Feminist resistance and governance in the Nordic region

In June 2014, 20,000 women and some men gathered in Malmö, Sweden, at Nordiskt Forum Malmö, to ‘identify challenges and opportunities for the Nordic feminist movement, formulate political demands and reach out in solidarity to women around the world’ (Nordiskt Forum - New Actions on Women’s Rights Programme p.7). This was the third time a Nordiskt Forum was organized after twenty years of silence (the previous Nordiskt Forum were organized in Oslo 1988 and Åbo 1994). Does the mobilization in Malmö indicate a new wave (Evans 2015) of Nordic feminist movements? If so, which continuities and changes are we witnessing when comparing ‘new’ and previous feminist movements in the Nordic region? How are the current prospects and future possibilities of feminisms envisioned by Nordic self-identified feminists and movement activists? The aim of this paper is to investigate the current status of feminist resistance and governance in the Nordic region. Empirically, we take our starting point in the program and the final document of Nordiskt Forum Malmö 2014 and (when possible) its predecessor in Oslo 1988. These are used as cases of mobilization, and they facilitate a comparison over time. This enables us to challenge assumptions about resistance and governance in the Nordic region, which often are based on older research on state feminism and on the role of feminist movements in the individual countries and the Nordic region. Using Thomas and Davies’ (2005) ideas about liberal, structural and post-structural forms of resistance, and Kantola and Squires’ (2012) ideas about the transition from state feminism to market feminism, we ask three research questions: (1) which types of resistance can be recognized in the program and the final document of Nordiskt Forum Malmö/Oslo?; (2) Are - and if so how are - state feminism and market feminism recognizable?; (3) Which, if any, conclusions can be drawn about the current status of feminist resistance and governance in the Nordic countries? The Nordic gender political landscape has changed dramatically over the last fifty years, with the (partial) integration of women in economic and political institutions. The introduction of diversity policies and gender mainstreaming simultaneously with New Public Management and welfare state retrenchments, challenge feminist movements to consider more carefully the intersection of gender with different axes of inequalities (see Siim & Stoltz 2015; Stormhøj 2015; Nyhagen Predelli & Halsaa 2012; Fahlgren, Johansson & Mulinari 2011; Keskinen et.al.2009). The emergence of the European Union/European Economic Area, with a neoliberal framing of gender equality policies, and the advancements of gender issues in transnational financial institutions, the United Nations and NGOs (Roberts, 2014) have created a new, multiscalar context for feminist ideas, visions and movements. The global financial crisis has deepened the contextual change and exacerbated both inequalities and diversities. Market feminism offers new possibilities and restraints which involves challenges for feminist strategies and ideas about gender equality, social justice and solidarity at home and abroad. These challenges include questions as to the relevance of strategies of cooperation with and/or resistance to states, corporations and international organizations.