Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region This book explores how gender equality, a central part of the Nordic imag- inary, is used in the political communication of Nordic states. The analy- ses presented move beyond conventional images and discourses of Nordic gender- and women-friendliness by critically investigating how and to what extent gender equality serves nation-branding in the Nordic region. Nation-branding is an unescapable part of globalisation, which is a market- oriented process dominated by the West and predicated on the cre- ation of winners and losers. Hence, efforts to strengthen the national brand or reputation of specific Nordic countries with the aid of gender equality as a political and symbolic value inevitably help to reinforce already estab- lished global hierarchies where the Nordics play the role of moral super- power. This book comprises scholars from various fields of specialisation, and provides evidence and understanding for the growing interaction be- tween gender-equality policies and nation-branding in all five Nordic coun- tries. It does so by exploring a variety of policy fields and issues including women’s rights, foreign policy, rape and legislation, female quotas and busi- ness policies, in addition to the index industry. The rise of the global indexes has reproduced forceful images of the Nordic countries as frontrunners of gender equality, which indeed help the Nordic countries to further position themselves as ‘best at being good’. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Nordic gender equality in political science, sociology, law, criminology, political psychology and history, as well as those interested in nation-branding, Nor- dic studies and exceptionalism. Eirinn Larsen is Professor of History in the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, Norway. Sigrun Marie Moss is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Inger Skjelsbæk is Professor at the Center for Gender Research and the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo, Norway. Routledge Studies in Gender and Global Politics Series Editor: Laura J. Shepherd, University of Sydney, Australia This series aims to publish books that work with, and through, feminist insights on global politics, and illuminate the ways in which gender func- tions not just as a marker of identity but also as a constitutive logic in global political practices. The series welcomes scholarship on any aspect of global political practices, broadly conceived, that pays attention to the ways in which gender is central to, (re)produced in, and is productive of, such practices. There is growing recognition both within the academy and in global polit- ical institutions that gender matters in and to the practices of global politics. From the governance of peace and security, to the provision of funds for de- velopment initiatives, via transnational advocacy networks linked through strategic engagement with new forms of media, these processes have a gen- dered dimension that is made visible through empirically grounded and the- oretically sophisticated feminist work. Civil Society, Care Labour, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Making 1325 Work Caitlin Hamilton, Anuradha Mundkur and Laura J. Shepherd Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region Edited by Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsbæk International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality Making the Law Work for Women Edited by Ramona Vijeyarasa Gender and Political Apology When the Patriarchal State Says “Sorry” Emma Dolan The European Union’s International Promotion of LGBTI Rights Promises and Pitfalls Markus Thiel Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region Edited by Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsbæk LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsbæk; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsbæk to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www. taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Enloe, Cynthia H., 1938– author. | Larsen, Eirinn, editor. | Moss, Sigrun Marie, editor. | Skjelsbæk, Inger, editor. Title: Gender equality and nation branding in the Nordic region / edited by Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss and Inger Skjelsbæk. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge studies in gender and global politics | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2021003247 (print) | LCCN 2021003248 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367861353 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003017134 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Women—Social conditions—Scandinavia. | Place-marketing—Scandinavia. Classification: LCC HQ1667.E55 2021 (print) | LCC HQ1667 (ebook) | DDC 305.40948—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003247 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021003248 ISBN: 978-0-367-86135-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-69293-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-01713-4 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003017134 Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra This picture shows “Mother Norway” who is a blond Valkyrie painted by Andreas Bloch in 1905 and symbolizes that it is women who decide who shall live and die in battle.* * Source: Artist: Andreas Bloch (1860–1917), used with permission of the National Library of Norway (owner institution). Contents Notes on contributors ix Foreword xiii CYNTHIA ENLOE Introduction 1 EIRINN LARSEN, SIGRUN MARIE MOSS AND INGER SKJELSBÆK 1 ‘The gender-progressive Nordics’: A matter of history 13 EIRINN LARSEN 2 Variations on shared themes: Branding the Nordics as gender equal 39 KATARZYNA JEZIERSKA AND ANN TOWNS 3 Applying the brand or not? Challenges of Nordicity and gender equality in Scandinavian diplomacy 62 SIGRUN MARIE MOSS 4 Keeping Sweden on top: Rape and legal innovation as nation-branding 75 MAY-LEN SKILBREI 5 Trouble in paradise? Icelandic gender-equality imaginaries, national rebranding and international reification 90 IRMA ERLINGSDÓTTIR 6 Protecting the brand? The hesitant incorporation of gender equality in the peace nation 113 INGER SKJELSBÆK AND TORUNN L. TRYGGESTAD viii Contents 7 A useful tool? Images of the Nordics in Swiss quota debates 134 STÉPHANIE GINALSKI 8 Silenced at the border: Norwegian gender-equality policies in national branding 153 CATHRINE HOLST AND MARI TEIGEN 9 Not so exceptional after all? Nordic gender equality and controversies linked to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 173 ANNE HELLUM 10 Creating gender exceptionalism: The role of global indexes 191 TORI LOVEN KIRKEBØ, MALCOLM LANGFORD AND HALDOR BYRKJEFLOT Afterword: Gendering the brand? 207 HALVARD LEIRA Index 213 Notes on contributors Haldor Byrkjeflot (b. 1959) is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. His research inter- ests include the emergence and circulations of societal and organizational models, organization theory, bureaucracy and historical- comparative studies. He has published articles on comparative management, the globalization of the MBA, changing knowledge regimes in universities, comparative labour systems, the role of bureaucracy in modern societies and reforms and organizational dynamics in health and education. Cynthia Enloe (b. 1932) is a Research Professor in the Department of Inter- national Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE), affiliated with Political Science and with Women’s and Gender Studies, all at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Her writings have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Czech, Swedish, Icelandic and German. She has published in Ms. mag- azine and the Village Voice, and appeared on National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, C-Span and the BBC. Irma Erlingsdóttir (b. 1968) is a Professor at the University of Iceland and Director of the UNESCO-affiliated Gender Equality Studies and Train- ing Programme (GRÓ- GEST); RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference; and the EDDA Center in Contemporary Critical Re- search at the University of Iceland. Stéphanie Ginalski (b. 1977) is a Swiss historian and Senior Lecturer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her main research interests are business elites, the transformation of capitalism during the twentieth century and corporate networks. She is a co-founder and member of the Swiss Elites Observatory (www.unil.ch/obelis). Anne Hellum (b. 1952) is a Professor in the Department of Public and Inter- national Law at the University of Oslo, Norway. She was awarded the Dr.