Swimming Women : Discursive struggles over women's hours at municipal pools

Abstract: This thesis explores constructions of meaning, or frames, surrounding the policy of women’s hours in public debates and municipal settings, using newspaper articles and municipal documents as main empirical sources. Departing from the puzzle of how women’s hours are depicted as both gender equitable and gender inequitable in the debate, the thesis draws on previous research of how gender equality and multiculturalism relates to each other, potentially producing tensions in policymaking and discourse. Although Sweden has often been noted for its exceptionality in both dimensions, research suggests that multiculturalism has lost its favorable status in Sweden. To understand the impact framing may have on institutions, analysis is grounded feminist discursive institutionalism. The analysis is realized in two steps. First, the analysis identifies four frames, two supporting and two opposing, most prominently used to construct and depict women’s hours in public debate. Second, the analysis zooms in on the three municipalities Västerås, Haninge and Västervik, exploring the relationship between framing and outcomes. The thesis finds that the frames of women’s hours are often involved in culturalist language, depicting women’s hours as a Muslim policy, or, implicitly, depicting women’s hours as a gender equal policy by connecting it to other women than Muslim. In relation to institutional outcomes, the thesis finds that if the policy is constructed in a Muslim-culturalist language - that is, diagnosed as a Muslim practice - it leads to disapproval. If the policy is constructed as a gender equal policy beneficial to “all” women, it seems more accessible to keep. In line with previous research, the findings are suggestive of how the idea of multiculturalism as a problem seems to have become salient while gender equality remains a highly attractive master frame, contributing to how the policy of women’s hours is adopted only if successfully connected to other groups of women than Muslim.