“Paradoxes of (In)Equality. Something is Rotten in the Gender Equal State of Sweden.”

• This article analyzes how gender equality, paradoxically, has helped produce one unifying identity of the state of Sweden while simultaneously 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 economically. However, this equality discourse has also become implicated in a new inequality, namely the hierarchical categorization of the population 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.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Globaliseringsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Globalisation Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

constructivism; gender; immigrants; state identity; Sweden; women

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)