, and it stresses the right direction as argued for example by Sfor mainstreaming gender into ‘importance of their equal participation Louise Olsson and Torunn Tryggestad all of the UN activities, and increasing and full involvement in all efforts for (2001) in their Women and the number of women in organisation’s the maintenance and promotion of International Peacekeeping, yet this peace support operations has been peace and security, and the need to mainstreaming offers only a partial solu- emphasised in a variety of UN docu- increase their role in decision-making tion to the problem that is more com- ments. The Security Council Resolution with regard to conflict prevention and plex than the organisation sees it to be. 1325 in October 2000 states clearly that resolution’ (S/RES/1325). The problem is not so much the low women have an important role in the Gender mainstreaming of UN peace number of women in peacekeeping mis- NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 25

sions as it is the entire culture of the be taken to improve the effectiveness of too, and their contributions and roles organisation (Väyrynen, 2004). the operations, including increasing should be expanded especially among Integrating gender fully into UN peace women’s participation in the operations. military observers, civilian police, operations requires thinking critically Furthermore, other UN documents human rights and humanitarian person- the rationale of the organisation and – among them the Windhoek nel. These measures are, however, investigating the type of femininities Declaration, the Millennium bound to remain partial unless the UN and masculinities the organisation pro- Declaration and the convening of the engages itself in the reflection of its own duces. General Assembly’s twenty-third special origin and nature. session entitled ‘Women 2000: Gender Real problems, partial equality, development and peace for the The UN and modernity solutions twenty-first century’ (Beijing + 5) – deal UN peace operations can be seen to rep- Why mainstreaming gender into peace- with gender issues directly and notice resent modernity and its problem-solv- keeping has become a part of the UN’s that women have not had an equal ing attitude par excellence. The prob- agenda on peace, war and security in access and participation in peacebuild- lem-solving attitude coincides with cog- particular during the past decade? The ing and peace support operations nitive-instrumental rationality that has effectiveness of UN peace operations although civilians, particularly women marked the self-understanding of has been criticised after the end of the and children, account for the vast modernity. This type of rationality aims Cold War and the organisation itself has majority of those adversely effected by at instrumental mastery of the world recognised the need to think anew armed conflict. These documents and its uncertainties. In this view, about the operations. Post-Cold War acknowledge that women have been rationality is measured mainly by assess- conflicts are seldom wars where states denied their full role in multidimen- ing whether goal-directed interventions fight against each other. Rather, they are sional peace support operations both to the world are successful. Philosopher complex emergencies where many nationally and internationally, and the Michael Oakeshott (1984) notes that actors engage in political violence over a gender dimension in peace processes has the central agent for knowledge produc- variety of issues. Civilian populations not been adequately addressed. tion in modernity is the modern are the main sufferers of this new war- It is also argued in these documents ‘Rationalist’ whose reason is aimed at fare. Post-Cold War conflicts lead to that women do have important role in problem-solving and whose character is massive population displacements, and the prevention and resolution of con- that of the engineer. The mind of the many conflicts 80 percent of refugees flicts. Therefore, according to UN’s new ‘Rationalist’ is controlled by the appro- are women and children. Moreover, the policy, gender equality should permeate priate technique, and his or her atten- majority of civilian victims are women the entire mission of peace support tion is related to his or her specific and children. UN peace operations face operations. The special need to protect intentions. According to Oakeshott, the also more and more the use of sexual women’s security in conflict zones is also view takes purpose as the distinctive violence as a systemic strategy in the noted by the organisation. It calls all mark of rational conduct: rational con- times of war. For example, during the parties to armed conflict to take special duct is behaviour deliberately directed war in Bosnia in the beginning of the measures to protect women and girls to and governed solely by the achieve- 1990s tens of thousands (the estimate from gender-based violence, particularly ment of a formulated purpose. In con- figure is between 20 000 and 60 000) of rape and other forms of sexual abuse. sequence, the view reduces human women were raped, among them The UN has adopted the strategy of mind to a neutral instrument, to a piece teenage girls (see NUPI-report, no. 261; mainstreaming, ranging from spe- of apparatus in service of purposes (see Olsson, 1999 and Rehn and Johnson cialised training to increased representa- also Väyrynen 2001). Sirleaf, 2002). tion of women in managing and resolv- An example of the UN’s modern The need to think anew about peace ing conflicts, when encouraging gender problem-solving attitude can be found support operations has been felt so equality. There is, for example, a request in its thinking about war. The UN con- strongly that UN Secretary-General for training for all peacekeeping person- siders war to be a recognised political Kofi Annan commissioned a report nel on the protection, special needs and and social problem to be solved, not one from an international panel lead by for- human rights of women and children in set or kind of problem among a vast mer Algerian foreign minister Lakdar conflict situations. The number of majority of possibilities. It is one thing Brahimi to recommend measures to women in all decision-making levels in to ask what is the appropriate policy improve UN’s capacity to plan and conflict resolution and peace processes with which to response to violent con- carry out international peace opera- has to be increased, according to the flict and war, and another to show how tions. Although the Brahimi Report UN documents. There should be 50 contemporary modes of problematising (2000) did not intend to tackle the gen- percent women in managerial and deci- conflict and war are peculiar when seen der dimensions of peace operations sion-making positions. Women are seen in a particular historical and political directly, it suggested several actions to to be suitable for field-based operations context, namely, in the contexts of liber- 26 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

