Equal Opportunities Work - Theories about Practice

whole is one way of justifying work for equal opportunities, but if this way of
reasoning is to have any other effect than to uphold the existing absence of
equal opportunities, one qualification must be added: the content of the
organization must already bear traces of two sexes.
The claim that equal opportunities improve quality in the sense of providing
an increased diversity of perspective, views on knowledge, research disciplines
and competence rests on the assumption that power is already reasonably
evenly distributed between women and men, and that this fairer delegation of
power has had an impact on the organization.
6. Equal opportunities work and the differences between the sexes
The equating, on the part of the Swedish national authorities, of equal
opportunities and quality improvements rests on yet another, not nearly so
obvious premise: the assumption that women and men are essentially different.l2
This is expressed in different ways. One example is the assumption that female
leadership is qualitatively different from that of men.r3 Another is that the kind
of experience and perspectives women represent differs from that represented by
men.
Should successful pursuit of equality of opportunity be based on the
similarities or the differences between women and men? The answer to this
question is that it is logically possible to base equal opportunities work on
other assumptions. Moreover, there is a link between the arguments we prefer
and our choice with regard to whether we see the similarities or the differences
between the sexes as uppermost.
The expression "equality" readily leads us to think that in order for equality
to be possible, people must already be equal. And there may be more than a
grain of truth to that thought. Women and men both belong to the species
"human being", rather than
"animal", &S Aristotle pointed out. Their very
humanity endows them with a common value; they are thinking, feeling,
acting, self-conscious beings. Equality, in the sense of equality between the
sexes, may be justified on this account.
12 thi, can be further divided both empirically and normatively. There is a difference berween the idea that
women and men are different and that women and men should be different.
l3 Cun *" know what female management style is? Are there not too few women in managerial positions for
them to have been able to formulate their own kind of leadership? See Wahl, A., Ftiretagsi-edning som
konstruktion av manlighet, Kvinnovetensl