Indhold : Nr. 2 : Årgang 10 : 2007
Tema
Ligestillingsforståelser i danske og svenske partier
- Er en borgerig ligestillingsdiskurs under udvikling?
by Drude Dahlerup
Feminism, research evidence and the politics of work-life balance
af Catherine Hakim
Oprindeligt var der nogle sure lebber, der hadede mænd
- Feminisme som myte og historie
af Rikke Andreasen
Hvad har mænd og ligestilling med hinanden at gøre?
af Kenneth Reinicke
Mænd, køn, sundhed og sygdom
by Svend Aage Madsen
Dansk ligestillingspolitik efter år 2000
- Mainstream, hovedstrøm eller stilstand?
by Karen Sjørup
Dansk ligestillingspolitik - visioner og paradokser
af Anette Borchorst
Multikulturalisme, medborgerskab og køn
- Nye ligestillingsdilemmaer
by Birte Siim
Bogomtaler
Køn
Da den daværende social- og ligestillingsminister, Henriette Kjær, tiltrådte i 2001, erklærede hun, at ligestillingen i Danmark var noget nær total. Mænd og kvinders muligheder i samfundet var nu så ens, at man kunne betragte kønskampen som veloverstået. Men havde hun ret? Har vi virkelig her i d. 21. århundrede opnået de mål, som kvindebevægelsen startede i 1960’erne? Hvis man sammenligner vores daværende ligestillingsministers svar på dette spørgsmål med de dominerende politiske toner i Sverige, viser der sig en mærkelig uoverensstemmelse med det land, vi normalt ynder at sammenligne os med. På den anden side af sundet er man dybt bekymret for ligestillingens udvikling. Man hører ingen erklærer, at ligestilling er opnået. Tværtimod er der på begge sider af det politiske spekter enighed om, at der er meget lang vej endnu, før man med rette kan anse kønnene for ligestillede. Hvordan skal vi forstå dette? Har vi erklæret kampen for vundet, længe før den overhovedet kom rigtigt i gang? Eller er vi måske kommet meget længere i kampen for ligestilling, end svenskerne har indset? Er kønskampen overhovedet relevant – og har vi i virkeligheden allerede opnået, hvad vi kan på området? Er der, som den tidligere ligestillingsminister mente, ikke mere at kæmpe for?
I dette nummer af Tidsskriftet Politik gør vi status på kønskamp, ligestilling og feminisme i dagens Danmark. Vi ser nærmere på, hvor langt vi er kommet i bestræbelserne på at opnå ligestilling, hvilken rolle mændene spiller og har spillet, og om der overhovedet er behov for yderligere tiltag. Så søger vi også en forklaring på, hvorfor kønskampen er et brændende politisk emne i Sverige, mens man nærmest fremstår komisk, hvis man erklærer sig for feminist i dagens Danmark.
Abstracts:
Perceptions of Equality in Swedish and Danish Political Parties.
Drude Dahlerup,
Professor, http://www.statsvet.su.se/
Statsvetenskapliga Institutionen,
The new difference in perceptions of equality between Swedish and Danish political parties is analyzed based on the opening speeches of the governments and their party programmes. The Swedish government from 2006 seems to represent a new bourgeois equality policy, in which neo-liberal proposals are presented as instrumental to the equality between men and women. In contrast, the Danish bourgeois government party only talks about structural discrimination concerning immigrant women.
Feminism, research evidence and the politics of work-life balance
Catherine Hakim,
Sociology Department,
London School of Economics
The three main inputs to the policy process are: ideology (politicians), information (social scientists) and the special arguments of interest groups (civil society). Feminist debate stimulated a huge increase in research on women, but has now become essentially ideological. Preference theory is the only contemporary theory that exposes and addresses female heterogeneity, and the political conflict between groups of women that weaken women's representation in politics and policy debates. Preference theory also predicts that complete sex equality is unattainable in the labour market and the public sphere, but it helps us to see that gender equality is not synonymous with symmetrical social roles for men and women. In addition, structural factors in the labour market and politics suggest that women are unlikely to achieve half of all the highest status and highest paid positions, even in the long run. This conception of 'gender equality' is driven by wishful thinking rather than reality.
Originally it was some angry dykes who hated men.
