Gender Equality Politics Research Articles

Women’s representation in the UN climate change negotiations: a quantitative analysis of state delegations, 1995–2011

This paper examines which factors influence women’s descriptive representation in state delegations to the international climate change negotiations. Due to the gendered nature of climate change as an issue, it is important to study the representation of women in the negotiations and to examine its normative and functional implications. Theoretically, I propose to look at institutional, socioeconomic, and cultural factors as potential explanations for the variation in the proportion of women in state delegations across countries. I examine this variation by drawing on a dataset containing all member state delegations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations from 1995 to 2011. The theoretical arguments are then tested on these data using a fractional probit model. This is the first comparative study of women’s descriptive representation in international environmental negotiations. It contributes to our understanding of the variation in women’s representation both over time and across countries. In particular, I find that women’s representation is higher in countries that enjoy a higher level of development and a higher degree of political gender equality. The effects of other institutional and socioeconomic factors such as the level of democracy or gender-equal development remain statistically insignificant. Cultural factors measured by regional proxies show that Eastern Europe and Latin America are positively and the Middle East negatively linked with women’s descriptive representation in delegations.

Playing with different cards: Party politics, gender quotas and women’s empowerment

Although statutory quotas have considerably expanded worldwide, the bulk of gender quotas in place are party quotas used in the selection of candidates and composition of party bodies. This article aims to examine whether reforms addressing women’s representation translate into greater power for women within political parties, thus providing new insights into how transformative gender quotas may (or may not) be in promoting gender equality in politics more generally. Specifically, we look beyond the distributive logic of gender quotas and examine instead the party institutional configuration in which patterns of distribution are realised, through the daily enactment of informal institutions. Our findings suggest that while unequal patterns of office distribution can be effectively fixed through gender quotas, this ‘simple’ solution cannot automatically subvert the main informal sources of male power in the party organisation. As change and continuity coexist, gender quota reforms are layering processes in which some elements are renegotiated while others persist.

Akademisk feminism. Institutionalisering, organisation och kritik

This article is an examination of what consequences our passion for critical research has had on our relation to Gender Studies as a discipline. The examination begins with the exclusion from, and escape from, another discipline, to the space and possibilities offered by Gender Studies. This move is, however, also an escape into a new discipline and a new order of normativities. We move on to identifying these normativities: 1) Gender Studies as constituted through a compromise with research ideals, where, for example, the concept gender (genus) is depicted as more inclusive than other concepts, and Gender Studies as less critical and political than Feminist Studies, 2) the dogmatism of sisterhood, as an identity based limitation for research, and 3) the constant mix-up with, and adaptation to, both governmental gender equality politics and activist organisations outside the university. In order to exist, Gender Studies has, in some way or another, compromised with all three of these normativities. We do not assume that this development is automatically bad or good – the normativities do not always reinforce each other, incongruences and gaps sometimes appear when they meet, and a compromise also implies that there still remains something of that which is ‘other’, of that which was ‘too much’ and had to be compromised. However, for the moment they seem to interact with a neo-liberal governmentality that restructures politics, activist demands, and identifications as well as research focus and university organisation. Hence, we see a need for a re-organisation of academic feminism, using Gender Studies as a platform, but constituted by neither the traditional object of study (“women/gender”) nor the idea of infinite inclusion and flexibility (“intersectionality”). Instead we propose that passion for critical research (including responsibility of that research), organised around the untimely idea of a non-competitive collegium, constitutes the guiding rules for a non-nostalgic and non-identical academic feminism.

Der Lohn ist die Arbeit

The article points out that the politics of gender equality in Germany have lost the perspective of a feminist critique within the last decades. The topic of care and reproductive work has been completely neglected, the debate is focused only on the employability of women and their integration in the national workforce. The working concept that underlies this development reproduces the separation of paid labor and reproductive work and refers women to the capitalist jobmarket, promising to find equality and liberation there. The article refers to Angela McRobbie and Nancy Fraser, it questions the narrow-minded labor-market-orientation of today’s women’s policy and calls for a renewal of a feminist critique of the concept of wage labor.

