211 Afterword: rethinking gender equality Lena Martinsson, Gabriele Griffin, Katarina Giritli Nygren Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity. /…/. When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. (Adichie, 2009) In her lecture ‘The danger of a single story’, author Chimamanda
Introduction In this chapter, we will look in more detail at the Universal Model and Partnership Model of providing childcare. We will seek to answer three main questions: 1. What is it about these models of childcare that leads to better gender equality? a) How do the different elements work? b) What are the ideas, institutions and actors that make it work? c) What could make these models of childcare not work to improve gender equality? 2. What aspects of these models of childcare could be transferred to other national contexts? a) What
The relationship between gender and welfare states is of key importance in understanding welfare states and gender equality and inequality. Western welfare states of the post-war era were built on assumptions about gender difference: they treated men as breadwinners and women as carers. Now governments are committed in principle to gender equality. But how far have they come from male breadwinner assumptions to gender equality assumptions? How much do gender differences continue in UK social policy and social practice?
The book analyses the male breadwinner model in terms of power, employment, care, time and income, providing a framework for chapters which ask about policies and practices for gender equality in each of these. This new approach to analysis of gender equality in social welfare contextualises national policies and debates within comparative theoretical analysis and data, making the volume interesting to a wide audience.
With gender equality so prominent in public debate, this timely book reviews the impacts of gender mainstreaming on political, social and cultural issues around Europe.
It explores the origins and evolution of mainstreaming, the theory’s contribution to gender equality legislation so far and its potential to drive change in the future. Drawing on extensive data, the book compares and contrasts progress in various European countries, taking into account the multidimensionality of gender equality. Finally, the book considers the limits of gender mainstreaming amid economic, migration and political challenges.
This important book is a welcome contribution to discussions about gender equality in European societies looking at the interplay of policies, culture and public opinion.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Drawing on comparative research from five countries, What Works in Improving Gender Equality provides an accessible analysis of what gender equality means and how we can achieve it by adapting best practices in care policies from other countries.
Realistic policy solutions are reached by examining the contexts in which childcare and longterm care policies are developed, and what difficulties might need to be overcome in applying the lessons from different international models.
Gender equality is often seen as a hallmark of the Nordic countries. This book explores this notion by examining the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today.
The book focuses on three Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - and explores the policy reforms that have occurred relating to family and care. Beginning with the radical marriage reform carried through in all the three countries in the early decades of the 20th century, the book progresses to explore contemporary challenges to the traditional model of equality, including equal rights for fathers, multiculturalism and a critical young generation. The book focuses on differences as well as similarities between the countries and discusses the relevance of talking about a Nordic model.
Stressing the importance of viewing the concept of equality in its historical context, the book critically investigates and discusses the Scandinavian ‘success story’ portrayed in normative political theory and presents an historical analysis of the development of gendered citizenship rights.
It will be a valuable collection for researchers, lecturers and graduate students who work with historical and contemporary studies on welfare state and gender models from different disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives.
Sweden is often considered one of the most gender-equal countries in the world and held up as a model to follow, but the reality is more complex. This is the first book to explode the myth of Swedish gender equality, both offering a new perspective for an international audience, and suggesting how equality might be rethought more generally.
While the authors argue that the gender-equality mantra in Sweden has led to a society with increased opportunities for some, they also assert that the dominant norm of gender equality has become nationalistic and builds upon heteronormative and racial principles. Examining the changing meanings and parameters of gender equality against the country’s social-democratic tradition and in the light of contemporary neoliberal ideologies, the book constitutes an urgent contribution to the debates about gender-equality policies and politics.
187 ELEVEN Gender equality: Parental Leave design and evaluating its effects on fathers’ participation Ann-Zofie Duvander, Guðný Björk Eydal, Berit Brandth, Ingólfur V. Gíslason, Johanna Lammi-Taskula and Tine Rostgaard Introduction The promotion of gender equality is a major aim behind many Parental Leave systems and an important part of the family policy discourse in all the Nordic countries, namely: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The extensive and well-paid leave rights for both men and women contribute to consistently placing these
49 TWO Normalisation meets governmentality: gender equality reassembled Katarina Giritli Nygren, Siv Fahlgren, Anders Johansson Introduction This chapter explores the ways in which discourses of gender equality have become intertwined with neoliberal discourses and policies in Sweden today and thus (re)assembled and (re)interpreted in different ways, and what this does to feminist theory. The Nordic countries in general have an enviable reputation for gender equality politics and practices, and an important aspect of the national self-image of Swedes is
Assessing gender equality and the development of instruments suitable to monitor it started to be recognised as a relevant area of research in 1995, when the World Conference on Women in Beijing addressed the issue of gender equality, introducing the concepts of empowerment and mainstreaming (UN, 1996 ). The conference identified 12 areas that are critical to women’s status globally, including health, education, poverty, decision making, economy, violence, armed conflicts, power and decision making. This boosted interest in developing gender statistics and