al market economy and of modern (Olsson, 1999). It can be argued that nation-state system. In other words, the the aim is to add the gender element to impact of modern nation-state system the existing state-centred and patriar- and liberal market economy on war in chal practices of conflict resolution and different locations of the world should peacebuilding, not to challenge the be carefully examined before taking organisation’s foundations in modernity peacekeeping action. This seldom takes and instrumental rationality. Increasing place before UN starts peace support the number of women in peace support operations. operations – in other words, adding the By emphasising the state as a major female expertise to the operations – does actor in global politics, the organisation not deal with the fundamental question, dismisses the possibility that many namely what are and how to change the internal conflicts originate from the vio- structures of the organisation that have lent structures of states and that the rendered gender silent in the first place Westphalian state system itself may when dealing with security, conflict and bring about political violence. Since the peace. In other words, it has to be asked modern sovereign state intends to offer why conflict and war have been seen in the instrumental solution for the chal- the organisation for over fifty years in lenge set forth by different forms of such a manner that these issues do not identity claims, it becomes a system of involve gender. inclusion and exclusion and is often a source of social and political violence. Re-phrasing the problem This violent dimension of the modern There is no primary gender identity that state system is left almost totally is a platform for action and politics and unproblematised by the UN. that could be added to peace support REFERENCES Connell, R.W. (2002):“Masculinities, the reduction of vio- A counterpart of the modern prob- operations as the UN thinking and pol- lence and the pursuit of peace”. In Cynthia Cockburn and lem-solving attitude is a reliance of icy on peace operations seems to sug- Dubravka Zarkov,The Postwar Moment, Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping. London: expertise knowledge. The Brahimi gest. There are, rather, certain feminini- Lawrence & Wishart. report (2000), which is thought to rep- ties and masculinities that are bound to NUPI-report no. 261 (2001): Gendering Human Security, From Marginalisation to the Integration of Women in resent the most innovative thinking in become the hegemonic forms of femi- Peace-Building. Oslo: Norwegian Institute of Foreign UN peace operations, trusts heavily on ninity and masculinity. However, there Affairs. the role of expertise in solving the prob- are always zones of ambiguity where Oakeshott, Michael (1984): Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. London and New York: Methuen. lem of violence. It is argued in several neither of these prevails or where mixed Olsson, Louise (1999): Gendering UN Peacekeeping, places of the report that information variations of them come to the fore. Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multidimensional Peacekeeping Operations. Uppsala: Uppsala University, gathering for databases on peace and Femininities and masculinities are not Department of Peace and Conflict Research. security with the help of military ana- enacted only by individuals, but also by Olsson, Louise and Tryggestad,Torunn (2001): “Introduction”. In Louise Olsson and Torunn Tryggestad: lysts, experts on international criminal groups, institutions and cultural forms, Women and International Peacekeeping. London, Portland: networks and information system spe- such as the UN (see Connell, 2002). Frank Cass. Rehn, Elisabeth and Jonhson Sirleaf, Ellen (2002):Women, cialists are needed in order to strengthen The problem the United Nations faces War and Peace,The Independent Expert’s Assessment on peace operations. Similarly, it is suggest- should be re-phrased. It is not how gen- the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s ed that police officers and related der can be integrated in the UN activi- Role in Peace-building. United Nations Development Fund for Women. experts as national pools should be ear- ties concerned with conflict resolution Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations (The marked for the UN peace operations. in general and peace support operations Brahimi Report) (UN Doc A/55/305-S/2000/809), 21 August 2000. It follows from this problem-solving in particular as the UN problematises United Nations Millennium Declaration (A/55/L.2), 8 attitude that the tools of mainstreaming the issue to be. The question is how the September 2000. UN Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and gender into UN peace support opera- UN itself produces certain type of fem- Security (S/RES/1325), 31 October 2000. tions rely on instrumentalist solutions ininities and masculinities as hegemon- Windhoek Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action on “Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multidimensional too. In his report in 1998, the Secretary- ic. By remaining within the confines of Peace Support Operations”, On the 10th Anniversary of General defines mainstreaming as a modernity, the UN produces neoliberal the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group placing of an issue within the pre-exist- modes of masculinity and femininity (UNTAG), 31 May 2000. Women 2000: Gender equality, development and peace in ing institutional, academic and discur- where the problem-solving epistemolo- the twenty-first century (A/S-23/8), 7 June 2000. sive framework. The placing aims at gy gives priority to the ‘Rationalist’ and Väyrynen,Tarja (2001): Culture and International Conflict Resolution. Manchester and New York: Manchester integrating gender perspective into the manageralist masculinity and renders University Press. pre-existing frameworks, and it is seen the variety of ambivalent and unsecured Väyrynen,Tarja (2004, forthcoming):“Gender and UN Peace Operations:The Confines of Modernity”. to be opposite of marginalisation masculinities and femininities silent. International Peacekeeping, spring/2004. NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 27 A Nordic Bridge-Builder

By ANNE-METTE KLAUSEN Free-lance journalist [email protected]

he sight of croissants on the table cheers Drude Dahlerup. TShe skipped breakfast in Stockholm so that she could catch the flight to Copenhagen, and then she came by bus to Nørrebro, where she is now ready for the interview. The 59-year-old professor of political science at Stockholm University has been up all night editing an international anthology which focuses on quotas and women’s representation in parliaments throughout the world, but no- one would notice that she has missed a night’s sleep. Drude Dahlerup is alert and her commitment to the task in hand is very apparent. Drude Dahlerup is indisputably one of the sharpest spearheads in the Nordic countries within the field of gender research and the development of the women’s movement, with wide knowledge and an impressive scholarly

