Critical Studies of Gender Equalities Nordic Dislocations, Dilemmas and Contradictions Edited by Eva Magnusson, Malin Rönnblom & Harriet Silius

CRITICAL STUDIES OF GENDER EQUALITIES Nordic Dislocations, Dilemmas and Contradictions Edited by Eva Magnusson, Malin Rönnblom & Harriet Silius MAKADAM Critical Studies Of Gender Equalities Nordic Dislocations, Dilemmas and Contradictions Edited by Eva Magnusson, Malin Rönnblom & Harriet Silius Upplaga för elektronisk publicering för forsknings-, utbildnings- och biblioteksverksamhet och ej för kommersiella ändamål. Publicerad med tillstånd från Makadam förlag. Tryckt utgåva finns i bokhandeln: ISBN 978-91-7061-058-5 Makadam förlag, Göteborg & Stockholm www.makadambok.se Edition to be published electronically for research, educational and library needs and not for commercial purposes. Published by permission from Makadam Publishers. A printed version is available through book stores: ISBN 978-91-7061-058-5 Makadam Publishers, Göteborg & Stockholm, Sweden www.makadambok.se Critical studies of gender equalities Critical studies of gender equalities Nordic dislocations, dilemmas and contradictions edited by Eva Magnusson Malin Rönnblom Harriet Silius makadam publishers makadam publishers . .makadambok.se The following institutions financially supported the publication of this book NIKK, Nordic Gender Institute, Oslo Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen Umeå Centre for Gender Studies and the Research programme Challenging Gender, Umeå University Department of Psychology, Umeå University All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from Makadam Publishers. Copyright © 2008 Makadam Publishers and the authors © Cover illustration by Aron Hidman isbn 978-91-7061-558-0 (pdf) contents EVA MAGNUSSON . MALIN RÖNNBLOM . HARRIET SILIUS Introduction 7 MARIA CARBIN Honour related violence 24 The Invention of a Policy Problem in Sweden EEVA R AEVA AR A In the Land of Equality? 48 Gender Equality and the Construction of Finnish and French Political Communities in the Parliamentary Debates of Finland and France MARIA TÖRNQVIST From Threat to Promise 75 The Changing Position of Gender Quota in the Swedish Debate on Women’s Political Representation INGRID GULDVIK Gender quota discourses in Noregian politics 94 MALIN RÖNNBLOM De-politicising Gender? 112 Constructions of Gender Equality in Swedish Regional Policy DORTHE STAUNÆS AND DORTE MARIE SØNDERGAARD Management and Gender diversity 135 Intertwining Categories and Paradoxes EVA MAGNUSSON Conflict, danger and difference 161 Nordic Heterosexual Couples Converse about Gender Equality and Fairness TRINE ANNFELT From Soft Fathers to the Rights of the Sperm? 180 Biologism as a Heteronorming Resource KATTIS HONKANEN Equality Politics out of the Subaltern 204 3 Contributors 219 EVA MAGNUSSON . MALIN RÖNNBLOM . HARRIET SILIUS INTRODUCTION Critical Studies of Gender Equalities: Nordic Dislocations, Dilemmas and Contradictions During three decades of working toward gender equality, the Nordic Council of Ministers has continued its efforts toward achieving full gender equality in Nordic societies. Indeed, the Nordic democracies have distinguished themselves through their active work to promote gender equality in each country (Nordic Council of Ministers (2006) Focus on Gender – Working Toward an Equal Society. Nordic Gender Equality Co-operation Programme 2006–2010). It seems fitting to begin a book on critical aspects of gender equalities in the Nordic countries with the above quotation, since it features in the most recent co-operation programme on gender equality issued by the Nordic Council of Ministers: an authoritative official and transnational source of communications. This quotation is a representative example of how Nordic gender equality is presented in national as well as international governmental contexts. The image projected is one of decades of unceasing efforts, and of a collective self-image in these countries of world leadership in gender equality. Is it perhaps even possible to spot a sense of complacency in the text? The text also somehow leaves the reader with the impression that its writers know what full, or “real”, gender equality would be. Looked at in this way, it is fair to say that this piece of text produces a certain way of understanding what “gender equality” is, and a certain way of understanding those who have exerted efforts on behalf of gender equality. For us to make this point is to assert that gender equality is not something that just “is” in some unproblematic and natural way, but something that may be understood and packaged in several different ways – ways that may have several different consequences. Authoritative packagings and understandings of gender equality and gender issues such as the one cited above, and their political and personal