ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines how struggles for women's rights among universalistic women's organizations in Scandinavia has shaped, and been shaped by, strategies of governance in problematic but also unexpected ways. It highlights the complex dynamics following from the recent 'appointment' of gender equality as a national value in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and also suggests an understanding of equality and rights in the contexts as a strategy of governance. Within the strategies, civil society actors are expected to exercise active citizenship and deploy technologies of agency and empowerment by exercising responsibility for self and others. The book argues that the ideas of national and social homogeneity and gendered difference are examples of such transnational discourses that in a Scandinavian context render coherent the social fabric in the region.
