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Gender in Transition
Institutions, norms, identities
Policy Document
The Research Council of Norway
Contents
1
Background and assumptions ....................................................3
1.1 Programme background .......................................................3
1.2 The Programme Committee .................................................4
1.3 Objectives and mandate .......................................................5
1.4 The policy document ...........................................................6
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Fields of research: ......................................................................7
2.1 Women’s research in Norway .............................................7
2.2 Current challenges ...............................................................10
3
Research priorities .....................................................................13
3.1 New forms of working life ..................................................13
3.2 Individual rights and institutional norms.............................15
3.3 Gender, religion and cultural conflicts ................................16
3.4 Cultural coding of the body .................................................17
3.5 Sexuality, gender and ambiguity .........................................19
3.6 Feminism as critique ............................................................20
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Organisation, way of working and means .................................23
4.1 Project organisation .............................................................23
4.2 Forms of support ..................................................................24
4.3 Internationalisation ..............................................................25
4.4 Communication/publication ................................................26
4.5 Research manager ................................................................27
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1
Background and
assumptions
1.1 Programme background
In January 1996, the Research Board for Culture and Society adopted
a programme for women’s and gender research that was scheduled to
begin in the autumn of 1996 and last until the end of the year 2001.
The programme, Gender in transition: institutions, norms, identities,
is the result of a relatively lengthy preparatory phase during which
research centres actively proposed various research topics and forms
of organisation. This programme memorandum is based on a study
conducted by a special working group appointed by the Research
Council of Norway’s Division of Culture and Society.1
The programme is intended to develop further the work begun in
connection with two programmes for Basic Women’s Research in the
humanities and social sciences, respectively, both of which were
completed in 1994.2 This means that the primary focus of the
programme will be on basic research and long-term human resources
development. The programme will cover the humanities and social
sciences alike, and contribute to interdisciplinary cooperation.
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2
Proposal for a new programme for Women’s and Gender Research under the auspices of the Research
Council of Norway’s Division of Culture and Society, January 1996.
The Programme for Basic Women’s Research in the Social Sciences, the Council for Social Science
Research, the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF), and the
Programme for Basic Women’s Research in the Humanities, the Council for Research in the
Humanities, the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF).
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1.2 The Programme Committee
The Research Council of Norway appointed a Programme Committee
to serve from 1 June 1996 until 30 June 2002. The committee’s term
of office extends for six months after completion of the programme to
facilitate post-programme evaluation and the dissemination of
information about the results. The Programme Committee has the
following composition:
### Professor Gro Hagemann, Institute for Social Research, Oslo
(Chair)
### Professor Jonas Frykman, Department of Ethnology, University
of Lund, Sweden
### Senior Lecturer Elin Kvande, Department of Sociology and
Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
### Assistant Director General Gerd Vollset, Ministry of Children
and Family Affairs
### Senior Lecturer Anka Ryall, Department of Languages and
Literature, University of Tromsø
### Senior Lecturer Hege Skjeie, Department of Political Science,
University of Oslo
### Attorney-at-Law Oskar Rønbeck, Confederation of Norwegian
Business and Industry (NHO)
### Head of research Tian Sørhaug, Centre for Studies of
Technology, Innovation and Culture, Univeristy of Oslo
Special Adviser Ingebjørg Strøno of the Research Council of
Norway’s Division of Culture and Society will serve as secretary for
the Programme Committee.
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1.3 Objectives and mandate
The primary objective of Gender in transition is to help develop
fruitful new approaches to research on gender. The programme will
strive to promote high-quality professional efforts and to meet
Norway’s need to develop and maintain research expertise in the field.
The programme will attempt to reconcile the need to develop theory
with a proactive approach to research. Further, the programme will
promote contact between researchers, public administrators,
politicians, business and industry in an effort to identify research
needs and to contribute to the constructive dissemination of research
results.
