Multidimensional equalities

Book review: 1. Anne Phillips: Multiculturalism without culture. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton Univ. Press 2007, 202 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-12944-0. 2. Judith Squires: The new politics of gender equality. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2007, 206 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-00769-7

Nødvendig – Nyttig – Rettferdig? Likestillingsargumenter i offentlig debatt

This article discusses the steadily stronger emphasize on diversity arguments which underscore ‘gender difference’ and diversity’s ‘utility’ as arguments in support of gender equality in Norwegian public debate. In both party political, femocratic and media mediated debates on gender equality, rights-based justifications seem largely to be replaced by a discourse prioritizing utility/profitability arguments. The article provides a series of examples of these strands of arguments in support of gender equality policies, and outlines a set of normative problems connected with the mixture of gender difference and utility based justifications. In contrast, we argue that comprehensions of ‘gender equality’ rather must be based on a principle of rights where understandings of gender differences are restricted to conditions for access: ‘an equal right to equal participation’. This discussion is supplemented with an analysis of attitudinal data from two surveys conducted as part of the Norwegian Power and Democracy Study (1998-2003), a large scale Elite Survey and a corresponding omnibus. One set of questions in both of these surveys asks people how they prioritize between different types of arguments in support of gender equality. The analysis indicates that the ‘diversity pays’ line of argumentation combined with a ‘rhetoric of difference’ mainly receives support on elite levels of Norwegian society

Tracks, intersections and dead ends

This article discusses multicultural challenges to state feminism in Denmark and Norway, focusing both on similarities and differences in the two countries policy responses. In spite of important differences, we point towards similar problems and dilemmas in the public responses to multiculturalism and diversity among women connected to a state feminist agenda that in both countries has been rather one-sided in its conception of what women-friendliness may imply. The first part of the paper expands on institutional `tracks': (Variations in) state feminist traditions, in religious traditions, and in the inclusion of organizations of civil society in political power. The second part explores the framing of the hijab as a political issue of `intersections' of gender equality versus religious belongings. The third part investigates what we see as a `dead end' in policy making to prevent violations of women's rights; that is the general, age based, restrictions on family unification as a means to combat forced marriages. Finally, we emphasise the importance of participatory women-friendly politics that include all who are affected by political decisions

Tracks, intersections and dead ends:State feminism and multicultural retreats in Denmark and Norway

International audienceThis article discusses multicultural challenges to state feminism in Denmark and Norway, focusing both on similarities and differences in the two countries policy responses. In spite of important differences, we point towards similar problems and dilemmas in the public responses to multiculturalism and diversity among women connected to a state feminist agenda that in both countries has been rather one-sided in its conception of what women-friendliness may imply. The first part of the paper expands on institutional `tracks': (Variations in) state feminist traditions, in religious traditions, and in the inclusion of organizations of civil society in political power. The second part explores the framing of the hijab as a political issue of `intersections' of gender equality versus religious belongings. The third part investigates what we see as a `dead end' in policy making to prevent violations of women's rights; that is the general, age based, restrictions on family unification as a means to combat forced marriages. Finally, we emphasise the importance of participatory women-friendly politics that include all who are affected by political decisions

Religious exemptions to equality

The political role of religious value systems poses a great challenge in the perspective of safeguarding women’s citizenship rights. This applies to all the contexts where religious law defines civil, political and social rights and obligations in a manner that systematically promotes differential treatment of women and men, girls and boys. It also applies within the framework of secular laws that protect religious freedom such that discrimination becomes a religious group right. My concern in this article is with the limits to equal citizenship that this latter kind of religious accommodation may pose. I discuss some well‐known commonalities between claims to group accommodation which follow from multiculturalism’s minority‐rights reasoning, and claims to accommodation which, quite independent of ‘minority’–‘majority’ statuses, follow from interpretations of the right to freedom of religion. Such accommodations are of particular relevance to the Norwegian state/religion regime, which forms the ‘case’ under discussion here. One specific aspect of citizenship is thus in focus: the contestations over the legal protection of women’s rights to non discrimination, when confronted with the protection of the right to religious freedom