Pregnant politicians and sexy fathers? The politics of gender equality representations in Europe

Synopsis Gender equality has become a core element within the national identity and self representation of ‘progressive’ European nation states, distinguishing them from what is deemed non-European. Gender equality has become the hallmark of what ‘Europe’ stands for. But gender equality is far from one dimensional; its politics are murky. This special issue focuses on the gap between the dominant European discourse on gender equality and the realities of daily politics. It brings into view the contested ways in which a variety of political actors define gender equality — whether it has been achieved, and if not, how it should be. These views are indispensably tied to the ideologies of states, social movements, elites and individuals. This special issue reveals the multiple disciplinary faces of the representation of gender equality in politics. The common thread is how gender intersects with other markers of identity such as ethnicity.

Gender, diversity and migration – challenges to Nordic welfare, gender politics and research

PurposeThe aim of the article is to discuss the challenges from immigration to Nordic (gender) politics, theories and research. The research question is to what extent Nordic welfare and gender equality politics is based on exclusive solidarity biased towards the native majorities. A key issue is how Nordic gender theory and research has addressed multiple inequalities. The article briefly revisits the academic debates about gender equality, diversity and multiculturalism, which arguably represent two different paradigms: multicultural approaches have addressed the accommodation of minorities with diversity as the key concept, while feminist approaches have focused on gender (in)equality with gender as the key concept.Design/methodology/approachThe intersectional approach suggests that increased migration and mobility present similar challenges for the two bodies of thought to address complex and multiple inequalities within and beyond the nation state. The main part explores “the multicultural dilemma” in greater detail focusing on the intersections between gender and etho‐national minorities in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.FindingsPerceptions of diversity and gender equality/women's rights are contextual and dynamic as intersecting diversities and inequalities are embedded in national histories, institutions and policies. Scholars have demonstrated that the discourse about women's rights and gender equality has become an intrinsic part of Nordic identities and belongings. The article suggests that the new forms of inequalities among women can be interpreted as a Nordic gender equality paradox between the relative inclusion of the native majority women and the relative marginalization of women from diverse ethnic minorities in society.Originality/valueThe intersectionality approach to gender and ethnicity in Scandinavia is in this article combined with a transnational approach to gender, diversity and migration.

Jösses Flickor, vilket trassel!

Using the recent establishment of the International Day of the Girl Child as an analytical departure point this article addresses three different but intertwined challenges which Girlhood Studies are facing in relation to the contemporary construction of the girl as an important agent for social change. The construction of a historically significant girl represents a significant historical change, which requires further historical analysis and reflection. Seeking to untangle this temporal problem the article first discusses a number of problematic implications caused by the historiographical emphasis of the “invisibility of girls” within the research field. Furthermore, it discusses how this narrative of invisibility also has infused the ideals, norms and discourses among girlhood researchers. In the article I argue that this narrative represents a risk in relation to the current neo-liberal centering of the girl, as it might entail a tendency to approach all instances where the girl is noticed as a girl in an uncritical manner. The article then analyses how historians have framed the writing of the history of girls and girlhood. A project in which there seems to be an emancipatory ambition to affix a kind of eternal value to the girl, which can be viewed to be in correspondence with contemporary girl power discourses. The article thereafter discusses some historical aspects regarding the relationship between Girlhood Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies both in an international and in a Swedish context. I conclude the article by exemplifying how a more theoretical understanding of girls, girlhood and generation could be used as a framework in the investigation of the Nordic experience of forty years of gender equality politics.

The Default Model: Gender Equality, Fatherhood, and Structural Constraint

What does a political commitment to gender equality mean in the context of fatherhood? In what ways should the state support or compel fathers so as to affect greater gender equality? If there is any consensus on these questions in the gender literature, then it is that existing family leave policy—even the most progressive—has fallen short of a satisfactory answer. Typically, this failure is understood either in economic terms—that policy provision is simply inadequate in scale—or in terms of individual preferences that should be encouraged to change. Indeed, both of these approaches intend to incentivize men to take up more caring duties, a theme that has become central to the politics of gender equality (Gornick and Meyers 2008; Haas and Rostgaard 2011; Hobson 2002; Kamerman and Moss 2009).