Photo:Thomas Cornelius production, not least her monumental The Scandinavian women’s movement is in a slump two-volume work Rødstrømperne (The “Redstockings”: the Danish and the Nordic ‘gradualism’ is been challenged by Feminists in the 1970s and 80s), on the fast track countries in the Third World. There are development of the movement in Denmark. She is tailor-made for the certainly plenty of issues to address: the pornifica- position which she has now held for six tion of the public arena, gift-wrapped silicone years, one of the first Chairs in Gender breasts, male dominance in leadership positions and Studies, established in 1998 at the Department of Political Science at the steady wagegap . “But there’s little spark to Stockholm University. ignite a women’s movement”. So says Stockholm “A professorship like this had never University’s Professor Drude Dahlerup, who is also been advertised in Denmark, nor was there any prospect of one, so since my well-known in the Nordic countries as a bridge- children had grown up and left home I builder between the women’s movement and said to myself, now it’s time for something new – and I got it!” women’s studies. Drude Dahlerup, who was born and 28 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

grew up in Denmark, packed up and Intellectuals were – Why? moved to Stockholm. In her political flat-chested “We broke with some very rigid work both as professional and feminist Drude Dahlerup was one of the first structures and distanced ourselves from activist, Dahlerup’s focus was already “redstockings” to emerge in western traditional ideals of beauty; with large largely on Scandinavia as a whole, and Denmark in the 1970s. She was among numbers that was possible. We were the her husband is Swedish, so the move the originators of the new Women’s girls of the avant garde”. was no huge mental jump. Liberation Movement in Århus at the time when inspiration from the USA, You don’t change anything by Nationality: Nordic UK and Holland blew in over being nice and fitting in The wider Danish population connects Scandinavia. It isn’t so strange that the – What do you say to the criticisms of the Drude Dahlerup primarily with her young Dahlerup was caught up by the neo-feminists who distance themselves political commitment to the Euro- new feminist trend. from the Redstocking movement – that it sceptic organisation Junibevægelsen “I’m one of three sisters who were was too bombastic in its expression, burn- (The June Movement), which she inau- brought up by a feminist mother, so my ing bras and throwing lipsticks away, for gurated and was for many years spokes- home provided me with good ballast. I example? woman for. On this topic she says, studied at Aarhus University during the “Many neo-feminists actually think “Junibevægelsen has always just years when it was impossible not to that the work done by the Redstockings belonged to my spare time. I’ve resigned notice the total non-synchronicity was necessary, important and good. The from being spokeswoman, but don’t feel between our presence as women stu- people behind a book like the Swedish too sure that I won’t suddenly appear on dents – young, smart, clever – and the Fittstim, for instance, have said so clear- that front again”. inimical conception of women that pre- ly. But still – you don’t change the world In the rest of the Nordic countries, vailed. As Vita Andersen [Danish by being nice and fitting in, but by vio- however, Drude Dahlerup is regarded as author, ed.] wrote, women should “shut lating boundaries. We had to break first and foremost a bridge-builder up and look pretty”. The men we stud- through the wall of tradition, and any- between the women’s movement and ied with dated high-school girls, per- one who thinks that can be done by feminist research. The Nordic countries haps, and were embarrassed if the girls being nice hasn’t understood how move- have so much accepted Drude Dahlerup opened their mouths to say anything. ments change the world. It requires new as their own that many people with The norms were totally insupportable”, ways of thinking and new praxis. It can whom NIKK have spoken in connec- says Drude Dahlerup, with irresistible be done by provoking outrage, by tion with this interview have described conviction. “I can remember the times exceeding boundaries, but not by being her as more Nordic than Danish. Does when we trembled as we asked the first nice”. she feel this herself? questions about women and gender in – Many neo-feminists wear bras and “Yes, absolutely. In the 1980s I class, and later heard down the use lipstick, and wouldn’t dream of giving worked on two large Nordic projects grapevine that the first women’s research them up? (Brytprojektet [(Breakthrough project)], library, which we established in the “That’s OK. The new generation is an experiment in breaking down the 1980s, was called “the menstruation formed by its time and naturally dis- deeply sex-segregated labour market; room” by our male colleagues. If a tances itself from the previous women’s and the book We Have Waited Long woman was intellectual she was bound movement. The Redstockings did the Enough, which appeared in all five to be flat-chested. The debate concern- same. We thought that the Danish Nordic languages (ed.), and that gave ing this grotesque view of intellectual Women’s Association were old-fash- me a wide knowledge of all the Nordic women has suddenly and surprisingly ioned ladies in hats. Each generation countries. I live and work in Stockholm, emerged again in Sweden, with the needs its own mode of expression, and I as you know, and travel a great deal offensive led by a well-known woman think the young are doing a great job”, around Scandinavia going to confer- editor. declares Drude Dahlerup, who thinks ences and seminars, so I’m really not “It was impossible to shatter the bar- all the same that none of the women’s sure whether “home” still has any par- riers alone.It had to be a collective issues being addressed today in Nordic ticular meaning for me. But in my soul endeavour. Because we were many, the politics will succeed without a move- I’m Danish, even though I think that movement grew to be incredibly strong, ment behind them. both the politics and the landscape are as happened with the Redstockings. “The Nordic women’s movement is more exciting in Sweden”, says And perhaps we can learn from that in a slump just now, perhaps with the Dahlerup, who doesn’t omit to add that today. Some people think that if the exception of Sweden, and also Iceland, she is also very fond of Norway, Finland Redstockings had only dressed a little where it is on the up and where a new and Iceland. more nicely and used makeup we might women’s organisation has been started. not have been regarded with such disap- But the women’s movement has always proval. I think that’s quite mistaken”. come in waves. We had a really good NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 29

