Four Ideals of Gender Equality: A Feminist Institutionalist Perspective on the Shortened Workweek Debate

This thesis investigates the Swedish parliamentary debate on a general shortening of the standard workweek, focusing on its gendered dimensions through the lens of feminist institutionalism. Parliamentary documents are analyzed through qualitative content analysis using four gender equality ideal types based on the division of earning and caring responsibilities. The study categorizes material into these ideal types to explore gender norms across multiple dimensions and test the coherence of the Swedish gender equality debate. The analysis shows that left-wing parties have a more progressive or liberal view of the division of rights and responsibilities between women and men. In contrast, right-wing parties, while occasionally keeping a liberal path, more often lean towards conservative family values. The broad spectrum of gender equality ideal types observed challenges expectations for the Swedish case, a country regarded as a gender equality leader, and an unfavorable environment for finding this diversity. This result suggests that the theory would also work as expected in other, more favorable environments, such as countries with more conservative tendencies. These findings contribute to expanding feminist institutionalism to new empirical settings while providing insight into the interplay between gender norms and political ideologies.