Efforts will be invested in developing and maintaining broad,
multidisciplinary scholarly expertise. At the same time, the programme
will contribute to the development of knowledge within the individual
disciplines. The strong international element inherent in the women’s
research performed in Norway will be promoted through more contact
with international researchers and further expansion of international
networks. In addition, when allocating research funds, the Programme
Committee will assign priority to the development of theories that may
have international applications.
The programme is intended to provide incentives for the development
of networks and inter- and multidisciplinary cooperation, including
cooperation outside the scope of the programme projects. The
Programme Committee will strive to forge links with other Research
Council divisions and programmes with which cooperation is
appropriate. It is important to integrate a focus on women’s and
gender research into other research. One of the objectives of the
programme is to contribute to the public debate on current social
problems related to long-term processes of cultural and institutional
change, as well as to the challenges inherent in formulating policies
aimed at ensuring equal rights in working life, education, politics and
the family.
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1.4 The policy document
The policy document for Gender in transition: institutions, norms,
identities was drawn up by the Programme Committee, and represents
the Committee’s most important views on research policy, as well as
on the fields of research and the research perspectives that will receive
support. The ranking of priorities is the result of a long process
involving research institutions, the Research Board for Culture and
Society and independent organisations. In addition to acting as
guidelines for the Programme Committee, this policy document is
intended to be a source of information for researchers, political bodies
and the public at large.
The programme is largely being funded by the Research Council of
Norway. Partial funding has also been made available by the Ministry
of Children and Family Affairs and the Confederation of Norwegian
Business and Industry (NHO). Efforts will be made to expand the
programme’s financial framework and to secure funding from other
sources in an effort to achieve the programme’s objectives.
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Fields of research:
2.1 Women’s research in Norway
The advent of women’s research in Norway was part of the feminist
movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It developed through
extensive contact with feminist research in the other Nordic countries
and internationally. In many disciplines, women’s research was
initially supported and inspired by internal trends, including a growing
interest in social conditions, historical demography or the forgotten
exponents of culture. In the social sciences, the roots of the movement
can be traced back to the gender role research of the 1960s. Its
association with the women’s political movement has given women’s
research a clear, though not always equally explicit, normative
position. The desire to improve the situation of women provided much
of the impetus for women’s research in the social sciences, gearing it
towards politics and reform. A significant share of women’s research
in the social sciences has been performed outside the universities and,
in cooperation with the authorities, it has also been in a position to
influence problems related to policy.
While the focus of gender role research was on complementarity
between the sexes, men’s domination and women’s subordination
were central elements of the new women’s research that evolved in the
1970s, particularly in the social sciences. The interest of gender role
research in the importance of socialisation was superseded by the
emphasis women’s research placed on the division of labour, sexuality
and the gender-specific division of power within the family and
society. In the social sciences and humanities alike, the first phase of
women’s research revolved around the reconstruction of female
experience. The research concentrated partly on scholarly criticism of
the male domination in established professional fields, and partly on
historicising and contextualising conditions considered to be natural.
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In history-related subjects, this led to an expansion in the number of
potential areas of research, as attention was turned to previously silent
groups and silent topics. In legal subjects, attention was devoted to
gender-neutral laws which, in actual practice, had proven
discriminatory on the basis of gender. A specific body of criticism was
developed with a view to reformulating the terms and conditions that
applied to traditional legal thought.
Women’s research in Norway has been influenced by the research
performed in a variety of fields. There has been a great deal of activity
in a large number of subjects, at the same time as high priority has
been given to interdisciplinary efforts. Discussions among researchers
have converged on values and the social consequences of research.
Nonetheless, the main focus has been on what has been described as
‘problem-oriented empiricism’, which has provided important
empirical results as well as original contributions to the development
of concepts and theories. The strong empirical tradition reflected in
Norwegian women’s research was one of the reasons NAVF decided,
in 1988, to support two programmes for basic women’s research: one
in the social sciences and one in the humanities. Another reason was
the desire to establish links with the theory debates being conducted in
the international arena. The above-mentioned programmes and
international trends have further intensified the focus on theory since
the late 1980s.