– Feminism as myth and history
Rikke Andreasen
Ph.d., Lektor
Konst, kultur och kommunikation
Malmö Högskola
Through interviews with 40 Danes, this article throws light on Danes’
collective memories of the women’s movement(s) and feminism. It compares the memories with the history of the women’s movement(s) and with societal changes in the 1960s and 1970s, and concludes that there are severe discrepancies between the history and the collective memories. The article also shows how the interviewees mainly associate feminism with negativity; the interviewees connect feminism with angry women, lesbianism, mannish women, rigidity, etc. Finally, the article discusses if the lack of historical knowledge of the women’s movement(s) and the negative associations of feminism can explain why the interviewees do not identify as feminists as well as explain why gender equality is often considered an individual task in Denmark.
What do men and gender equality have to do with each other?
Kenneth Reinicke, lektor, Ph.d.
Institut for Samfund og Globalisering
Roskilde Universitetscenter
Why is it so difficult to raise a serious public debate about men and gender equality? In this article it is argued that there are some particular conditions dominating the issue men and gender equality, which are crucial to understand. Men are not socialized to talk about gender issues and therefore some men do not perceive gender equality as a right, but instead as power and privileges they have to hand over to women. The article puts light on both controversial dimensions of men’s life as violence and prostitution and more positive aspects such as men as fathers. It is argued that an important change in masculinity has happened, although sometimes the cultural expectations about men and gender equality are changing faster than the actual practices of men. The article concludes that if we shall raise men’s interest in gender equality issues, it is necessary to emphasize, that men are paying a high prize reproducing traditional male values, and that men have more to win by adopting more modern forms of masculinity.
Men, gender, health and diseases
Svend Aage Madsen, ph.d., chefpsykolog og klinikchef, Rigshospitalet. Forskningsleder for Psykologisk og Psykosocial Forskningsenhed, Rigshospitalet.
Men have not until now been seen as a gender in health sciences while men’s health at the same time has not been discussed in gender studies. Men’s Health as an interdisciplinary science looks at any issue arising from physiological, psychological, social or environmental factors having a specific impact on boys or men, including men as fathers. Men’s Health works with areas where particular interventions are required for boys or men in order to achieve improvements in health and well-being at either the individual or the population level. Analysing health care systems from this perspective we find inequalities regarding men’s life expectancy, which is unnecessarily low and men’s death rates at all ages, which are unacceptably high. We also find that men’s use of health services and health information is generally poor, and the delivery of healthcare and information is often not appropriate for men. This case of men, usually the ‘hegemonic’ gender, being underprivileged in healthcare and as fathers is presented in the article.
Danish gender politics after the year 2000
- Mainstreaming, mainstream or stagnation?
Karen Sjørup,
Lektor, Institut for Samfund og Globalisering
Roskilde Universitetscenter
In this article it is argued that the strategy of gender mainstreaming has become the main strategy in national and international public gender policy. Nevertheless it still seems that the strategy is incapable of showing convincing success. There are a number of specific reasons why this is happening. In Denmark gender equality policies have not been able to achieve a position of a hegemonial discourse and thereby are still lacking both resources and power positions in order to achieve success. It seems that the fact that the gender equality act placing the gender mainstreaming strategy is a central position in Danish policies was passed by the former government coalition disfavour the ability of the strategy to attract the hegemonial political positions. The article discusses a recent evaluation of the governmental gender mainstreaming efforts and argues that the framework, resources and power positions of this strategy have not matched the ambitious goals, causing these not to succeed.
Danish gender equality – political visions and paradoxes
Anette Borchorst
Lektor, Institut for Historie, Internationale Studier og Samfundsforhold, Aalborg Universitet.
The article critically addresses the Danish gender equality success in relation to three normative visions of gender equality. The scope and significance of policies of gender equality and childcare policies, which have been part of international policy recommendations for achieving gender equality, are compared and explained by varying timing and sequence.
Multiculturalism, citizenship and gender – new dilemmas of equality
Birte Siim
Professor,
Institut for Historie, Internationale Studier og Samfundsforhold,
Aalborg Universitet
The article discusses the new multicultural challenges citizenship and gender equality illustrated by the new equality dilemmas with a focus on the tensions between principles about equal treatment of women and men, gender equity on the one hand and the principle about recognition of cultural diversity equal on the other hand. The article first looks at how the political theoretical debates address the tensions between gender equality and multiculturalism are addressed. Secondly, it looks at how problems between equality and cultural recognition of ethnic minority women are addressed in liberal democracies. One example is the debate about Muslim women’s headscarves in European democracies. Another is the debate about multiculturalism and gender equality in the Nordic democracies. The focus is here on research about dilemmas in the citizenship of ethnic minority women in Denmark. Finally the article discusses, how the tensions between universalism and particularism and between individual and collective rights can be overcome, and it discusses concrete examples of how the tensions can be addressed from a Scandinavian context.