ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to analyse the relationship between the economic and gender equality objectives implied in the Swedish Act on System of Choice in the Public Sector (LOV), launched in 2009. The central questions concern 1) the normative conception of gender equality in the reform, and 2) how the gender equality policy have been realized. Empirically, the focus is on in home-based elderly care exposed to competition through customer choice. The analysis is based on an intersectional approach, combined with a centre–periphery perspective and a multidimensional definition of precarious employment. These joint perspectives help reveal and clarify the relationship between the economic and gender equality objectives of the reform. The study shows that gender equality was to be realized through female entrepreneurship. This relates to the discussion of how a neoliberal normativity has come to impact the understanding of gender equality, which thus applies more to the development of an ‘entrepreneurial middle-class’ than to the position of employees. The empirical examples from home-based elderly care confirm this observation. The author therefore emphasizes the need of applying an intersectional power relations perspective on the meaning of gender equality and diversity in gender mainstreaming policies and practices.