While more explicit women’s interests were predominant during the
first phase of women’s research, there has been a tendency towards
greater differentiation between thematic and theoretical positions in
the 1980s and 1990s. Institutional analyses of the welfare state gained
momentum as a topic for women’s research in the social sciences in
the early 1980s. Labour market research has also moved in the
direction of institutional analyses. Research focusing on the body and
on sexualised violence has grown into an important field in recent
years. In the humanities, there has been a growing interest in cultural
understanding and in problems related to subjectivity and identity.
Theoretical discussions have largely taken place within the framework
of or in contrast to a post-structuralist approach with emphasis on
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deconstruction. The critique of centuries of dichotomous thinking has
also raised questions about the conceptualisation of “women” as a
social group. It has been contended that the quest for common female
experiences may lead to a reproduction of gender dualisms that
oversimplifies the relationship between the sexes and overshadows the
differences between women. The confrontation with dichotomous
thinking on the question of gender has paved the way for a more
complex understanding of the sex-gender system and a greater
differentiation in analyses of the division of power. At the same time,
the debate has questioned the very foundation of normative women’s
research.
As a result of this shift, issues related to the formulation of basic
theories have assumed vital importance. While the first phase of
women’s research revolved around discussions of how to interpret
reality, the various scholarly positions have become more important
over the past decade. Gender is no longer relevant solely in respect of
the choice of research object, but increasingly also in respect of the
research process per se and the researcher’s context. Moreover, the
focal point of research has shifted towards relations and conflicts
between the sexes and on differences between women. However, the
early approach to women’s research, in which women are research
objects, continues to be an active field. Research on men began to
develop in the late 1980s, turning the male gender into a research
object. Increasingly, we have seen the contours of theoretical research
on gender which focuses attention not primarily on men and women,
but on gender as a central principle for social organisation and the
production of meaning. There is also increasing interest being shown
in approaches that emphasise how gender-related concepts and views
are constituted in terms of language. Meanwhile, researchers who
previously remained aloof from feminist women’s research are
showing more interest in gender research.
These new approaches and the debates conducted since the early
1980s have made it possible to identify the contours of various basic
positions or paradigms in current Norwegian research on women and
gender. This became evident through presentations and discussions at
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the two conferences organised to mark the conclusion of the basic
women’s research programmes in 1994. There is a tendency towards a
certain distance and tension between the social sciences and the
humanities, not least because the humanities have begun to make more
independent theoretical contributions. There are also divergent views
among researchers in women’s, men’s and gender studies, particularly
as regards politics and the distribution of power. While the original
women’s research has been criticised for presenting an oversimplified
picture of the relationship between the sexes, thus furthering gender
stereotypes, it has been claimed that the current gender research has
abandoned interest in power and thus become politically indifferent.
Meanwhile, there appears to be agreement that both women and men
should be the objects of gender-relevant research, and that gender
should be analysed in connection with other forms of sociocultural
differentiation.
The Programme Committee views the ongoing discussions as an
important resource and an expression of the growing scope covered by
the field. The new gender research programme will take this broader
scope into account and exploit the constructive opportunities inherent
in the tensions between various fields of research and theoretical
positions. As a result, the concept of gender research will include
traditions from women’s research and feminist research as well as
impulses from newer areas such as men’s research and culture-based
gender research.
2.2 Current challenges
In any basic research programme, quality and professional relevance
are of the utmost importance in terms of the allocation of research
funding. Social relevance is also an important factor. Such relevance
may be based on specific political and economic challenges, as well as
on the need for ethical reflection, cultural understanding and the
dissemination of cultural traditions.
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The Programme Committee wishes to draw attention to two major
challenges facing gender research today. The one involves combining
central theoretical problems with various types of empirical studies.
