Nordic Gender Equality in Transition: Anti-discrimination Laws, Practices and Scholarship Revisited

The Nordic Law and Gender Conference 2019

Northern lights

Photo: Colourbox

Program

Monday 23 September 2019

09:00 -10:00

Registration of Participants

Venue: Gamle Festsal

10:00 -10:10

Welcome 

Dean Dag Michalsen, University of Oslo
Professor Ingunn Ikdahl, University of Oslo

Venue: Gamle Festsal

10:10 - 10:30

Mapping a diverse and dynamic legal landscape

Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo 

Venue: Gamle Festsal

10:30 - 11.30

Keynote session: Nordic equality and anti-discrimination laws in the throes of change

Please note that the keynote session is open for all interested, no registration necessary.

Chair: Professor Ingunn Ikdahl, University of Oslo

Sweden

Professor Eva Maria Svensson, Gothenburg University and
Professor Åsa Gunnarson, University of Umeå 

Finland

Professor Kevät Nousiainen, University of Turku 

Iceland

Associate professor Brynhildur Flóvenz, University of Iceland

Venue: Gamle festsal

11:30 - 12:15

Lunch for all registrated participants

Venue: Professorboligen

12:15 - 13:45

Keynote session continued

Denmark

Professor Kirsten Ketscher, Copenhagen University and University of Oslo 

Norway

Professor Vibeke Blaker Strand and
Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo

Comments 

Phd in Sociology of Law, Lena Svenaeus, Lund University
Professor Cathrine Holst, University of Oslo 
Research Fellow Hannah Eklund, European University Institute 
Professor Niklas Bruun, University of Helsinki 
Professor Susanne Zwingel, Florida International University

13:45 - 14:15

Coffee break with a light snack

Venue: Professorboligen

14:15-16:00

Parallel paper session 1

Equal Pay

Venue: Professorboligen

Chair: Associate professor Marianne Jenum Hotvedt, University of Oslo

Commentator: Julie Lødrup, first secretary, Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO)

The right to equal pay in Norway 

Professor Hege Brækhus, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
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Pay equity in Sweden – obstacles and opportunities

PhD in Sociology of Law, Lena Svenaeus, Lund University
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New legal strategies with the aim to combat the gender pay gap

Susanne Fransson, Gothenburg University and 
Eberhardt Stüber, Swedish Gender Equality Agency
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Pay transparency: a step towards equal pay

Professor Kevät Nousiainen, University of Turku
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Gendered career paths? Patterns of professorial recruitment at the Faculty of humanities of the largest university in Norway

Sofia Moratti, Vivian Anette Lagesen and Knut Holtan Sørensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
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Equality in international legal arenas

Venue: Kjerka

Chair: Professor Ingunn Ikdahl, University of Oslo
Commentator: Associate professor Stian Øby Johansen, University of Oslo

Gendered dimensions of accessing asylum in the EU

Kristina Wejstål, research fellow, Gothenburg University 
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In deference to the patriarchal state – gendering the margin of appreciation in the European Court of Human Rights

Matilda Merenmies, Ph.D. researcher, European University Institute
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An alarm clock from the 1940s? Analyzing women, peace and security and the Swedish feminist foreign policy through the lens of Elin Wägner

Sari Kouvo, Senior lecturer, Gothenburg University
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Abortion as an equality issue – reflections on recent international developments

Niklas Bruun, Professor, University of Helsinki

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Tuesday 24 September    

09:00 -10:30

Parallel paper session 2

Gender violence as an equality issue I

Venue: Professorboligen

Chair: Professor Ragnhild Hennum, University of Oslo
Commentator: Professor May-Len Skilbrei, University of Oslo

Gender violence and trafficking: A one-sided and gendered conception of the victims?

Associate professor Carola Lingaas, Faculty of Social Studies, VID University
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Gendered narrative and characterization in judicial opinions

Line Normann Hjort, University of Bergen
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What if we are taking the legal principles seriously – rape of humanoid sex robots – is it desirable to criminalize? If so, why criminalization, what should be blamed and who should be punished?

University lecturer Wanna Svedberg, Gothenburg University 
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Equality and freedom of religion and speech in work and business

Venue: Kjerka

Chair: Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo 
Commentator: Anine Kierulf, Norwegian National Human Rights Institution

The conflict between the legal principles of freedom of expression vs. gender equality revisited

Professor Eva-Maria Svensson, Gothenburg University 
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Internal workplace policies of neutrality – risks and barriers that hinder an including working life. A jurisprudential investigation of the conflict between the freedom of religion and the freedom to conduct a business

Susanne Fransson, Gothenburg University 
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Same, same, but different? Governing anti-discrimination laws in Norway and Denmark

Guest researcher Helge Årsheim, University of Oslo, and 
Professor with special responsibilities Lene Kühle, University of Aarhus
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When equality and diversity collide: The issue of religiously motivated reservations in employment

Professor Vibeke Blaker Strand, University of Oslo
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10.30 - 10.45

