Sweden's reputation as a 'good' gender sensitive state is based on its commitment to women within and beyond borders, a process that I have defined as gender cosmopolitanism elsewhere. This narrative rests on a wish to emancipate all women in a fashion that does not discriminate on intersectional grounds. There is an intertextual relationship between Sweden's promotion of gender equality at home and abroad. This paper explores this nexus by unpacking its cosmopolitan and communitarian roots. It argues that while the Swedish story of gender cosmopolitanism is universal there are clear signs of typically communitarian values being privileged at the expense of cultural subjectivities within and beyond borders. Meanwhile, Sweden fails its own women, with wage disparities and gendered violence, including honorary crimes, figuring in society. The paper investigates these inconsistencies and argues that Sweden's gender narrative might be better described as a story of 'cosmunitarianism'.