The Programme Committee would like to develop further the strong
thematic/empirical basis that has characterised Norwegian women’s
research thus far. At the same time, the Committee would like to
encourage the continuation of the theoretical work that was initiated in
the mid-1980s.
The second challenge lies in continuing the comprehensive inter- and
multidisciplinary cooperation that has characterised gender research.
The field would have been inconceivable without such cooperation.
To maintain and continue these traditions, the Programme Committee
envisions a programme that develops and reinforces the diversity of
methodologies represented by the disciplines involved, affording
opportunities for the use of experimental as well as traditional
methods. The Programme Committee particularly encourages projects
that involve social scientists and humanists alike. Priority may also be
given to individual subjects, particularly those in which women’s and
gender perspectives are not well developed, and in which the
challenge may lie in breaking new ground.
The growing scope and diversity of gender research will be
maintained and continued by the new programme. Generally speaking,
the Programme Committee encourages the development of
perspectives from which gender is analysed in connection with other
social and cultural categories such as class, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, region and generation. Further, the Programme Committee
will welcome analyses and investigations of social practices and of
gender as an ideology and category of meaning.
Given the limited funding available for research, the Programme
Committee will identify a limited number of target areas that offer
special opportunities and/or challenges for new research. Priority will
be given to research on new forms of working life and the effect they
have on the gender-specific distribution of labour and the relationship
between the labour market, family and state. The Committee also
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encourages projects that focus on the foundation of norms and
highlight moral and political dilemmas engendered by the tensions
between individual and collective views in modern society. The
significance of religion in constituting gender has been notably absent
from women’s research, so such projects would be welcomed. Further,
the Programme Committee will give priority to research on the body
as an interface between biology, past experience and culture. The fifth
area of priority will be research on the relationship between sexuality
and gender identity that focuses on the cultural exclusion of
homosexuality. Finally, priority will be given to new contributions to
feminist critique of the disciplines.
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Research priorities
The research topics to which the Programme Committee will grant
priority are described on the following pages. Importance has been
attached to ensuring a certain concentration of the activities performed
under the auspices of the research programme. Emphasis has also been
given to defining these research topics in a way which is open enough
to embrace many fields and researchers, and which can encompass a
variety of theoretical and methodological approaches.
3.1 New forms of working life
Working life plays an important role in constituting social hierarchies,
as well as individual and collective identities. Concepts of gender also
constitute an integral part of the institutions of working life through
the development of explicit norms and implicit premises. The
establishment of new forms of working life has a determining effect
on women and men alike, as well as on the attitudes towards gender
commonly held by society.
Working life is currently in a profound state of flux. Norms that have
governed working life in Norway thus far are being challenged by new
technologies as well as by the increasing globalisation of the
economy. Demands for flexibility are on the rise, leading to a steady
stream of changes in responsibilities, technologies, expertise,
organisation, working hours and the workplace. Employees face
tougher new demands in terms of learning, motivation and
participation. At the same time, the demarcation between work and
leisure is growing less distinct. Working life is becoming a ‘greedy
institution’, posing heavier demands on ever larger groups of people.
The fact that working conditions offer more opportunities for
developing one’s own potential, while offering less job security, may
lead to greater social differences. The labour market of tomorrow may
be harder to enter and easier to leave.
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There is a need for research that focuses on how the development of
new forms of working life will affect the significance and
representations of gender. Historical investigations indicate that a
gender-specific division of labour is a process closely related to other
social changes. The division of labour was not static prior to the
industrial revolution either, but the pace of change increased
considerably during the transition to a dynamic market economy. This
process has resulted in greater equality, but it has also engendered
distinct new patterns of opportunities and limitations for women and
men. Although the changes are taking place more rapidly and across a
broader scale today, the process itself is not necessarily unique.
Accordingly, historical and cross-cultural investigations may be able
to provide vital insights that will be relevant to understanding the
significance of new forms of working life.
