Protection from Discrimination - a Gender Mainstreaming Issue? : The case of Gender Mainstreaming in Sweden

A common critique from scholars towards gender mainstreaming (GM) strategy is that the integration of a gender perspective can sometimes be seen as too narrow in its outcome as secure discrimination protection. Sweden is a veteran when it comes to both GM strategy and equality. But as in many other places, discrimination based on other grounds than gender is present within Swedish society too. Hence, this thesis’s concern is to examine how the Swedish Gender Equality Authorities construct gender equality. This, with the intent to gain an understanding of what the joint assumptions of gender equality look like. The material was analysed by using the ‘What's the Problem Represented to Be’ method and to operationalize and deepen the understanding further the theoretical concept of intersectionality was applied. As expected when concerning GM strategy, the findings established that the construction is predominantly centred around women and men. Other dimensions of identity such as for example faith, socioeconomic belonging, ethnicity, skin colour often end up in the periphery of the construction. The findings also showed that the wording, articulation, exclusion and inclusion of certain groups of people, plays a vital role in how the construction can be perceived.