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Honour has become an important concept in gender equality politics and research in the Nordic region during the last decade. The debate started after several young women were murdered by members of their family in minority environments. Politics responded quickly by implementing action plans and political measures against ‘honour-related violence’ and arranged marriages. The debate and politics also resulted in research within the area. Critical research shows that the media debate, politics, social measures and research risk turning young women into victims who are to be saved by the gender equal countries in the Nordic region. Young women with a minority background are thereby turned into political symbols. There are undoubtedly problems of gender equality in minority environments, but this is the case also in the majority society. Several researchers point to the danger of making too big difference between gender-related control and violence occurring in minority and in majority environments.
Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands make up the West Nordic region. Many women in the West Nordic remote rural areas acquire an education and move away, while the men – who have built their identities on being good hunters or fishermen – stay in the countryside. Both the financial crisis and climate change accelerate this developmental trend and create social problems which influence the equality between women and men.
In 2010 NIKK completed an extensive research project on gender and power in politics and the corporate world. While politics have become relatively gender-balanced in the Nordic countries, business life is still lagging behind. This has led to a debate on gender quotas for corporate boards. Norway and Iceland have introduced quota laws, while the other Nordic countries have taken a more reserved stance on such measures.
Contents NIKK magasin 3/2010
- Hijab Chique
Arranged marriages, genital mutilation, honour-related murders – and hijab. In the public debate, these tend to be treated as part of the same package. Why does the debate not focus on turbans, capes, caps – and hijabs? Or slimming, shaved legs, bridal veils – and hijab?
- Men against honour-related oppression
He was about to have his sister married off. Now Farman Sediq is involved in Sharaf hjältar (Sharaf heroes) and works to counter this culture of honour.“ I’m proud to be a Kurd from Iraq, but I’m also proud to stand for human rights.”
- “Immigrant girls” as a political symbol
The debate on honour-related violence over the last decade has engaged, mobilised and divided Swedish feminists within both the media and public gender equality politics. Two recent doctoral theses analyse the official Swedish policy on this issue and the consequences of the focus on the culture of honour.
- Hard to move in rural areas
Every other Icelandic woman has been beaten and nearly a quarter of women have experienced domestic violence, according to a major new study of Icelandic men’s violence against women.
- No longer the best in the world
The socio-political debate, the attention paid to gender equality issues and pressure from the women’s movement are crucial to progress in gender equality. This is one of the key results from NIKK’s research project on gender and power in politics and business.
- No quota law without crisis
When the law on joint stock companies was revised in the wake of the Icelandic financial collapse, the feminists of the Althing saw their chance. They seized the moment and added a paragraph on mandatory gender quotas for executive boards.
- Nation-centric masculinity ideals
“To genes, money and the future!” The quote is ascribed to an Icelandic tycoon in 2006. At the same time, it is the title of a presentation on a gender-theoretical account of the reasons for the decline and fall of the Icelandic financial sector.
- Family – a place of safety or oppression?
Women in the western part of the Nordic region depend heavily on family ties and romantic relationships as well as on the fact that the welfare system regards them as family members rather than individuals.
- Column: A worthwhile investment
Gender equality is a worthwhile investment, as it is a vital factor in the success and wellbeing of a nation; perhaps even the precondition for it, writes Stefan Wallin, Minister of Gender Equality Affairs in Finland.