consequences, are the targets of the researchers who have written this book. Thus, the various 7 understandings of gender equality in the Nordic countries, and the consequences of these understandings, are targeted; not the general idea of gender equality as such. The authors are Nordic gender scholars who have worked together for several years in a research network. They are united by a critical interest in gender discourses, as they play themselves out in these particular countries, with their internationally good record on gender equality. Can it be, these researchers ask, that there are problems connected with the meanings of “gender” and “equality” which national authorities as well as citizens typically project when they talk about gender equality? Yes, there can, would be a brief answer provided by that the chapters in this book. Thus, this is a critical book, in the sense that the chapters investigate how gender equality and gender are packaged and “produced”, that is, given certain kinds of meanings while other kinds of meanings are obscured, in a number of political contexts in the Nordic countries. Being critical here also means discussing political consequences of these meanings and meaning-making processes. “Critical” also implies avoiding all presumption of claiming to know what “real” gender equality is or would be. Consequently, the authors of this book are not in the business of ranking their objects of study in terms of degrees of gender equality achieved. Neither do they evaluate the efficiency, success or failure of different equality policies. Instead, the authors take the critically interrogative stand of suspending ideas of what “true gender equality” would be, and look instead at how differently such ideas are produced and where they lead. Nordic scholars today are increasingly conceptualizing gender equality as a constructed category filled with differing meanings depending on context. Thus the authors of this book are content to critically worry – as in digging their teeth in and shaking it – the issue of how constructions of gender equality create limits and possibilities for thinking about and doing gender, especially as gender intersects with dimensions of ethnicity, nationality and sexuality. Inevitably, researchers working with such a ‘critical–worrying’ approach will move beyond emphasizing the constructed nature of Nordic gender equality, to investigating its productive aspects. Politically produced and packaged gender equality will then be studied as forms of discourse that constitute and enable certain types of subjectivities rather than others. Following the logic of this argument, one may confidently say that issues of “gender equality” are about much more than justice and fairness – they are also about the kinds of subjects that politics, policies and practices in these countries will encourage and are prepared to harbour as good citizens. The critical conceptualizations of gender equality that the authors of this book have chosen necessitate a focus on what happens in the construction processes, and on how the productivity of gender equality discourses plays itself out in contemporary 8 society. Translations from political idea(l)s to practice are seldom easy; and there are signs that translations related to gender equality issues may be less straightforward than most. The often criss-crossing meanings and implications of gender equality on different societal arenas are created by, and in their turn create, numerous dislocations, contradictions and dilemmas. Dislocations, contradictions and dilemmas While their empirical fields differ, the chapters in this book connect to each other through their theoretical, methodological and analytical approaches. The authors share a social constructionist approach to the understandings of power, as elaborated in different forms of discourse analysis. They have derived inspiration from scholars such as Carol Bacchi, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Margaret Wetherell and Slavoj Žižek. These theorists differ in their theoretical approaches but have in common an emphasis on the need to scrutinise the discursive constructions of dominant understandings of normalitites: ethnocentrisms, femininities, heteronormativities and masculinities. Discursive approaches make use of cracks and shifts as disruptive moments that make different, often dominating, discourses visible, and they often point out the dilemmas, dislocations and contradictions harboured within these discourses. Several of the chapters explicitly analyse dislocations. What happens when dominating discourses get disturbed? A dislocation can be seen as a destabilisation or displacement of discourse. For instance, how should the shift from “impossible” to “favourable” in the

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