Interview: Ann Towns

Renowned political scientist Ann Towns of the University of Gothenburg has taken the time to answer some of our questions about her perspectives on the Swedish and Nordic brand.

You have devoted much research to gendered perspectives on international relations and diplomacy: Why is this relevant for understanding Swedish nation-branding today - or nation-branding processes more generally in the Nordic region?

That’s an interesting question. Well, I think gender perspectives on international relations and diplomacy are relevant for understanding Swedish and Nordic nation-branding in many ways, but let me talk about a couple. For one, all the Nordics, and Sweden in particular, use gender equality in their nation-branding efforts. All of these states come out very well in country performance rankings that measure gender equality, and they already have a reputation internationally as societies that allow and encourage more gender equality than most others (which is not to say any of them are fully gender equal). Indeed, between the 1970s and the mid- to late 1990s, as gender equality became increasingly salient in global governance, gender equality was integrated into the international self-representation of the Nordic states. In the 2000s, when the nation branding paradigm had its breakthrough, gender equality was also  incorporated into their deliberate branding efforts.

In the case of Sweden, gender equality is absolutely central to its “progressive” brand. Gender equality is understood as a condition where gender patterns have disappeared, when gender has no bearing on the distribution of political, economic and cultural rights, representation or resources. Messaging about the relatively equal levels of women and men in politics and about men and women participating in non-stereotypical activities thus abound in Swedish nation-branding: progressive Swedish dads who take parental leave to care about small children, or women having careers as scientists or top athletes. LGBTQ+ rights also figure centrally in this brand. Gender equality is featured in similar ways in the national brands of Finland, Norway and Denmark but not as prevalently (and least in the Danish brand).  Gender perspectives help us see the centrality of gender equality to these national brands, and these perspectives are also helpful in analysing the brands, how they have emerged and evolved in public diplomacy, and their effects internationally and domestically.

Second, gender perspectives on international relations also help us place Nordic nation-branding in a broader context of the symbolic importance of the status of women in international politics. The status of women has a long history of signifying the moral and developmental standing of a polity, going back at least to the 18th century. In 19th and early 20th century Europe, the subordination of women to men was often seen as indicative of “progress” and “civilizational advancement.” European scientists and politicians alike argued that women only had equal standing to men in “primitive” and “savage” polities. During the 20th century, this view changed, and gender equality and an elevated status of women instead came to be seen as indicative of progress and modernity. Around the world, the status of women has often come to function as a short-hand gauge for determining the “advancement” of a state. Had this not been the case, gender equality would not have been as potent in the nation-branding efforts to communicate what kinds of societies the Nordics are.

What do you find is the impact of the Swedish or Nordic gender brand being used as a political battleground internationally—particularly in the US, but also in other parts of the world?

Well, the idea of the Nordic countries as gender equal has figured prominently in a range of political debates in different parts of the world for three decades or more. For instance, in the 1990s, Latin American debates about gender quotas to increase the ratio of women in parliament drew heavily on the idea of the Nordic countries having achieved more equal political representation than most other states. The practice of using the Nordic countries as an ideal to be emulated remains in a number of contexts.

That said, Nordic - and particularly Swedish - gender equality has recently also been invoked in transnational political battles over immigration and multiculturalism. The populist right has asserted that liberal immigration policies have resulted in patriarchal cultural values being “imported” into Sweden. The false charge that Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden, has become “the rape capital of the world” due to immigration has circulated widely, including by prominent political figures such as Nigel Farage of UKIP and the Brexit Party and Matteo Salvini of Lega Nord. In such charges, the idea of Sweden as gender equal and thus presumably relatively free from rape except for by “foreign” men is summoned in order to challenge asylum rights, curb immigration and promote cultural assimilation. Nationalist ideas using the bodies of women to symbolize the nation of Sweden, a nation allegedly under assault from foreign men, also figure prominently. These charges have at times been so intense that they have become seen as a challenge to the Swedish brand and Sverigebilden (the international image of Sweden). The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and various Swedish embassies around the world have thus felt compelled to respond to these charges with statistical evidence and explanations in order to restore the idea of gender equal Sweden.

Swedish (liberal) immigration policies have been criticised by conservative forces internationally, for example by then-US president Donald Trump in 2017.[1] Do you find that this has had any profound effect on the Swedish brand; on how Sweden is perceived by others and on how Swedes look upon themselves?

