Transnational Perspectives on Nordic Gender Equality and Welfare (GEN330)

In this course, we will trace the establishment of the "gender equality" paradigm within a Nordic social-democratic welfare context. We will discuss key features of gender equality and welfare theory, policy, and politics in the Nordic social-democratic tradition, including the role of the state, the extent of its "women friendliness", and the ideal of egalitarianism. The course also examines contemporary issues such as intersectional understandings of inequality, reproductive biopolitics, LGBTQI+ rights, and the regulation of asylum and immigration.

There must be a minimum of 20 registered students (combined across GEN330 and GEN530) by August 20 for the course to run in autumn 2026.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that seeks to understand the emergence and proliferation of a Nordic model of gender equality and welfare. The course also engages with growing and transnational critiques of the dominant Nordic equality norm as heteronormative, nationalistic, and grounded in racial principles. These critiques inform a research focus that includes perspectives centered on Indigenous, migrant, and LGBTQI+ experiences. The overarching questions of the course have transnational relevance: What constitutes the Nordic model of gender equality? While maintaining a Nordic focus, the course actively incorporates transnational perspectives on the topics covered.

A principal aim is to familiarize students with a body of critical scholarship that interrogates dominant Nordic gender equality and welfare discourses. We will ask questions such as: Who has access to welfare services? Which ideas about gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are reproduced in the gender equality paradigm? To what extent is gender equality and welfare equally available and accessible to all? Critical attention to power, privilege, and inequality is central to the course.

Knowledge:

• Knowledge about key theoretical and policy frameworks for understanding gender equality and welfare perspectives in the Nordic countries, as well as their transnational perspectives
• Knowledge about similarities and differences between the Nordic countries and variations based on intersectional approaches to equality
• Knowledge about critical transnational approaches to the dominant Nordic equality and welfare model
• Knowledge about key concepts in the field and their differences, such as intersectionality, equality, equity, and justice

Skills:

• Analyse and critically discuss characteristics of Nordic gender equality and how they relate to the Nordic welfare-state model in scholarship and policy
• Analyse and asses a variety of challenges to gender equality and diversity
• Analyse how Nordic models of gender equality and welfare have been developed and implemented in the Nordic countries, and how these policies have been received on a global scale
• Analyse and critically discuss Nordic approaches to gender equality and welfare in a comparative context

Competences:

• Ability to understand and analyse Nordic gender equality in a comparative perspective
• Ability to apply critical perspectives to dominant understandings of Nordic gender equality and welfare, including the ways in which they challenge an emergent alternative framework for global prosperity, justice, and wellbeing
• Ability to apply perspectives on gender equality and diversity in professional and educational situations
• Ability to address the targets set out by The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to gender equality and reduction of different forms of inequality.

The course consists of weekly sessions that include lectures, seminars, group work, and individual work - adapted to different modes of study. All students are expected to read the assigned texts from the syllabus and actively participate in group discussions, thereby developing analytic reflections in a collaborative learning environment with fellow students.

Sessions will take place on campus, and the course coordinator will facilitate a digital learning platform (Canvas) to support course activities. The working language of the course is English.

The course is open to students on all study programmes at the University of Stavanger, and exchange students.

This course can be taken as a part of the Minor in Gender Studies (30ECTS).