Feminist political economies of the Nordic welfare state: gendering the economy and economizing gender equality

Abstract

This chapter analyses feminist political economies of the Nordic welfare state. It takes as its focus recent shifts in the relations among the Nordic welfare state, political economy, feminism and gender equality in Finland specifically, while also engaging with the neoliberalization of the welfare state, feminism and gender equality policy more broadly. In so doing, this chapter demonstrates spatially variegated feminist political-economic landscapes, within which the content and intentions of feminism are constantly negotiated and reworked. It also introduces contributions of feminist political economy to these debates and, more generally, to debates about the economy. The chapter shows that the political economies of the welfare state are profoundly ‘gendered’. Thus, in order to understand political economies of the state, gendered aspects of the economy, including the political economy of reproduction, need to be taken into account.