period in the 1880s, then again in explains Drude Dahlerup; however, she world to increase women’s representa- 1910-20 around the fight for the vote, sees new shoots springing up among tion by introducing various forms of and then with the new mobilisation of young Swedish high-school girls, who gender quotas at elections. Dahlerup is women in the 1970s and 80s. These are forming groups with feminist con- the architect behind this project, which were periods of mass organisation, ideo- tent. is funded by the Swedish Science logical discussions and high visibility. “This might be the start of a new Council and carried out in collabora- And then it became quiet. I think the wave, because it always starts from the tion with IDEA, the international women’s movement can be compared to grassroots. Books like Fittstim, organisation for democracy. the ocean: it comes in waves but can Femkamp etc. might also mark the The purpose of the Quotas project is never be stopped”. beginning of a new wave”. to follow the development in countries – Do you think this shows that things which introduce a gender-quota system The women’s movement are moving in a positive direction? in their parliaments. The work consists, learns no lessons “Shall I answer honestly?” among other things, of creating a debate It is typical of the women’s movement –Yes please. by means of conferences and seminars, that it has not been very good at learn- “When I was asked the same thing of promoting research in the individual ing from the previous wave, Drude ten years ago I thought that now some- countries, and of follow-up studies in Dahlerup thinks. The women’s move- thing would happen, but I’m in doubt areas where there is the risk that repre- ment is always starting anew, she says. whether that is an expression of profes- sentation will be merely symbolic, with “I think that this is partly due to sional optimism or whether it’s realistic. women functioning as puppets for pow- what the writer Susan Faludi calls back- So I’m in doubt. We’re up against powerful men. There are examples of this, lash: after every wave new anti-femi- erful commercial adversaries. and the Quotas project therefore follows nism emerged, constructing negative “I’m a limited optimist. A spark is the implementation of the rules scrupu- images of feminists. It makes me sad needed. Different factors have to ignite lously, but up to now Dahlerup has when today, younger people say, for together for a movement to start. If I mainly positive stories to tell. example, about the angry Redstockings, had a precise recipe I could start a large “Twelve Latin American countries ‘Weren’t you really all just lesbian man- grassroots movement tomorrow, but it’s have passed legislation for a quota sys- haters with mauve napkins round your not as easy as that. But good God! tem designed to get more women into heads?’ The same thing happened in the There’s plenty to fight against. their parliaments. The same has taken 1930s after the peak of the struggle, place in Southern Asia and Africa: we’re when women had gained the vote. Now Quotas – Nordic countries no talking about countries like Bangladesh, they had to get back into the kitchen. longer a model India, Indonesia, even Morocco. It’s Then people said, ‘Weren’t they just a Drude Dahlerup believes that when it absolutely wild. You wouldn’t have load of spinsters who couldn’t get a comes the next wave will be global and thought it possible just 10 years ago – man?’. I see this as a general form of developments are much more likely to it’s simply extremely exciting. My point resistance which tries to hit women in be sudden and rapid. is that the Nordic countries are no the name of femininity, and young girls “The world is in a chaotic state, and longer a model in the field of equal are hit very hard by it”. it will be interesting to see whether opportunities and women’s representa- – You say that the women’s movement women are able to make use of these tion. We who always used to be number is going through a slump at the moment, new departures to take a leap forward. It one in the world league tables now have but there are still plenty of issues: the will be necessary to seize the moment to keep up with Costa Rica, South pornification of the public arena, the sale when it appears”, says Drude Dahlerup, Africa and Mozambique!” of g-strings for 9-year-old girls, silicone lips who believes that this ability will make “When I’m asked, out in the world, and breasts as confirmation presents, to itself felt in many other areas of the how long it took us in the Nordic coun- name a few. Is the new generation of fem- world. tries before, for instance, 30% of our inists simply too easy-going and slack? “The Nordic countries have driven parliament members were women, and I “It’s correct that we now need a real- in the slow track and practised gradual- answer ‘about 70-80 years’, I’m told, ly strong women’s movement. However, ism – one step at a time – but from now ‘We’re not going to wait that long’. there are many who address these issues on things will move in leaps”. Here They won’t wait, as we in teh Nordic in books and in the press etc. That’s Professor Dahlerup is thinking not least countries have done, for women to great, and it takes courage, but to have of how many years it has taken for develop resources in civil society, to any effect it will really be necessary to women in Scandinavia to achieve dem- progress in the sphere of education and get into harness and break through the ocratic political representation. For the employment, gradually grow stronger, wall of powerful interests. This can only last two years Dahlerup has led the proj- and then are able to gain a greater be done collectively, and so far we have ect “Quotas – a key to equality?”, which degree of representation. So now we see only seen individual initiatives”, is considering the new trend in the countries, including some that are not 30 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