The Programme Committee welcomes projects that address the
consequences of new forms of working life across a broad scale. Does
today’s working life create new domains for gender-neutral interaction
and non-hierarchical gender differences, or does the same old gender
hierarchy appear once again in a new guise? There is a need, for
example, to determine whether new corporate structural and cultural
conditions have an impact on the recruitment of female managers.
There is also a need for research that focuses on new factors that affect
the interaction between working life, family life and leisure. This is
the case when family life and leisure are invaded by work activities
that call for continuous attention, and when working life has to fill
needs previously filled by other institutions. The traditional
breadwinner role has been superseded by either the two-income
family, the female single provider or government support. The
Programme Committee is interested in projects that can shed light on
the effects of this phenomenon on the division of power between the
sexes and on men’s and women’s identities. The Committee also
encourages projects that analyse the challenges posed by the
increasing internationalisation of the economy. Such a trend has
consequences for legislation and collective bargaining, and for equal
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rights in working life in general and the living and working situations
of women in developing countries in particular.
3.2 Individual rights and
institutional norms
Women’s position in society has undergone major changes during the
gradual transition from family-based to individual-based rights.
However, women’s entitlement to political, social and financial rights
is not yet universally accepted, and there are still widely divergent,
culture-specific views about the limitations that apply to women’s
status as individuals.
Nonetheless, the process of individualisation has had a powerful
impact on the understanding of women’s experiences in the western
world. This trend is also generating a new interest in understanding
and creating a form of masculinity without domination. Established
systems of norms are breaking down in the face of new practices, and
institutionally-based forms of authority are being challenged in a
variety of areas. This is taking place in respect of systems of
organisation and negotiation, in state and municipal government, in
politics, in media corporations and literary institutions, as well as in
educational institutions, local communities and within the family
itself. The changes raise questions about new dimensions in the
understanding of gendered power and the complementarity between
the sexes, about the existence and meaning of ‘gender’, ‘individual’,
and ‘autonomy’, and about how collective norms and norms of
solidarity are created and justified.
Women’s research in history, the social sciences and the law has made
vital contributions to understanding how individual-based rights and
responsibilities, combined with sets of norms and practices devised by
a welfare state, affect the living conditions of different generations of
women. Based on political philosophy, women’s research has also
examined the theoretical foundation underlying the relationship
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between the individual and various forms of collectivism such as the
family and the state. In the same vein, questions of principle have been
raised about individual rights presumed to be gender-neutral, eg, in the
field of liberal contract theory.
The Programme Committee urges the development of projects that can
further illuminate and examine the basic norms that determine the
interface between the individual and the collective. Obviously, such
projects are politically relevant. They may help shed light on
dilemmas that are permanently entrenched in existing legal and
welfare state practices. Multicultural societies engender further
dilemmas. More generally, the Committee encourages projects that
examine the consequences of processes of individualisation for the
perception of various institutional powers and authorities, and for
legal and political norms. Historical, cultural and class-specific
patterns should be key factors in such projects.
3.3 Gender, religion and cultural
conflicts
Religion and faith have played a relatively modest part in genderrelated research in Norway. This may seem strange in the light of the
significance of theologies, rituals and religious symbols in constituting
gender. Religion is a factor which defines social space, conveying
basic concepts about the nature of man and norms for human
interaction. At the same time, all major world religions have helped
legitimise gender-related subordination. This is why feminists have
often defined themselves in opposition to the view of women taken by
religion, choosing instead to assume anti-religious positions or to
produce feminist critique of theology. On the other hand, women have
often been amongst the most devoted supporters of various religions,
in part because religious institutions have offered a certain latitude and
room for expression that women were otherwise denied in the secular
world.