Revisiting Representation: Communism, Women in Politics, and the Decline of Armed Conflict in East Asia

This research note evaluates one of the commonly used measurements for political gender equality: representation of women in parliaments. It demonstrates that caution is called for when interpreting results where this variable is used, because parliamentary representation implies different things in different settings. Societies with more women in parliament tend to have fewer intrastate armed conflicts. We investigate this statistical association with a particular focus on East Asia. This region has seen a shift from extremely intense warfare to low levels of battle deaths at roughly the same time as great strides have been made in the representation of women in parliaments. This research note shows, however, that this statistical association is driven by authoritarian communist regimes promoting gender equality as a part of communist ideology, and these countries’ representative chambers have little influence over politics. Using statistical tests and empirical illustrations from East Asia, the note concludes that the political representation of women is an invalid indicator of political gender equality in East Asia. There is thus a need for nuance in assessing the picture painted in earlier research. In addition, the suggestion that more women in parliament will lead to fewer armed conflicts runs the risk of being forwarded as an oversimplified solution to a complex problem, and we briefly discuss the instrumentalization of gender equality in peace and security studies.

Gender Equality in International Aid: What has Norwegian Gender Politics Got to Do With It?

Norway is often seen as a “world champion” in gender equality. Norwegian aid policies on gender often emphasize how lessons can be learned from “the Norwegian model” and experiences. This article explores the extent to which Norway’s domestic gender policies have influenced the country’s aid policies. The analysis, which is based on literature review of Norwegian gender equality history and discursive analysis of the current gender and aid policy documents, reveals that the essence of Norwegian domestic gender equality politics—social policies that address the relationship between care and breadwinning—is largely missing in Norway’s aid policies. While we doubt whether a specific model can be exported, we suggest that Norwegian experiences may provide valuable inputs for development aid policies. Since Norwegian aid policies tend to reflect the dominating international aid discourse, our analysis has relevance beyond the particular Norwegian case. We argue that policies of care, motherhood and fatherhood, should be at the heart of the Norwegian and international aid policies.

Transnational Spaces of Care: Migrant Nurses in Norway

This article argues that international nurse recruitment from Latvia to Norway is not a win–win situation. The gains and losses of nurse migration are unevenly distributed between sender and receiver countries. On the basis of empirical research and interviews with Latvian nurses and families they left behind, this article argues that nurse migration transforms families and communities and that national health services now become global workplaces. Some decades ago feminist research pointed to the fact that the welfare state was based on a male breadwinner family and women’s unpaid production of care work at home. Today this production of unpaid care is “outsourced” from richer to poorer countries and is related to an emergence of transnational spaces of care. International nurse recruitment and global nurse care chains in Norway increasingly provide the labor that prevents the new adult worker model and gender equality politics from being disrupted in times where families are overloaded with elder care loads.

S.J.RES30: The Equal Representation Act of 2011

We have reached a new age in gender equality. Our grandmothers recall times of discrimination and submission while their granddaughters have become world leaders in business, science and most importantly politics. But are the incredible achievements of women like Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, undermined by the lack of women coming up the political ranks? As a nation, fiercely proud of their stand on human rights, America is lagging behind on political gender equality. Enfranchisement is more than a right to vote and with women making up only 17% of Congress, America is placed 69 th in the world for percentage of women in the national legislature. Women offer vital perspectives and experiences that are crucial in law making and governance. Yet despite years of grassroots gender equality work, they continue to be underrepresented in decision making bodies. As the momentum of grassroots organizing arguable fades, our current law makers must take more responsibility for ensuring women’s political significance in the future. This paper proposes a legislative answer to the political gender divide. Positioned as a legislative to proposal to California Senator Barbara Boxer, this paper suggests political parties adopt a voluntary quota, to motivate, mentor and financially support potential female candidates in order to address the dismal representation of women in federal government. This paper looks at the political and social implications of this legislation, works from existing legislative structures both American and abroad and foresees the opposition and passage of legislation through the current Congress. The movement for gender equality needs a jump start, could that catalyst come from legislation itself?

Investigating political equality: The example of gender and political participation in Sweden

A common thought is that political participation must be equally high among different social groups – such as women and men or various socioeconomic groups – in order for political equality to be fulfilled. This approach has, however, been criticized for being too crude. Several scholars argue that one must also study the reasons behind group differences in participation. If these differences are explained by differences in resources – and not political motivation – political equality is threatened, as this points to structural inequalities determining participatory differences. Using this perspective, I make an empirical investigation into the political participation of women and men in Sweden, a country known for unusually far-reaching political gender equality. In spite of this, men devote more of their political activities to areas of production, such as questions relating to working life, and I find that this difference may be explained by a male advantage in political resources (civic skills, primarily). The conclusion is that political equality has not yet been fully realized between women and men in Sweden. Hence, future studies should consider separating between different policy areas, when empirically evaluating the status of political equality. Quantitative methods are used in the empirical analyses.