Yes and no. The idea that liberal immigration policies have ruined Sweden by leading to unprecedented levels and forms of violence, including sexual violence, and by undermining the necessary cultural and economic foundation for a functioning welfare state remains prevalent in conservative arenas – and especially in populist right and extreme right circuits, whether within Sweden or internationally. Among the populist and far right in Sweden, there has been a sense of alarm for years, and doomsday narratives about the end of Sweden as we know it seem quite rooted. More moderate versions of this narrative seem to be in wide circulation in the other Nordic countries, and the Swedish mainstream right also increasingly frame immigration as a threat to Swedish gender equality.

That said, recent analyses from 2020 by the Swedish Institute (SI, a public agency tasked with promoting a positive image of Sweden in the world) suggests that the general international standing and view of Sweden has not changed in recent years. Most people, if they know anything about Sweden, see Sweden as a prosperous, open and stable society with beautiful natural landscape. In fact, the more people know about Sweden, the more positive the view, according to SI. The Nordic neighbors are an exception to this general trend, as they now hold a slightly less positive view of Sweden due to reports about immigration, crime and the handling of the Covid pandemic (Svenska Institutet 2021). So yes, among Sweden’s Nordic neighbors and among populist and far right actors, the view of Sweden might have changed (though to be sure, right wing actors have a history of using Sweden as a cautionary tale). But among general publics around the globe, the image of Sweden remains intact and largely positive.

You have previously explored the ways in which the COVID-pandemic has had a gendered effect both in domestic life and public diplomacy internationally.[2] As you do not mention Sweden in your article “COVID-19 and Gender: A Necessary Connection in Diplomatic Studies”, do you have any thoughts on how these implications might affect the Swedish gender equality brand? Has there been any awareness of it in Sweden particularly?

Hm, that’s a difficult and complex question. There has been a great deal of discussion and debate about the responses of Swedish authorities to the pandemic as well as how the response has been shaped by traits of the Swedish health care system, Sweden’s public administration model, and what Swedish basic law allows. Sweden has not adopted lock-downs, K-6 schools have remained open, restaurants, cafés and bars have remained open with reduced hours and distancing, and the Public Health Agency of Sweden does not treat Covid-19 as airborne through aerosol transmission and thus has not emphasize the use of face masks and ventilation. The combination of this softer approach with very high infection rates  and with death rates that are much higher than those of the other Nordic countries has generated a great deal of attention internationally. In many contexts, this has been negative attention. In some other contexts, however, such as among Trump-supporting Republicans, Sweden has been celebrated for allegedly opting for individual liberty.

There is definitely awareness in Sweden of how much attention the response to Covid has generated around the world. In fact, the Swedish Institute increased its analytical work of the international image of Sweden and has produced bi-weekly reports on the frequency, contents and tonality of media coverage of Sweden’s handling of Covid-19 since April of 2020 (see Svenska Institutet's website, external link). Swedish media has also produced a large number of articles on international views of the Swedish approach to the pandemic and how Sverigebilden may be affected as a result. The sensitivity to and anxiety about this issue in Sweden cannot be overstated.

It is more difficult to answer how Covid might affect the Swedish gender equality brand. My guess would be that the Swedish response to the pandemic either has no effect or that it might actually strengthen the gender equality brand. We know from a plethora of reports that the responses to Covid-19 have had disproportionately detrimental effects on women around the world – this is something we discuss in the article you mention. Intimate partner violence has risen by 20-30%, women’s access to contraceptives has been curtailed with unwanted pregnancies as a result, women’s unpaid care labor has increased dramatically, and so on. With a lighter response, Sweden has avoided most of these gendered effects. But whether this actually feeds back into the Swedish brand remains to be seen.

A last question: You are trained as a political scientist but you have worked very historically. How come?

I do have an intense interest in history and in how processes develop over time, for several reasons. For one, I find analyses of historical phenomena intrinsically fascinating – along with anthropological and ethnographic analyses, they help us better understand just how rich and varied the human experience and human institutions are. But history is also crucial if we are interested in the present. Historical analyses are important as points of comparison with the present: they help us understand the present by placing it in historical context, and they help us explain the present by comparing contemporary cases with past cases. And attention to historical processes is crucial as these affect the present – the focus on the importance of historical sequencing and path dependence in analytical traditions as distinctive as historical institutionalism and Foucaultian genealogies really demonstrate the importance of historical analyses for political science, in my view.

Ann Towns is Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.

Interviewers

Eirinn Larsen is the leader of Nordic Branding and professor of History at the University of Oslo.

Charlotte Aslesen is the current project coordinator as well as a research assistant for Nordic Branding.

[1] Jezierska; Towns. “Taming feminism? The place of gender equality in the ‘Progressive Sweden’ brand” Place Branding and Public Diplomacy volume 14, pages55–63(2018)

[2] Towns et al, “COVID-19 and Gender: A Necessary Connection in Diplomatic Studies”