The emergence of gender equality legislation in the Faroe Islands: A discursive study

This article concerns the emergence of gender equality legislation and public discourse on gender equality in the Faroe Islands. The article examines which gender equality discourses and underlying gender ideologies are evident in the Faroe Islands. We commence our study in 1980, when public debate on gender equality legislation intensified. Methodologically, we apply critical discourse analysis in our analysis of newspaper articles, interviews, public documents, and parliamentary debates. Taking an island perspective, we examine tensions between being an island context, on the one hand, and being Nordic on the other. Three discourses emerged from our inductive analysis, which relate to certain time-periods: 1) navigating the concept of gender equality in a religious small-island society, 2) gender equality in the context of (Faroese) identity and 3) the (ir)relevance of gender equality in the Faroe Islands. In the discussion, we argue that gender equality ideologies have evolved and transformed over time in constant interaction with Faroese identity, islandness, and the outside world. We identify gender equality ideologies of traditionalism, religious essentialism, and egalitarianism in our early time period. Subsequently, more recent ideologies of liberal egalitarianism, feminist egalitarianism, neotraditionalism and flexible egalitarianism are identified.