democratic, which are taking enor- been established, and despite the great only time in his opening speech in mously interesting historical leaps for- differences between them they are able 1993, whilst Swedish prime ministers, ward in terms of women’s numerical to make use of each other. It’s a support no matter what their party affiliation, representation”. and gives legitimacy when women’s speak about equal opportunities, femi- Drude Dahlerup has learnt that a movements nationally can refer to inter- nism, violence against women, the edu- quota system for women cannot be national resolutions, after having trans- cation of immigrant women, etc, in realised without the support of an active lated these demands into the national every single opening speech or govern- women’s movement. “It’s always the discourse. “I can also see that in many ment formation. It’s very strange, women’s movements which push to countries equal opportunities are because Denmark was so famous for its make it succeed. They give support, regarded as a sign of being modern. It’s strong mobilisation of women back in they criticise, they see that women’s part of the country’s image, and such the 1970s, when women from all the issues get on the agenda, etc. And in fact images are being very important in the Nordic countries flocked to the feminist there are now centres for research into international community today. This is summer camp at Femø. Denmark is lag- women’s issues all over the world. I can’t especially true of Latin America, and in ging behind in relation to Norway, guarantee for North Korea; but one fact also in this country. I don’t believe Iceland and Finland, and this trend thing’s for sure: it’s not in Scandinavia that the Chairman of the EU started back in the 1990s. that the women’s movement is making Commission wants more posts filled by – Why do you think this is so? the greatest advances these days. It’s in women because he’s a feminist but “Denmark is such a laissez faire the Third World. We may be overtaken because he’s thinking of his image. In nation. In Sweden and Norway they some day by Costa Rica and South Sweden all political parties except for know there’s still a lot to fight for. In Africa, and I find this incredibly excit- two now call themselves feminists, and Denmark we think we’ve achieved equal ing. Denmark, in fact, has come to a so does the Prime Minister. opportunities, and we’ve brought in complete halt”. mainstreaming strategy, which hasn’t Mainstreaming in the desk had any effect, however. The idea that “I’ve changed” drawers equal opportunities should permeate all – What gives Third World countries the – But the Scandinavian countries are very institutions is fundamentally good, but energy and strength to get these things different in the importance they give to the chances of a flop are great. How can moving? equal opportunities. Denmark, for mainstreaming be implemented in the “Everyone I meet in the Third instance, has closed down the Equal Ministry of Transportation , for exam- World countries says that the UN’s Opportunities Council, and the functions ple, where no one has any competence women’s Conferences, especially the one of the previous Equal Opportunities in equality policies? There are plenty of held in Beijing in 1995, have played an Minister are now carried out under the equal opportunity plans in desk drawers incredibly large role for the women’s aegis of the Social Minister. Suddenly it’s everywhere, but the implementation is movements. Drude Dahlerup stops for no longer acceptable to talk about equal lousy”. a moment, and continues: “And I have opportunities in Denmark, but the oppo- – What went wrong, apart from the to admit that I have actually changed. site seems to be the case in Sweden and the laissez faire mentality which you say pre- When the first UN Women’s rest of the Nordic countries. vails in Denmark? Conference was held in 1975, which “I quite agree. Recently I made an “That’s a difficult question. As I was Women’s Year, many of us in the analysis for the Danish Power said, the women’s movement has always Danish Redstocking movement said Investigation (Magtudredningen) com- proceeded in waves. There’s very little ‘Yuck’. We just didn’t believe in it. paring Denmark and Sweden. There is organisation in Denmark: some profes- Women’s Year for one year, and all the no doubt that Denmark has ground to a sional people are doing a fine job, but other years were Men’s Years. We halt and is even hit by a backlash. This the grassroots level has completely dis- laughed ourselves silly. All those ladies can be blamed not only on the present appeared. The official equal opportuni- in smart costumes holding conferences, Liberal-Conservative government but ties policy, state feminism, needs a and so what? And when the Foreign also on the previous Social Democrat strong, critical women’s movement at Office sent delegates to a meeting on administration. According to contem- the grassroots level. But the Nordic feminism we just thought it was far out. porary Danish discourse equality is countries as a whole are not at the crest So I was among the grassroots who said, more or less obtained, while in Sweden of the wave”, says Drude Dahlerup, who ‘Now you really have to stop. What there is still long to go! For example, I hopes, professional optimism aside, that good is all this to women?”. But I have compared the opening speeches in the the wave will come with an internation- to admit that for the Third World espe- Danish and Swedish Parliaments. Poul al burst of foam which will go down in cially, the UN Women’s Conferences Nyrup Rasmussen, the previous Danish history. have been of enormous importance. An Prime Minister, mentioned the term international network of feminists has equal opportunities for the first and NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 31 MAKING VIOLENT FATHERS INVISIBLE?

By MARIA ERIKSSON Researcher at the Insitute for Gender Studies, Göteborg University. For a number of years it has been documented trough research and practice that men’s violence against women is an issue of direct concern for children living in the family (Hester et al 2000). Most children have seen or heard violence – and have thereby been subjected to emotional abuse – and many have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence themselves as well. Furthermore, it is clear that that some men continue to use violence (including threats of violence) against both women and children post separation or divorce (Heiskanen and Piispa 1998; Lundgren et al 2002).

ore recently the contrary way of the sets consists of interviews with a that policy and practice tends group of social workers specialised in Mto operate, concerning men’s family law. In legal conflicts concerning violence against women on the one contact, custody or residence they inves- hand and child custody and contact on tigate and write reports about the child’s the other, has become of increasing con- situation to the court. Normally, joint cern to feminist scholars and activists in conversations and/or mediation are the Nordic countries and elsewhere. In regarded as best practice, and joint cus- my doctoral thesis in sociology – In the tody and contact are regarded as the best shadow of Daddy: family law and the solution post-separation. A closer analy- handling of fathers’ violence (Eriksson sis of the interviews with these eight 2003) – I document a number of prob- women and two men from eight work- lems in contemporary Sweden in pro- places in Sweden shows that on the one tecting children and mothers/co-parents hand, cases where the father has been from post-separation violence from violent to the mother are perceived as fathers. Some of these problems concern cases needing to be dealt with in a spe- the practices of the courts and their cial way. On the other hand, it is clear interpretations of fathers who are vio- that some cases with violence are regard- Photo: Sari Poljärvi/Gorilla/Samfoto lent to women. Other problems con- ed as “normal” cases. There seems to be cern the practices of the professionals of childhood create specific obstacles in space for negotiating the meaning of providing the courts with information the work to combat men’s violence. violence in the particular case among about the child’s situation. Using these professionals. In some of the inter- Sweden and my own empirical material Can the category of ”normal views, this space for negotiation is quite as the case in point, I argue that well father” include violence? extensive. established notions of heterosexuality, of In the thesis I draw upon three sets of Consequently, some fathers seems to motherhood and fatherhood, as well as qualitative empirical material, and one be able to use a certain amount of vio- 32 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

