Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Scandinavian welfare states Denmark, Norway and Sweden have gained a reputation for being exceptionally mindful to demands for gender equality and fair representation in public and private life, and true enough their national parliaments and governments display a higher level of female representation than other western states. However, we need look no further than to the countries' company boardrooms to detect a more varied picture, where men are the key decision-makers and women confined to the periphery. The picture is equally alarming if we look at theoverrepresentation of women amongst public sector workers. It would therefore seem that the most gender aware societies in the world are themselves tainted by inequalities between men and women. In sum, then there are inconsistencies in Scandinavian discourses and practices on gender equality. Yet, a close examination of the discursive framing of Scandinavian foreign policy demonstrates that gender equality is a key marker informing all three countries' internationalist commitments beyond border. This paper investigates the domestic construction of Scandinavian foreign policy by exploring the role of gender in the process. In so doing, it asks whether the high representation of women in national parliaments and governments in Scandinavia matters in the framing of Scandinavian internationalism and, secondly, whether foreign policy outcomes and preferences are an outflow of socially constructed values and norms at the domestic level. More significantly, to what extent do remaining structural gender inequalities at the domestic level obstruct efforts to empower women in other parts of the world? This paper seeks to answer these questions through a critical social constructivist framework. The paper also takes issue with liberal perspectives on feminist IR scholarship, and in doing so critically takes on board the liberal "add women and stir" argument by pointing to flaws in this way of reasoning in the Scandinavian context.