Gender: Where we stand and what we are heading at  Karen Sjørup  Associate professor, Sociology  Roskilde University  Presentation for ”Humanities in Action”  DIS, Copenhagen June 2013

 Most people think that we already have achieved gender equality  Gender equality is seen as a 1970’s case  Neo-liberal resistance to gender policies, people should choose for themselves!  It is a trend to care more about boys and men as the victims of gender equality  Queer policies General in DK

 DK 7th rank in the Global Gender Gap (Sweden 4)  77 pct. women in the labour force, 83 pct. men (almost as Sweden 77/82)  Wage gap 73 Sweden 69  Legislators, senior officials and managers, DK 24% women(rank 78), Sweden 32% women (rank 45)  Women in parliament DK 45%, Sweden 45%  Maternity leave DK 52 weeks, 2 weeks for fathers, Sweden 480 days, 60 days each parent Where we stand

 Equality for men:  Health,  father’s leave,  Boys dropping out of education  Marginalised men  Equality for women:  Activate all talents  Quotas for executive boards  Battered women  Immigrant women  Criminalising prostitution (customers) Where is the political gender equality discourse right now, in Denmark?

 To make politicians prioritize gender equality  to make cooperation between the actors  to make people understand that inequality is not a matter of biology  to fight neoliberal resistance to gender equality  To make gender equality policies less ad hoc and subject to shifting trends  To maintain welfare services in spite of the economic crisis - especially day care What are some of the most pressing challenges and obstacles in order to achieve gender equality?

 Sector 4 is addressing the obligation of public authorities to gender mainstream all laws and activities.  it is not working  a new initiative will be launched in March  Especially the majority of municipalities are not working with it and only few ministries Mainstreaming: Section 4 of the Gender Equality Act?

 There should be an overall discussion in each field of where equality policies is not working  there should be priorities made, although the gender mainstreaming strategy is not focusing on making priorities  there should be much more obligatory demands to gender mainstream new laws in order to safeguard the quality of laws. example: Personal taxation reform. ? How should parliamentarians incorporate gender equality into their diverse responsibilities

 Father’s share of maternity leave min. 3 months  Gender research should be actively used  Equal pay should be set on the agenda – again  more focus on the lives of ‘ordinary’ women, low wages, few career opportunities, time bind  Intersectionality, more focus on intersection between gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and social class  Queer Where are we heading at?