lence against women/their partner and late 1980s and early 90s, and this One conclusion that can be drawn co-parent without qualifying as violent “wave” is presented as exaggerated and from this is that the assessment of in the eyes of the professionals. This is not based upon real cases of abuse. This whether, for example, contact is safe the case if, for example, there is no crim- raises the question what chance there is enough for the child is not grounded in inal law verdict regarding violence, if his for a sexually abused child to get protec- the particular child’s experiences of, and violence has not been physically very tion if there is a legal conflict regarding views on, violence. This is at least partly serious or frequent, if it started in con- contact, custody or residence. due to constructions of adequate adult junction with the separation, if his vic- Here I want to add that the kind of and professional approaches to children tim - the mother - has not been physi- child victimisation the professionals are in these legal processes. Thus, the assess- cally injured or does not seem to be very quite concerned about is children’s wit- ment must be based upon something scared, and if the fathers stands out as nessing of violence. However, it should else. The questions are: on what? Here, ”normal” in other respects. Here, it also be noted that the emotional abuse notions of children’s needs, as well as should be added that in these interviews of children is closely associated with the gendered constructions of parenthood normal implicitly means white: mother’s presence: it is implicitly become of central importance. ”Swedish”. If a father can be defined as assumed that when the father and a normal father joint custody and unsu- mother do not see each other any more, Constructions of the Child pervised contact is the self-evident alter- the child is not emotionally abused. The and interpretations native – in spite of a history of violence question of what the violence to the of children - and the question of risks for the child partner might mean for the father’s The professionals presume that (biolog- slips out of focus. The professionals’ views regarding, and behaviours to, chil- ical) heterosexual parenthood is the nat- understanding of violence in heterosex- dren becomes a non-question. Father’s ural and normal form of parenthood ual intimate relations, more specifically, who are violent to women are in other and that children need a two-sex/gen- their tolerance for fathers’ dominance words presumed to be not just physical- dered environment when growing up. and violence in intimate relations and ly and sexually, but also emotionally Therefore, and in line with the Swedish norms prescribing male dominance and peaceful to children. family law, children are presumed to female subordination, undermine other need a close contact with both parents attempts to protect both women and Not talking to children post-separation. This is presumed to be children. about their experiences true also for children who have experi- The patterns described above are also enced violence. Splitting fathers’ violence made possible by the fact that the ”stan- Notions of the needs of a general to women from violence dard” method for conducting investiga- “Child” are of great importance for the to children tions in these cases is not suitable for interpretation of concrete children. This There is more than one reason for the documenting children’s experiences of becomes very clear, for example, when question of risks for children slipping violence. The professionals state that the respondents talk about children’s out of focus. The connection between they see almost all children concerned. wishes as regards contact. When the men’s violence to adult women and the However, the main aim with the con- interview conversations concern chil- victimisation of children documented versations they have with children is to dren who say that they want to see their through research is not very well known fulfil the requirements of the law that is fathers these children’s accounts are pre- by the interviewed professionals. that the report documents the child’s sented as genuine expressions of the Instead, they present fathers’ violence ”wish”. Some of the professionals say child’s wishes. However, when the inter- against mothers and against children as that they do not talk to children about views concern children who say that more or less unconnected phenomena. violence since they do not have appro- they do not want to see their father – This spit especially concerns sexual priate methods, and others argue that and the children’s accounts are in con- abuse of children. While physical child investigation is not treatment or coun- flict what the general Child is presumed abuse is constructed as sometimes selling and that it would be irresponsi- to need – these children are presented as occurring, although not very often, ble and unprofessional to start some- dependent upon, and influenced by, mothers’ narratives about child sexual thing with (dependent and possibly vic- their mothers. The thought that a abused are interpreted against a mis- timised) children that they cannot fol- child’s wish not to see the father might trusting backdrop. The professionals low up. It is clear that although it is pos- be part of the child’s strategy for protec- argue that mothers suspect sexual abuse sible for the respondents to ask for help tion against violence is not very close at because of their own childhood victimi- from additional expertise, for example, hand. sation, and that mothers can use “allega- within the child- and youth psychiatry, Some of the professionals argue that tions” of abuse to win the case. or to involve the child protection agen- especially children who have experi- Furthermore, they talk about a “wave” cies this is not done systematically in enced violence need safe and good con- of incest allegations in Sweden in the cases with violence from fathers. tact with the father, to help them to see NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 33

