Equal Opportunities Work - Theories about Practice

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complementary, and can bring different things to a workplace. (Here, there is an undertone of social construction, a hint that our sexual affiliation results in our encountering different attitudes and thus being shaped by different experience). The government level debate on equal opportunities is thus intimately intertwined with various assumptions about the differences between the sexes. How, then, are we to see the relationship between equal opportunities work and the issue of the similarities and differences between the sexes? To begin with, let us state that both the justice and the quality arguments may be based on assumptions either of inherent similarity or difference between the sexes. If we begin with justice, we may point out the similarity between the sexes, we may even call descriptions of difference mythologizing. This would indicate that there are no differences between the sexes, and that they must therefore have equal rights. However, this argument is associated with the risk that the underrepresented sex will be forced into the same traps as the other. It is equally possible to argue for equal opportunities as a matter of justice by highlighting the differences between the sexes and simultaneously demanding that they be regarded as of equal value, and have equal rights. However, there are also risks associated with seeing equality of opportunity as meaning respect for differences between the sexes, as this may lead to freezing stereotypical gender roles into place. Claming that it is important to be responsive to each individual may result in locking both sexes into their own respective traps, and inhibiting individuals from crossing traditional genderrelated boundaries. The sexes are different, and, it is understood, should remain so. As we have seen, the discussion of quality is based mainly on the idea that the sexes are different. It is, though, perfectly possible to construct a quality argument on the basis of the similarity between the sexes. The "talent repository" argument is one such example. We have seen that the assumptions both of similarity and of difference between the sexes may be used to justify equal opportunities work. In my opinion, both these views lead to restricted freedom of choice for both women and men. Another way of seeing equal opportunities work is to see it as primarily a matter of the freedom and rights of the individual to choose a lifestyle, to T6
define him or herself.r6 In line with this view, equal opportunities work provides individuals of both sexes with greater opportunities for self-fulfillment, not because they are valued either differently or similarly, in accordance with patriarchal patterns, but by having greater freedom to test sides of themselves and to experiment in life. A society permeated by equal opportunities is a society that allows different people to have different extents of personal masculinity and femininity, and to have the freedom to create their own personal way of life. 16 Gunn"rud, E., & Wernersson, Vad lever vi frir? Om jiimstalldhet som frihet eller tving, SOU 1997:158, s. 106. (Swedish Government Commission Report 1997:158, p. 106 (What are We Living for? On Equal Opportunities as Freedom or Coercion"). T7
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