Paradoxes of (In)Equality
| Published date | 01 June 2002 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836702037002975 |
| Date | 01 June 2002 |
| Author | ANN TOWNS |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Paradoxes of (In)Equality
Something is Rotten in the Gender Equal
State of Sweden
ANN TOWNS
ABSTRACT
This article analyzes how gender equality, paradoxically, has helped
produce one unifying identity of the state of Sweden while simultane-
ously creating divisions within that state. In the 1990s, Sweden came to
understand itself as the gender equality champion internationally,
having come the ‘furthest’ in empowering women politically and eco-
nomically.However, this equality discourse has also become implicated
in a new inequality, namely the hierarchical categorization of the pop-
ulation of Sweden into ‘Swedes’ and ‘immigrants’. The article shows
that simultaneous with Sweden becoming the ‘gender equal state’ vis-
à-vis other states, representations of gender unequal ‘immigrants’ have
become prominent.
Keywords: constructivism; gender; immigrants; state identity; Sweden;
women
‘In Sweden, we have come far by international comparison; in fact, we have
come the farthest in the world. We gladly share our experiences, we readily
export our Swedish model for gender equality.’ (Government communication
on gender equality policy: Skr,1999/2000: 24, p.6)
On 1 January 2001, Sweden assumed the presidency of the Council of
Ministers of the European Union. For the presidency,Sweden had declared
gender equality a prioritized goal to permeate all other issue areas.1
European ministers were accordingly invited to a ‘Gender Equality and
Social Security’ conference as the very first meeting of the Swedish presi-
dency in January. Before the gathering, Minister of Gender Equality
Margareta Winberg declared her ambition to export ‘Swedish daycare’ and
the ‘Nordic model’ of social insurance and taxation, which are based on the
individual rather than on the family (Göteborgsposten, 24 January 2001).
As part of the preparations for the presidency, gender equality had been
declared part of the state’s effort to ‘exhibit Swedish culture in Europe’
(eu2001.se, 2001:16). As a component of the ‘new picture of Sweden to be
Cooperation and Conflict: Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association
Vol.37(2): 157–179. Copyright ©2002 NISA
Sage Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
0010-8367[200206]37:2;157–179;023975
launched during the Swedish presidency of the EU’, a photo exhibit of
gender equality was displayed in the European Council, coupled with a
series of seminars on gender equality, for the duration of the presidency
(Göteborgsposten, 5 October 2000). Sweden has come ‘far’,we learn on the
presidency web site; in fact, farthest in the world in the area of gender
equality.
In June 2000, readers of Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden’s second largest
daily newspaper, were informed about a meeting on masculinity, gender
equality and power in the family in Hallonbergen outside Stockholm
(Svenska Dagbladet, ‘Manligheten.Vem skall ha makten i familjen?’ 6 June
2000). The Bosnian Islamic Congregation had invited members of the
‘Dialogue Project’ of Swedish Save the Children, a project aimed at
opening spaces for discussion on gender equality among various immigrant
groups.In the extensive article, we learn that Swedish men, like the Swedish
state, have come ‘far’ in the area of gender equality. ‘Many Swedish men
may have a confused picture of masculinity’, the reader is told, ‘but they
have come a long way when it comes to gender equality and an expanded
male role.They have a lot to give to men from strongly patriarchal cultures,
if only there were meeting points’. Just as gender equality sets aside the
Swedish state from other states, the article informs us that gender equality
characterizes the Swedish, in contrast to the non-Swedish,male residents of
the country:
On one side, there were two representatives for a modern, Swedish, well
thought out attitude to gender equality,which few Swedish men probably live
up to in reality.On the other side 30 Muslim men and a (quiet) veiled woman
from Bosnia who has probably hardly begun questioning her traditional
views.
The aim of this article is to demonstrate that jämställdhet — gender
equality2— has become an important terrain on which both Swedish state
identity and ethnic subjectivities in Sweden are negotiated. Critical con-
structivists have long argued that the practice of foreign policy entails
identity-forming processes that help differentiate states from one another.
This article shows that, paradoxically, the very foreign policy processes that
reproduce the state as a unified actor may simultaneously create and sus-
tain divisions within the state. At the same time as Sweden emerged as a
gender-equal state in the mid-1990s, I contend, gender equality became a
salient terrain of differentiation between people residing in Sweden,
between ‘immigrants’ and ‘Swedes’.To make this claim, I trace the shifting
representations of ‘immigrants’ in the Swedish media and academia since
the Second World War, showing that it was not until Sweden emerged as a
gender-equal state that gender inequality was regularly presented as a char-
acteristic of the ‘culture’ of ‘immigrants’.
The rest of the article is divided into three sections.The first provides a
brief treatment of the notion of state identities, coupled with a brief back-
ground elaboration on ethnicity in Sweden and a note on methodology.
For present purposes,the second section provides a truncated discussion of
158 COOPERATION AND CONFLICT 37(2)
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