that he is not just ”bad”. Children are neutral construction of parenthood as fathers is still marginal to the public presumed to be able to work through well. Here, mothers and fathers are pre- debate on gendered violence. their previous experiences through con- sumed to be more or less the same as par- In my thesis I review governmental tact. In this way, contact is presented as ents. I argue that this construction of printed material in Sweden in the 1990s therapeutic for the victimised Child. parenthood is implicitly gendered since that concerns either violence in close However, whether a particular child is it is motherhood that is the standard for relationships; parenthood separation and actually experiencing contact as safe or good parenthood. Furthermore, that this divorce; or children at risk. The conclu- not is hard to know when this child’s is the consequence of the intersection sion that can be drawn from this review perspective on violence is not explored between age and gender and the fact that is that in contemporary Sweden we have and documented in the investigation. the definition of good motherhood is “violent men” or “fathers” (presumed to Furthermore, it is not clear who is tied to ideas of what a child is and needs: be peaceful). The only example that can responsible for evaluating how contact when good motherhood is to be respon- be found in this material where violence is actually working for the particular sible for the good childhood, mother- is associated with the father-position or child. hood becomes the standard for good par- notions of fatherhood is the issue of the enthood (cf. Alanen 1992). victimisation of girls/young women in ”A bad parent Taken together these two construc- ”patriarchal family structures”, that is, but a good dad” tions of parenthood mean that while the discussion that explicitly concerns In the interviews, all of the professionals there is only one standard for mothers – ethnic minorities, and so called immi- were asked how they perceive ”abused regardless of whether it is called mother- grants. “Swedish” violent fathers do not women as mothers” and ”violent men as hood or parenthood – there is a double seem to exist. fathers”. While it was relatively easy to standard for the parenthood of fathers. According to the sociologist Sylvia get an answer to the first question, it Even if a particular father might be Walby (2002) inadequate interventions was more difficult to get answers about defined as a bad parent since he is not can be regarded as part of the cause of fathers. The respondents had a lot to say taking responsibility for his child’s need violence. The lack of political and pro- about the parenthood of abused moth- of safety and protection from experi- fessional recognition and intervention ers and they were all relating to the ences of violence, he can be defined as a can in other words be defined as part of notion of ”the inadequate abused mum” good dad, doing funny things with the the cause of fathers’ violence against in some way. However, when the inter- kids and making sure that they have a children and mothers/co-parents in views concerned the parenthood of vio- two sex/gendered environment when contemporary Sweden. Furthermore, lent fathers it was sometimes not possi- growing up. The double standard for the lack of research on this topic is also ble to get an answer at all. In other the parenthood of fathers creates a vast part of the problem. Here lies a substan- interviews the respondents started to space for action for violent fathers when tial challenge for researchers – in talk about what the mothers in ques- they encounter these professionals. Sweden and elsewhere. tion, or the children, were thinking While “bad parent but good mam” is about the fathers. Thus, established unintelligible, the notion of ”bad parent REFERENCES Alanen, L. (1992). Modern Childhood? Jyväskylä: Institute ideas as regards fathers comparable with but good dad” seems to culturally intel- for Educational Research, Research reports 50. the notion of the inadequate mother ligible. Eriksson, M. (2002). Men’s violence, men’s parenting and can not be found in this interview mate- gender politics in Sweden. NORA,Vol. 10, no. 1, 6-15. Eriksson, M. (2003). I skuggan av Pappa. Familjerätten och rial. The “inadequate violent dad” does Fathers’ violence on the hanteringen av fäders våld. Stehag: Gondolin. not exist. policy and research agendas? Hautanen,T. (2005, forthcoming). By-passing the relationship between fatherhood and violence in Finnish policy A closer analysis of the respondents’ The patterns described above are clearly and research. In Eriksson, M., Hester, M., Keskinen, S., speech about mothers and fathers makes not unique to this group of profession- Pringle, K. (eds):Tackling men’s violence in families: Nordic issues and dilemmas. Bristol:The Policy Press. this silence understandable. The profes- als. For example, research on fatherhood Heiskanen, M. & Piispa, M. (1998). Faith, Hope, Battering. sionals tend to use a gender complemen- and the practices of fathers have typical- Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Hester, M., Pearson, C., Harwin, N. (2000). Making an tary construction of parenthood as their ly focused on ”normal” fathers or ”new” Impact. Children and domestic violence - a reader. London: point of departure. Motherhood means fathers but not on violence, and there Jessica Kingsley. main responsibility and fatherhood has been a lack of focus on men as Lundgren, E., Heimer, G.,Westerstrand, J., Kalliokoski,A-M. (2002). Captured Queen. Men’s violence against women in means being complementary to the fathers in the literature on men’s vio- “equal“ Sweden. Umeå:The Crime Victim Support and mother-as-main-carer: a father is the lence against women (see Eriksson Compensation Authority. Peled, E (2000). Parenting by Men Who Abuse Women: other parent doing things with the kids, 2002; Hautanen 2005; Peled 2000). Issues and Dilemmas. British Journal of Social Work,Vol. making sure that children have parents Furthermore, in spite of the fact that 30, no. 1, 25-36. Walby, S (2002). Reducing gendered violence: Defining, with two sexes/genders. However, the men’s violence against women has measuring and interpreting inter-personal violence and ideology of gender equality is also visible increasingly become present on the pol- responses to it. In Eriksson, M., Nenola,A., Nilsen, M. M. (eds.): Gender and violence in the Nordic countries. in the interview accounts and the profes- icy agenda in, for example, Sweden in Copenhagen:The Nordic Council of Ministers,TemaNord sionals are using an in-principle gender recent years, the issue of violence from 2002:545, 15-29. 34 NIKK magasin NO. 3 - 2004

Book Review: Crossing Borders By LINE NYHAGEN PREDELLI Researcher at Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University, and Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Oslo

This edited volume is a result of the research network Women’s Movements and Internationalisation: The ‘Third Wave’?, funded by the Nordic Academy of Advanced Studies (1997-2002). The network initiative came from NIKK, and the aim of the network was broadly defined as that of exploring “the scope and character of mobilisation in a historical and method- ologically new context”.

The purpose of this review is to analyse anthology one of its more original con- Sources of Activism the extent to which the anthology man- tributions. Her conclusion that “there Unfortunately, there is much less engage- ages to fulfil its dual promise of both can be no wave theory” certainly goes ment with the wave concept throughout “mapping a broad range of issues” and against the grain of many feminist the remainder of Crossing Borders. In offering “re-narrations and re-locations analyses that have applied the concept her well-researched analysis of academic of one of the major social movements of of “waves” and found it useful in identi- feminism in Norway from 1880 until the 20th century and […] fresh analysis fying historical periods of intense femi- 1980, Beatrice Halsaa is more concerned of its latest trends”. With twenty contri- nist activism. The gist of her argument with naming and constituting academic butions from various scholars, the is that, looking only at historical periods feminists as “a social movement, a anthology is very diverse, and I have where feminists have been particularly women’s studies movement” (p. 83). She chosen to structure the review along the active and identifying these periods as does, however, like Bergman and five parts of the book. “waves”, we risk missing out on all the Dahlerup in their contributions, use feminist activities that are ongoing on a social movement perspectives such as Construction and more continual basis. Lønnå receives “political opportunities, mobilizing Deconstruction of Feminism general support for her thesis from structures and cultural framing” (p. 83) The first part of Crossing Borders Leena Laine, who in part two of the to aid her analysis of women’s access to reflects on how one should or should book argues that the identification of higher educational institutions. In the not go about to study women’s move- particular historical periods as “first” or next chapter, Hilda Rømer Christensen ments. Solveig Bergman offers a refresh- “second” wave feminism does not do turns to religion as a source of activism, ing perspective on how to analyse and justice to periods of higher than usual and offers an analysis of the Young compare women’s movements in differ- activities in the women’s sports move- Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) ent countries. The focus is on ments in Norway, Finland and Sweden. in an effort to show how organisations “autonomous, grassroots oriented femi- On the other hand, Drude that are not so readily identified with nism and not on formal-hierarchical Dahlerup, objects to Lønna’s rejection feminism may actually have contributed women’s organisations” (p. 32). As a of the wave concept by saying that the by offering “a reservoir for consciousness reader, I am curious to know more fact that one can identify periods of building and for the maintaining of about how Bergman achieved the neces- feminist activities between different practical community based projects”. sary data for her analysis. In this contri- waves does not imply a falsification of Part two also includes an excellent con- bution, however, which is both well- “the thesis that the feminist movement tribution from Irina Yukina, who offers a written and a pleasure to read, Bergman has had its ups and downs in terms of valuable insight into nineteenth century places more emphasis on methodologi- activity, mobilization, visibility and feminism in Russia. Finally, Malin cal and theoretical reflections. impact” (p. 68). Rönblom discusses local women’s groups Elisabeth Lønnå has given this in modern day rural Sweden. NO. 3 - 2004 NIKK magasin 35