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The Programme Committee will give priority to projects designed to
shed light on the interaction between religion, gender and society
during periods of time characterised by changing beliefs and cultural
confrontations. The Committee encourages cross-cultural comparisons
as well as projects that examine institutional changes in an historical
perspective. The gender issue was a salient factor in the schism
between the old Norse and Christian religions in the Nordic countries,
while secularisation was later an adjunct to western modernisation. In
the light of the current rise in religious and cultural diversity, relations
between religion, the state and civilian society have been upset,
entailing major challenges. There are, for example, obvious dilemmas
inherent in the interaction between religion, medicine and the law.
These issues are often brought into focus by today’s society, not least
in connection with abortion and the circumcision of women.
Further, the Programme Committee welcomes projects designed to
investigate the interaction between gender and religion as a means
through which the nature of humankind and society in general may be
understood. A comparison of the various images of god espoused by
different religions may contribute to an understanding of the diversity
and cultural conflicts in modern, multi-cultural societies. Gender
relations and gender metaphors may illuminate the origins of religious
scriptures and rituals, their ecclesiastical function and religious
substance. On the other hand, religious rituals, writings and scriptural
traditions are an important source for understanding how gender
identity and gender differences are constituted in a given culture.
3.4 Cultural coding of the body
Recent textual and discourse theory has made the body an important
subject of research in the humanities and social sciences. The body is
viewed as a biological organism, as a reservoir of lived experience and
a biocultural information system. Studies of how the body is culturally
coded may shed light on how tacit cultural knowledge is manifested.
In many cases, focusing on the body may mean taking a critical look at
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equality. Perhaps equal status for women and men would lead to new
health problems, particularly for women. This research does not
concern women exclusively, although the female body has probably
suffered more from direct and indirect pressure and victimisation.
Gender-related research on the cultural coding of the body may also
pave the way for a more detailed understanding of masculinity.
Moreover, it may help bring out a fundamental knowledge about a
culture that modern society has repressed. In a number of areas,
gender research may turn out to revolve around discrepancies between
explicit and implicit, hidden or unconscious information about gender.
Scholarly analyses of occupational and working conditions have
borrowed perspectives and theories from approaches which have taken
little account of the body and sexuality. In Norway, studies that focus
on how concepts of the body, gender and power interact with specific
working relationships have been the exception rather than the rule. Yet
approaches based on the cultural coding of the body may be of great
relevance for an understanding of how relations between the sexes
develop and how power is exercised in working life, eg, by
management, in the commercial service sector or in the public health
sector.
The body is increasingly inscribed by different technologies. What
was previously considered a stable, basic distinction between nature
and culture is changing, as human reproduction is becoming subject to
technological control through, eg, contraception, prenatal diagnostics,
artificial insemination and fertilisation techniques and opportunities
for genetic engineering. Even though the most radical reproduction
technologies are still rare and costly, it must be assumed that a
‘consciousness of what is possible’ will strongly influence our
understanding of what love is and on the relationship between the
sexes and generations, as well as in broader terms, on our view of the
relationship between biology and technology, nature and culture.
Within this programme, it will therefore be important to promote
research that illuminates possible connections between the
development of biomedical research and changes in our view of the
body as a biological organism. There is a need for research on the
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linguistic production of the body by the social sciences, biomedical
research and technology, as well as in literature and other media.
3.5 Sexuality, gender and ambiguity
Gender and sexuality are important bases for individual identity and
group affiliation in all social systems. But the concepts of gender and
sexuality are not unambiguous categories. The significance of sexual
difference has altered in the course of history and varies among
different cultures and social groups. In modern societies, it is possible
to dissociate sex, sexuality and reproduction in ways that challenge the
dominant heterosexual paradigm, thus undermining fundamental,
generally accepted attitudes to sex as an obvious, stable way of
dividing humankind in two. As a basis for identity, gender is currently
becoming more fluid and ambiguous. With a few exceptions, sexuality
has nevertheless been a relatively narrowly defined field of research in
Norway, with the study of homosexuality, for example, being defined
as minority research. The Programme Committee will give priority to
research on the production of sexual identity that interrogates the
hierarchical relationship between hetero- and homosexuality and the
way in which the heterosexual culture makes homosexuality and
sexual diversity invisible.