Feminism och jämställdhet i en nyliberal kontext 1990-2010

The article discusses the relationship between gender equality politics and the advancement of neo-liberalism in Sweden from the 1980s–90s. As theoretical starting point serves a discussion by Nancy Fraser, concerning the relationship between feminism and neo-liberalism, and her fears that capitalism has co-opted the feminist agenda, in fact putting feminism in the service of market-liberalism. From many perspectives, it is evident that Swedish society, like so many in the Western world, has been subjected to the forces of market logic, imbuing the politics from conservatism to social-democracy alike. To what extent has this development affected feminism on the one hand, and gender equality politics on the other? Do we detect a new kind of liberal feminism? A neo-liberal feminism? The article makes use of empirical evidence concerning the current politics on behalf of the Liberal-Conservative Swedish Government to promote female entrepreneurship. Three political areas with relevance for both gender equality and the issue of female entrepreneurship are investigated: the future of the public welfare sector, the issue of tax-deduction for household services, and, finally, gender quotas and women on company boards. While promoting a politics where the market is increasingly substituted for the public welfare-sector, and offered as a solution in most political areas, the Liberal-Conservatives of today have nevertheless embraced a feminist rhetoric. Acknowledging the forces of ‘the gender powerorder’ and structural inequality is now a standard feature within liberal gender equality politics. This political merger between feminism and neo-liberal politics may be interpreted as just paying lip-service; as a way of reconciling a long tradition of consensus surrounding gender equality with the overall neo-liberal aim of transforming the entire society along market principles. But, we may also see a neo-liberal feminism in its own right, intent on expanding the field of gender equality to enterprise, ownership and economic power.

Jämställdhet, meritokrati och kvalitet - Ett triangeldrama i den akademiska vardagen

In Sweden, the issue of gender equality in higher education and research has been on the agenda since women entered universities in significant numbers more than 40 years ago. Several political initiatives have been taken, which have been crucial to enhanced gender equality but, at the same time, they have been essentially contested in academia itself. In this article we analyse how specific logics, based on the culture of academic research, are hard to reconcile with logics based on political justice that govern the politics of gender equality. Secondly, gender equality is often understood today as concerning knowledge produced by research. Ever since the 1970s, the two lines of development — more women in academia and more gender studies — have been intertwined in Swedish research policy. Support for female-dominated research fields like gender studies has been perceived as supporting gender equality in higher education. Gender studies have, in many ways, benefited from this support but, at the same time, reduced the field to being a matter of gender equality, rather than a research area in its own right. Consequently, gender studies in Sweden have been challenged from other disciplinary perspectives by those who claim that they represent not research, but a political endeavor to bring about gender equality. Without a clear distinction between methods of improving conditions both for women researchers and for gender research, the two will be conflated. This confusion is problematic not only for women involved in gender research but for the field itself. Supporting gender studies may be dismissed as political and incompatible with academic doxa and self-understanding. On the other hand, favoring women in the name of gender equality is incompatible with the understanding of fairness, which forms the meritocratic order in academia.

Statsfeminismens møte med næringslivet – Bakgrunnen og gjennombruddet for kjønnskvotering i bedriftsstyrer som politisk reform

