The paradoxical gendered consequences of the EU policy on multiple discrimination: The Nordic case

The European Union (EU) has emerged as a powerful international actor whose standards, norms and ideas are spread (Europeanized) to member states and beyond. In equality politics, the EU has become a carrier and promoter of the new politics of equality. The key aim of this article is to explore the Europeanization of the Nordic gender equality discourse in relation to one particular political debate, namely that of intersectionality, or in EU terms, ‘multiple discrimination’. Thus, the article explores the ways in which Nordic ideas about gender equality interact with those promoted by the EU. Theoretically, the article draws on the insights of feminist discourse analysis, institutionalism and soft Europeanization, and seeks to combine the two debates to better understand and elucidate the ways in which the ideational shifts that the EU promotes become institutionalized in legal frameworks and equality policy in the member states.