Research on marginalised sexual groups might help to shed new light
on the relationship between sexuality and gender identity, different
identity constructs and identity as a process. There is a need for
empirical studies on homosexuality and other sexual subcultures as
well as theoretical research that focuses on the sexual and genderdetermined categories in empirical corpi. Many studies of
homosexuality take the categories ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’
for granted. However, it is important to examine the connection and
interaction between the construction of homosexuality and the
heterosexual system of gender and sexuality. Research on the
ambiguities inherent in gender categories and gendered selfrepresentation that transgress the culture’s gender dualism could be
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vital for an understanding of how dominant gender ideologies are
produced and reproduced. There is also a need for studies of the
impact that an awareness of HIV/aids has on thinking about gender
and sexuality.
3.6 Feminism as critique
The origin of women’s research in the general politicisation of women
and gender in the early 1970s entailed close ties to the new women’s
movement. Women’s research was research in opposition not only to
the established disciplines, but to society. ‘Gender blindness’ was the
point of departure for a general as well as a specific scientific critique.
In the development of the critical perspective in women’s research,
analyses of women and gender were integrated into an understanding
of the broader social processes of equalisation and democratisation. At
the same time, the critique was directed more towards epistemological
issues - from a general critique of the ideal of neutrality and
objectivity, to a greater emphasis on situated knowledges that takes
into account the researcher’s own standpoint and working methods.
The critical potential inherent in women’s and gender research lies in
the links established between professional expertise and a normative
brand of feminism aimed at social change. However, the feminist
debate on forms of understanding has also raised questions about the
concepts of ‘women’ and ‘men’ as social groups or social collectives.
It seems obvious that research based on such categories could serve to
cement a stereotyped sexual dualism. This raises the important
question of whether it is possible to maintain the intention to
contribute to fundamental changes in the relationship between the
sexes when feminist critique places the gender categories themselves
under scrutiny.
Thus far, there have been relatively few original theoretical
Norwegian contributions to the feminist critique of the sex-gender
system. Although ‘problem-oriented empiricism’ has been a
productive approach in Norwegian women’s research, it has not done
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much to encourage theoretical studies. In particular, much women’s
research displays a lack of explicit theoretical reflections about its
own normative premises. In order to continue the two women’s
research programmes in the social sciences and humanities, the
Programme Committee would like to encourage more basic research.
Priority will be given to projects that address the research traditions,
assumptions and models of Norwegian women’s and gender research,
across disciplinary and faculty boundaries. Priority will also be given
to projects that focus more directly on basic problems related to
Norwegian and international feminist research and theory
development. Internationally, feminist scientific theory, ethics and
normative political theory are rapidly growing fields that represent
important professional challenges. At the same time, they represent
debates that have clear political relevance, for instance, with regard to
the justification of democratic rights, the relationship between sexual
rights and human rights, and the ethical consequences of
technological/ecological development.
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Organisation, way of
working and means
4.1 Project organisation
The programme activities will be organised in a way designed to
enhance expertise, quality, concentration and contact in women’s
and gender research. The programme will provide incentives for closer
cooperation between humanists and social scientists and attach
emphasis to the interdisciplinary nature of the projects.
This field of research is characterised by the fact that there is research
expertise outside the university sector. The programme will therefore
contribute to cooperation between the universities, colleges and
institute sector. Several good women’s research networks have already
been established in Norway, not least as a result of the work done by
the women’s research centres. The programme will give priority to the
further development of networks in the programme’s designated target
areas.
The programme will support individual projects and large-scale
cooperative projects, within and across disciplinary boundaries. In the
light of the objective of strengthening contact and concentration,
emphasis will be attached to organising part of the programme
activities around larger or smaller research groups or umbrella
projects. A research group may be limited to one institution, or consist
of researchers from different institutions. This requires close
professional cooperation on the project in question. The umbrella
model is based on a somewhat looser structure in which related,
individual projects are linked together into a network.