Coffe break with light snack

Professorboligen

 
10.45 - 12.15 

Parallel paper session 3

Gender violence as an equality issue II

Venue: Professorboligen

Chair: Professor Ragnhild Hennum, University of Oslo 
Commentator: Professor May-Len Skilbrei, University of Oslo 

Is there a place for continuum thinking in criminal Law? On sexual harassment and criminalization

Senior lecturer Linnea Wegerstad, Lund University 
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From fight against less favorable treatment to dignity protection – gender equality law in transition – sexual harassment as discrimination

Maria Rasmussen, Copenhagen Business School (paper with Ruth Nielsen and Christina Tvarnø)
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Involuntary sterilization and castration in Sweden, Norway and Finland: unequal remedies?

Reserach fellow Daniela Alaattinoglu, University of Turku 
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Indigenous Greenlandic women's access to justice

Siff Lund Nielsen
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Equality and diversity

Venue: Kjerka

Chair: Professor Vibeke Blaker Strand, University of Oslo 
Commentator: Associate professor Maria Lundberg, Norwegian Center for Human Rights

Legal gender recognition and messy trans experiences

France Rose Hartline, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
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Equality and gender diversity: cases concerning sexual orientation at the ECHR

Juho Aalto, University of Turku 
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Biopolitics of disability and gender – symptoms from Finnish law

Minni Leskinen, University of Turku 
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12:15 -13:15 

Lunch

Professorboligen

 
13:15 - 14:45

Parallel paper session 4

Equality as a family and social welfare issue

Venue: Professorboligen

Chair: Professor Kirsten Sandberg, University of Oslo 
Commentator: Professor Tone Sverdrup, University of Oslo

Poverty in the Nordic welfare societies

Ida Gundersby Rognlien, research fellow, University of Copenhagen
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Substantive equality and the need for empirical legal research (Is Norwegian family property law (really) discriminatory?)

Katrine Fredwall, University of Oslo  
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Revealing the “knots” of gendering in Nordic family reunification law

Associate professor Tone Linn Wærstad, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo
​​​​​​​Download abstract (pdf)

Renegotiating gender equality in a changing welfare state

Professor Ingunn Ikdahl, University of Oslo
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Gender, equality and anti-discrimination law in legal education

Venue: Kjerka

Chair: Professor Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, University of Oslo

Commentator: Professor Eva-Maria Svensson, Gothenburg University

From success to elimination – and what’s next? The case of gender and law in legal education at Umeå University

Professor Monica Burman, Umeå University
​​​​​​​Download abstract (pdf)

Legal education and research 

Susan Arulanantham and Assia Chelaghma, caseworkers, Legal Aid for Women (JURK)
​​​​​​​Download abstract (pdf)

Engendering and decolonizing higher legal education: south/north perspectives

Professor Anne Hellum, University of Oslo
​​​​​​​Download abstract (pdf)

Gender dimension integration in legal research

Lisouskaya Tatsiana, PhD, Brest State Technical University and
Olga Bezbozhna Programme Officer, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI), Lund, Sweden
​​​​​​​Download abstract (pdf)

 

 
14:45 -15:00

Coffe break 

 

15:00 -

15:30 

Reflections on the conference 

Venue: Professorboligen

Chair: Professor Anne Hellum

Frøydis Patursson, JURK

Professor Susanne Zwingel, Florida International University

Professor Eva Marie Svensson, Gothenburg University

 

Conference theme

The Nordic countries top The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. The notion of the ‘Nordic Gender Equality Model’ is associated with strong state feminism, and laws and policies that promote substantive equality. This international “brand” is challenged by Nordic scholarship in the field of women, gender and the law, which points to the disjuncture between the right to equality and the gendered realities on the ground. 

However, the analyses of the potential and limits of the equality and anti-discrimination laws in the different Nordic countries remain fragmented and unsystematic. While most Nordic countries have some form of gender equality and anti-discrimination laws in place, their histories, legal and political origins, designs and enforcement systems vary. Furthermore, the Nordic equality and anti-discrimination laws do not exist in a vacuum, but are firmly embedded in the clay of EU law and international human rights law. Moreover, the Nordic anti-discrimination laws and welfare rights are situated in a rapidly changing economic and political context, both nationally and globally. Currently, there is increased pressure from actors that see gender equality and anti-discrimination as an individual and private matter. 

Through keynote presentations and parallel paper sessions, the conference sets out to examine the construction of equality in the equality and anti-discrimination laws in the different Nordic countries. Towards this end, the conference seeks to situate the legal developments in the different Nordic countries in the context of a rapidly changing transnational, legal, social, political and economic landscape. The overall aim is to provide a legal, theoretical and critical basis for debates about past, present and future transformations of Nordic gender equality and anti-discrimination laws.

The Nordic Law and Gender Conference is a biannual event that started out in 2009. 

Published Jan. 8, 2019 11:24 AM - Last modified Mar. 24, 2020 1:02 PM