Abstract
By analysing policies, party programmes and interviews with representatives of minority women’s organizations on gender equality and integration, this chapter explores how and why the dominant politics of gender equality defines Muslim/migrant women as an anomaly in need of reform, and how this politics is challenged. The chapter profits from theories on neoliberal governmentality, nationalism and racism, alongside queer scholarship. It shows how the dominant politics of gender equality operates to assimilate and/or exclude ‘the other’, and how the racialization of gender-equality deficiencies serves strategic functions. Moreover, the chapter reveals how neoliberal and right-wing ethno-nationalist parties converge in exploiting gender-equality deficits for labour-market, anti-Muslim, and welfare-chauvinist interests, and demonstrates how minority women’s organizations both resist and comply with these agendas.
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Notes
- 1.
I use the term ‘Muslim/migrant’ because policies and laws applying to migrant women are often implicitly designed to target Muslim women, although they also affect other groups of female migrants and native-born citizens. I employ the term ‘minority’ because this is commonplace in the Danish context, both in official documents and among organizations of migrant women. Obviously, power dynamics are involved in the construction of minority groups.
- 2.
Scholars have argued that the official policy term ‘integration’ conceals power asymmetries between the Danish state and migrant groups, as the latter are increasingly required to assimilate into a ‘Danish’ way of life and in so doing to abandon their distinctiveness (e.g. Mouritsen 2015).
- 3.
In June 2019, a Social-Democratic minority government, depending on the support of the Social-Liberal Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Red–Green Alliance took office, while The Danish People’s Party lost seats. Although the Social-Democratic Party signalled a ‘hard line’ on immigration prior to the election, it is an open question (November 2019 when finalizing this text) as to whether there will be a shift due to pressure from the more humanitarian supporting parties.
- 4.
Feminist scholars, particularly those from the Global South, approach nationalism in a different way. Key critiques focus on some Western feminisms’ complicities with Western imperialism and racism, which are oppressive to many women; and ignorance of feminism in the Global South, where feminist struggles sometimes become entangled with national liberation movements, and other times oppose national patriarchies (Jayawardena 1986; Grewal and Kaplan 1994).
- 5.
Recently, segments of the normalized, white, well-off lesbian/gay population have been inscribed into the institutions of family and nation (Puar 2006).
- 6.
See appendix.
- 7.
Gender-equality policies were introduced in Denmark in 1976. The Ministry of Equality was established as a separate policy unit in 1999 and issued its first Report and Action Plan in 2000/01.
- 8.
I refer to the interviews by these abbreviations.
- 9.
In Denmark, minority women’s groups and organizations act either outside or within state agendas, with only a few doing both.
- 10.
Because Bacchi’s method is based on the philosophical premises of governmentality studies, the criterion of consistency is safeguarded. A recent version of WPR (Bacchi and Goodwin 2016) adds the dimension of self-critique, which I bracket here.
- 11.
This included the Social-Democratic, Social-Liberal, Centre-Democratic and Christian-Democratic Parties.
- 12.
- 13.
On welfare chauvinism, see Jørgensen and Thomsen (2016).
- 14.
Currently, Muslim migrants are the main victims of racism, whereas many Eastern Europeans are able to pass as white (Lapina 2018).
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Appendix: Primary Sources
Appendix: Primary Sources
No. | Document title | Source | Year | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Manifesto of the Government: Growth, Welfare and Innovation | Prime Minister’s Department | 2001 | MPMD |
2. | Party Programme | Danish People’s Party | 2002 | DF |
3. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2001/02 | 2002 | RAGE | |
4. | Government’s Policy on Integration and Foreigners | Prime Minister’s Department (2003a) | 2003 | GPMD |
5. | Government’s Visions and Strategies for Better Integration | Prime Minister’s Department (2003b) | 2003 | GPMD |
6. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2002/03 | 2003 | RAGE | |
7. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2003/04 | 2004 | RAGE | |
8. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2004/05 | 2005 | RAGE | |
9. | Party Programme | Liberal Party | 2006 | V |
10. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2005/06 | 2006 | RAGE | |
11. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2006/07 | 2007 | RAGE | |
12. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2007/08 | 2008 | RAGE | |
13. | Party Programme | Danish People’s Party | 2009 | DF |
14. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2008/09 | 2009 | RAGE | |
15. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2009/10 | 2010 | RAGE | |
16. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2010/11 | 2011 | RAGE | |
17. | Women’s Programme 2007– | Ministry for Refugees, Migrants and Integration | 2011 | WMRMI |
18. | Party Programme | Conservative People’s Party | 2012 | KF |
19. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2014/15 | 2015 | RAGE | |
20. | Manifesto of the Government: For a Freer, Richer and Safer Denmark | Prime Minister’s Department | 2016 | MG |
21. | Party Programme | Liberal Alliance | 2016 | LA |
22. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2015/16 | 2016 | RAGE | |
23. | Party Programme | Danish People’s Party | 2017 | DF |
24. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2016/17 | 2017 | RAGE | |
25. | Report and Action Plan for Gender Equality 2017/18 | 2018 | RAGE |
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Stormhøj, C. (2021). ‘Danishness’, Repressive Immigration Policies and Exclusionary Framings of Gender Equality. In: Keskinen, S., Stoltz, P., Mulinari, D. (eds) Feminisms in the Nordic Region. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53464-6_5
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