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The objective of encouraging research efforts in fields in which there
is a particular need for new knowledge will require direct strategic
input from the Programme Committee. In this context, it might be
possible to support the development of expertise in selected areas.
To reinforce the synergistic effects of the programme, the Programme
Committee will strive to ensure that research institutions take part in
co-financing large-scale projects supported by the programme. Efforts
will be made to link up researchers with financing from different
sources with research groups working within the programme.
The programme will allocate funds on the basis of a model that
combines public invitations for projects with projects commissioned
by the Programme Committee for strategic reasons. Importance is
attached to maintaining contact with the other committees and
programmes under the auspices of Culture and Society in order to
forge links between projects and to contribute to the integration of
women’s and gender research into other subjects and programmes.
4.2 Forms of support
A project organisation model such as the one described above calls for
the Programme Committee to encourage applications for cooperative
projects across traditional disciplinary and professional boundaries, as
well as to advocate varied application of the available resources. There
is a pressing need for new recruitment and, by the same token, it is
important to maintain and further develop the human resources already
available in this field of research.
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The programme makes it possible to use a wide range of grants and
support schemes in accordance with the Research Council’s standard
schemes, including:
 project grants for researchers (salaries and operating funds)
 doctoral fellowships
 post-doctoral fellowships
 student fellowships (when directly connected to the programme’s
projects)
Applications may be submitted for individual projects or for largescale cooperative projects. Support may be granted for seminars,
conferences and other activities that contribute to the programme
objectives. Applications for such support must be incorporated into
project applications.
As regards the overall allocation of funds, the Programme Committee
will give preference to applications for projects of key importance to
the programme’s core areas and profile.
4.3 Internationalisation
One of the most notable characteristics of women’s research in
general, and one of its strong points, is its international nature. One of
the challenges facing Norwegian women’s and gender research will be
to establish even stronger links to international research centres. Thus
far, many important contributions have been available in the Nordic
languages only, limiting the value of this research in more far-reaching
international debates. In the light of this, the Programme Committee
will give priority to strengthening the international publication of
Norwegian women’s and gender research.
Within the professional framework of the programme, the Programme
Committee will evaluate various forms of support for the international
dissemination of information about the programme projects, including
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translations, the editing of publications that are part of series, and
active participation in the establishment of contacts and agreements
with publishers and editors of books and professional journals.
In addition, the Programme Committee will evaluate a variety of other
initiatives aimed at broadening international cooperation and contact.
In an effort to stimulate more international contact, the programme has
the option of providing grants or fellowships for foreign researchers to
work in Norway and for Norwegian researchers to work abroad for
limited periods of time. Such support would be based on the
assumption that those receiving such support would be part of, or
directly related to, the programme projects.
4.4 Communication/publication
High priority will be given to communicating and publishing the
programme’s activities and results. While this is especially important
in respect of publication on the international market, as mentioned
above, it also applies to the dissemination of information about the
programme to the general public. When allocating funds, the
Programme Committee will take into account applicants’ plans for
disseminating information about the project’s activities and publishing
results.
The programme will employ various kinds of publication measures,
taking account of the interests of users as well as the researchers in
selecting the most appropriate dissemination measures. The
Programme Committee would like to use seminars and conferences as
goal-oriented measures for producing publications as well as for more
general dissemination of programme results.
The Programme Committee will continue to work on the programme’s
publicity and information profile.
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4.5 Research manager
The Programme Committee will evaluate the need to hire an outside
research manager to coordinate and initiate efforts. The strong priority
attached to network-generating activities and cooperation with other
programmes and divisions, as well as to information activities, will
probably call for staffing beyond what is currently available within the
administrative services of the Programme Committee and Research
Council.
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