International Fora and domestic violence against women. Reflections, offers two short pieces com- Transnational Networks Mostly empirical in her focus, Milwertz menting on the anthology itself, with Part 3 of Crossing Borders is concerned also makes the interesting observation Ute Gerhard emphasising its contribu- with international and trans-national that “Euro-North American women’s tions to international dialogue and forms of feminism, and the previously movements” have been influenced by Sasha Roseneil its “contribution to fem- dominant Nordic perspective (with the various aspects of women’s experiences inist understandings of women’s politi- exception of Yukina) loses its ground. in communist China. Aino Saarinen cal agency” (p. 349). Naihua Zhang presents an empirical reflects on attempts by a network of analysis of the unintended consequences scholars and activists to create and sus- Conclusion of hosting the 1995 United Nation’s tain dialogue between Nordic and In terms of fulfilling its promise of Fourth World Conference on Women in Russian feminists on the topic of crisis “mapping a broad range of issues”, this Beijing. The article suggests that “the centres in the Barents region. Saarinen anthology is right on target. It is very Conference became the seminal event shows how the concept of transversal- diverse, and examines a variety of that marked China’s integration into the ism and the techniques of rooting and expressions of feminist movements and international women’s movement” (p. shifting, developed by Nira Yuval- activities in different parts of the world. 172), having a significant impact on Davis, have been useful in order to sus- I am confident that scholars will find both the women’s movement itself, in tain the network. Chiara Bertone’s articles that are worthy of reading, terms of the appearance of a new type of focus, on the other hand, is on compar- depending on their own research inter- organisations acting independently of ing the policies of Denmark and Italy ests. In terms of the promise to offer “re- the state, and on the socio-political con- on fathers’ leave in connection with car- narrations and re-locations of one of the text in which the women’s movement is ing for small children. While the articles major social movements of the 20th situated, in the form of new government in part four are interesting in their own century and […] fresh analysis of its lat- policy documents. right, it is hard to tell what unites them. est trends”, however, the anthology is On her part, Alena Heitlinger is more mixed. While some of the authors concerned with Czech women’s groups, Multiculturalism manage to engage the reader and offer and in particular how such groups have – globalisation fresh insight and perspectives, other developed and maintained cross-border With the editors announcing that glob- authors remain too close to their empir- links with international organisations alisation and multiculturalism consti- ical issue and do not lift their analysis and with national organisations in other tute the main framework for the anthol- from the descriptive level. There are sev- countries. Heitlinger argues that ogy’s texts, it is surprising to find this eral underpinning tensions in the book, “transnational networking and foreign theme relegated to part five, which has such as that between an explicitly stated funding have given Czech women only two articles, both of them more Nordic focus on women’s movements greater political voice, and empowered theoretical in nature than the previous (p. 9) versus an equally explicit global them in their struggle for equality, social empirically oriented articles. Pauline and international focus. While the book justice, and the building of a democrat- Stoltz draws on prominent feminist the- sometimes succeeds in linking Nordic ic civil society” (p. 199). Part three ends oreticians in a highly recommended dis- and inter- and trans-national women’s with an article by Mona Lena Krook, cussion of the ways in which feminist movements, in my opinion it does not who looks at the role of international academics contribute to patterns of present a sufficiently broad geographical organisations and networks in the quest inclusion and exclusion in their analyses analysis to claim a global perspective. for gender-balanced representation, and of the feminist movement. She is partic- Another tension is that between analysis an interview with Airi Markkanen (by ularly concerned with the invisibility of of contemporary movements and Beatrice Halsaa) on the lives of Finnish black, immigrant and refugee women’s events, versus historical accounts of ear- romanies. political activism among white scholars, lier women’s movements. Although dis- especially in Nordic and European con- agreements on the usefulness of the Violence and Care texts. Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir term “wave” are prominent in the first Part four includes contributions from suggests that processes of globalisation part of the book, other contributors Russia, the Barents Region, China, Italy in the first instance lead to an increased could have engaged more actively in this and Denmark. Natalia Khodyreva’s arti- preoccupation with diversity and differ- debate and thereby made the anthology cle is written more from an activist’s ence, while they in the second instance both more cohesive and interesting. viewpoint than from a scholar’s, and “can lead to renewed emphasis on offers viewpoints on the trafficking in women’s traditional roles, especially CROSSING BORDERS. women. Cecilia Milwertz looks at two their roles as mothers and housewives” Remapping Women’s Movements at the Turn of the 21st Century. Edited by Hilda Rømer Christensen, Beatrice specific attempts by women in China to (p. 326). Halsaa, and Aino Saarinen. Odense: University Press of establish organisations dealing with The last section of the book, Southern Denmark, 2004. To: PORTO BETALT VED INNLEVERINGA P.P.

Economique NORGE/NOREG B Avtalenummer 911000/211

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