ABSTRACT
The idea of comparing Nordic and developing country approaches to gender equality appeared initially to be an unlikely task. Most of the countries represented in this volume have very little in common with the Nordic countries or indeed with each other. Nevertheless, the contributions to this volume suggest that there are lessons to be drawn. Broadly, these discussions suggest that the lessons relate not so much to the precise policies and instruments put to work in Norway and Sweden, but to the processes that led to the adoption of these policies and instruments, the tactics and strategies that were used to drive these processes, together with a better understanding of the enabling conditions that allowed them to bear fruit. And it is the early history of these processes, their inception at a time when Nordic countries were still poor and underdeveloped, that is of particular interest to today’s developing countries.