Gender quotas are increasingly used as a tool for achieving gender equality worldwide. Nevertheless quotas are still perceived as controversial. In 2003, the Norwegian Parliament adopted a legal amendment introducing a 40 percent gender quota to boards of directors in state owned companies, and also, in public limited companies (PLC). The fact that PLCs were included was particularly controversial, given the widespread feeling that private ownership rights were under threat as a result. The controversy was further fuelled by the fact that a liberal/conservative government played a leading role putting forward the draft legislation.This thesis is based in the controversy over the quota legislation and presents a qualitative, empirical study of how gender quotas on corporate boards were formulated and staged as a policy reform. The empirical material examined consists of policy documents, procedure documents, transcripts of parliamentary debates, media texts, opinion pieces, as well as qualitative interviews with key politicians and officers in the ministries associated with the reform process. Actors, actions and events relevant to the reform are mapped out with an analytical focus on sociocultural processes, argumentation and the production of meaning. Theoretically, the thesis draws on Science and Technology Studies, Actor Network Theory and discourse theory.The overarching aim of the empirical analysis, presented in four independent research articles, has been to challenge common beliefs about how gender equality politics are developed. The first paper discusses the use of State Feminism as an explanatory model for new gender equality initiatives, and argues that the making of the reform involved a set of complex processes within a broad range of societal arenas. Especially significant was what I have called “business feminism”, namely work and chains of action established within the industrial sector. The second article is a comparative study of arguments in favor of gender quotas in PLCs and in the Federation of Norwegian Agricultural Co-operatives. In the latter case, gender quotas were introduced voluntarily, as opposed to the case of the PLCs, where quota measures were enforced by politicians. In both cases, the main line of argument focused on what was in “the best interest of the companies”, and, as such, the discourse of gender equality was silenced. The third article investigates the administrative work of crafting the bases for decision making and communication strategies. The analysis shows how the process was characterized by pragmatic arguments and by considerations related to industry relevance. Research was used to support claims that gender balance would increase profits. The final paper contextualizes the previous findings related to the way gender and equality were avoided as explicit topics in the policy making process. An analysis of contemporary media debates on the concept of feminism shows that state feminism is under pressure from various sides and that antifeminism is profiting from this onslaught.Overall, the thesis contributes to an ongoing debate on the need for developing new theoretical and analytical perspectives on gender equality politics. Feminist analysis of politics has traditionally focused on the imbalance in gender power and on the reproduction of gendered stereotypes. This thesis proposes an analytical approach to gender which recognizes the ambivalence and changing meanings of gender throughout the policy making process.

Disentangling gender, peace and democratization: the negative effects of militarized masculinity

This article investigates, both theoretically and empirically, the relationships between democratization, gender equality and peace. We argue that there is a need to scrutinize both the level of democracy as well as the level of masculine hegemony in societies. Methodologically, we use a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses to support our argument. We employ regression analysis to show that the relationship between the extent of democracy and the representation of women in politics appears, at first glance, to be non-existent but turns out to be a curvilinear one. We also show that democracy can facilitate peace, but only in interaction with the level of political gender equality, so that more democratic societies are more peaceful only if there have been moves to gender equality. Our interpretation of these findings is illustrated by the contemporary politics of Thailand. Recent political violence in southern Thailand can be accounted for in the context of it being only partly democratized, where a culture of militarized masculinity persists alongside with, and even within, democratic institutions. Such a culture makes it both difficult for women to enter the political sphere, despite democratic elections, and fosters political violence.

Les effets directs de la loi sur l'égalité des genres (2000–2010)

The law that institutes gender equality in politics was voted into effect on June 6, 2000. For the past 10 years, France has held several different levels of elections. So, we can now draw certain lessons from this law that has instituted gender quotas in all elections and has shaken up the political landscape of France. This article seeks to answer three questions: Where did this law come from? How has this law succeeded in getting around the opposition to communitarianism? What are the consequences of this law on the elected assemblies? In conclusion, what is the future of this concept of gender equality in other spheres of French society?La loi qui instaure la parite en politique a ete votee le 6 juin 2000. Depuis dix ans la France a connu plusieurs scrutins a tous les niveaux. On peut donc aujourd'hui tirer certains enseignements de cette loi qui a instaure des quotas d'egalite homme-femme dans toutes les elections et chamboule le paysage politique francais. Cet article veut repondre a trois questions...

Lombardo (Emanuela), Meier (Petra), Verloo (Mieke), eds – The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality. Stretching, Bending and Policymaking . – Oxon, Routledge, 2009 (ECPR Studies in European Political Science). 222 p. Index

Lombardo (Emanuela), Meier (Petra), Verloo (Mieke), eds – The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality. Stretching, Bending and Policymaking . – Oxon, Routledge, 2009 (ECPR Studies in European Political Science). 222 p. Index

Discursive Dynamics in Gender Equality Politics

Discursive dynamics play an important role in shaping the meanings of gender equality. The article discusses the relation between hegemonic discourses on gender equality policies and feminist taboos. It suggests that feminist scholars could paradoxically be trapped in hegemonic discourses on gender equality policies that may lead to taboos about particular approaches to and interpretations of such policies. Three main feminist hegemonic discourses are considered to act as taboos. They deal with the possibility to overcome patriarchy, the role of elites and other groups of actors in processes of gender transformation and the merits of incremental change. The article further discusses the implications of the postulate about hegemonic discourses and taboos on gender equality for feminist knowledge production and reflects on the potential of Bacchi’s notion of ‘reflexivity’ to overcome them.