Kunnalliset tasa-arvotoimikunnat: Lähtökohtia uuden poliittisen ilmiön tutkimiseen

Kirjoittajat

• Sirkka Sinkkonen

Abstrakti

The article analyzes a new political phenomenon, the municipal equality committees. It tries to clarify theoretical and empirical points of departure for further research to examine their meaning, importance and activities in the processes of policy formation and implementation. First the present state of their establishment is described. Then a discussion about why their establishment started in the Nordic countries and why they exist so far only in those countries is presented. It is argued that municipal equality committees are means of increased state intervention or steering by the Nordic welfare states. The realization of the idea of the welfare state is most advanced in the Nordic countries, which is assumed to be one reason for why it was the Nordic countries where the establishment of these new political bodies started. Unfortunately their establishment may mean only co-optation of women and their demands by the controlling welfare state. The typical characteristics of a welfare state is co-optation of various interest groups by binding them to follow strict rules. Thus the original purposes of those new committees, growth toward democratization and equalization from women’s perspective, may not be achieved. Therefore, it is especially important that the members of these new bodies are aware of this situation and danger. It is also important that the new bodies are given adequate resources, such as secreterial help and financial means for their activity. The data from Sweden and Finland provides evidence that women’s amount in the input side of the political system (i.e. democratization of decision making bodies by women) has an equalizing effect also on the output side of the political system. The establishment of these bodies has depended much on the activity of women politicians and women’s groups from outside the formal municipal system. Given the dangers of co-optation described above their activity is still needed to quarantee adequate and necessary working conditions for these new bodies in the heavily male dominated municipal political-administrative system. 1