Undoing the Regional Demos? Gender Equality and Economic Growth in Regional Development

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussions about the relationship between feminism and neoliberalism and the status of feminist emancipatory claims in marketized policy fields. My approach has been to analyse gender equality work within the highly marketized field of regional development in Sweden with a specific interest for how the convergence of the policy goals of gender equality and economic growth is represented by gender equality workers and to discuss the status of feminist emancipatory claims in this policy field. The analysis consists of articulating three representations of the relationship between gender equality and economic growth, characterized by various degrees of conflict: reciprocity, co-optation and Trojan horses. However, none of the representations articulate open emancipatory claims as legitimate within the field of regional development. Thus, the study shows gender equality in its relationship to economic growths renders emancipatory claims illegitimate unless beneficial for economic growth or hidden trough marketized language or logics.

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberalism
• feminism
• regional development
• Sweden
• gender equality

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällsfrågor [Studies of civil Society 2015].

Notes on contributors

Tomas Mitander

Tomas Mitander is a senior lecturer in Political Science at Karlstad University. His research interest revolves around the marketization of politics, the governing of space and issues of justice.