1 Woman-friendly Policies and State Feminism: Theorising Scandinavian Gender Equality 1 Anette Borchorst and Birte Siim Introduction Social equality became a core value of the Scandinavian countries (comprising Sweden, Norway and Danmark) during the twentieth century, and the welfare states were expanded due to broad compromises between the political parties supported by the social partners. The social democratic parties led the way towards the adoption of redistribution policies aimed at alleviating class differences. Feminist organisations argued for gender equality with a certain success, and in the 1970s and 1980s, when many forces pulled in the direction of integrating women into the labour force, a number of policies were adopted to strengthen women’s access to the public sphere. This development was conceptualized as ‘a passion for equality.’ and, along the same lines, Norwegian political scientist Helga Hernes concluded that the Scandinavian welfare states might become “woman-friendly” and “state feminist.” (1987, 9-29). She emphasised that these countries adopted welfare policies, such as generous parental leave schemes and extensive public care services for children and the elderly, and had a relatively high political representation of women that allowed them to influence political decisions. Our overall concern in this article is to reflect upon the potential of Hernes’ ideas for understanding the far-reaching changes in the Scandinavian gendered welfare policy models and their normative value as visions of gender equality. In the first part, we compare Hernes’ concepts with other theoretical approaches such as Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of the gender system and Nancy Fraser’s normative theory of justice. We discuss the underlying theoretical, political and normative assumptions about gender equality and social justice related to dimensions such as redistribution, recognition and representation. 1 Feminist Theory 2008: 9.2) 2008: 207-224