• Basic level: Swedish politics, Comparative politics, Political Theory (social science), Swedish and Comparative politics (social science), Political systems (Dept of Social work), Gender and organizations (Dept of Gender Studies)
• Intermediate level: Constitutional politics
• Advanced level: Politics and Gender
• Master's level: Gender Equality Politics locally and globally, Politics and Gender Essay Seminar, Public Administration Essay Seminar
• Student advisor at the C-level.

Lenita Freidenvall’s research interests include political representation and quotas, citizenship and the multicultural, political parties and nomination processes, gender equality politics, constitutional politics, new institutional theory, and intersectionality.

Member of WiP (Women in Politics Research Centre).

Research projects

1. Electoral Gender Quotas / Könskvotering inom politiken

A global research project on the new world-wide trend to adopt gender quotas for the electoral lists, see www.statsvet.su.se/quotas and www.quotaproject.org
Initially financed by The Swedish Research Council (with Drude Dahlerup).
Read more »

2. Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe

Financed by The European Parliament, see www.statsvet.su.se/wip (with Drude Dahlerup, and in co-operation with International IDEA)

3. FEMCIT – Gendered citizenship in a multicultural Europe

Partner in this large integrated research project under the Sixth Framework of the European Commission, see www.femcit.org - our focus is on gender and ethnicity/minority representation (with Drude Dahlerup). Read more »

4. DEMDI

Multidimensional Equality and Democratic Diversity (DEMDI) is an inter-disciplinary Nordic researcher network funded by NordForsk for the three-year period 2009-2011. The objective of the network is to consolidate and develop the field of research on Equality Politics and Democratic Diversity.  The coordinators of the four national teams are: Birte Siim, Denmark, Kevät Nousiainen, Finland, Hege Skjeie, Norway and Lenita Freidenvall, Sweden.

5. Project Beijing +15

In relation to the Swedish EU Presidency in the autumn of 2009, the unit for gender equality at the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality has been given the task of analysing the follow-up of the Beijing Platform for Action, Beijing + 15. Lenita Freidenvall has been appointed co-ordinator of the research group. Read more »
Published report »

6. FIIN (The Feminism and Institutionalism International Network)

This is a new group of feminist scholars from Europe, Australia and North America who have come together to explore the interplay between feminist approaches to gendered institutions and new institutional theory. www.femfiin.com

7. Bortom Rösträtten (The Suffrage and Beyond)

This is an inter-disciplinary network of Nordic scholars who focus on gender, power and citizenship. A joint publication is planned for the fall of 2009 (together with Josefin Rönnbäck). A conference was held in June 08, sponsored by the Swedish Research Council and Södertorn University College.

8. The Working Committee on Constitutional reform (Grundlagsutredningen)

The primary task for the Working Committee is to conduct a concerted review of the present Instrument of government from 1974. Lenita Freidenvall has made an analysis of the Instrument of Government from a Gender Perspective. www.grundlagsutredningen.se

Additional functions

Visiting Scholar at the Swedish Parliament, 2003-2004

Visiting Scholar at CAWP, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA fall 2004. Research visit financed by the Sweden-America Foundation.

Gender Equality Ombudsman, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, 2006-2007.

Gender Helpdesk

The Centre for Gender Studies, Stockholm University has entered into agreement with Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) to establish a Gender Helpdesk. The Gender Helpdesk is staffed by gender specialists at Stockholm University who are commissioned to assess and analyse material for Sida. Sida’s programme offices may receive assistance in formulating strategies, policy documents, terms of reference, assessment memoranda and actions plans, etc.

The coordinator for the Gender Helpdesk at Stockholm University is Dr. Lenita Freidenvall. She may be reached at lenita.freidenvall@statsvet.su.se or genderhelpdesk@kvinfo.su.se.

For further information, see www.erg.su.se/genusstudier.

Database

Global Database of Quotas for Women (co-authored with Christina Alnevall, Julie Ballington, Virginia Beramendi-Heine, Drude Dahlerup, Mona Lena Krook and Anja Thorup Nordlund). Stockholm: International IDEA and Stockholm University, 2003.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• A legislative gender equality norm as a catalyst for change? Discursive convergence in the case of the Swedish Parliament

  2021. Josefina Erikson, Lenita Freidenvall. European Journal of Politics and Gender 4 (3), 403-421

  Article

  This article addresses the establishment of gender-equality norms in a case often presented as one of the most gender-equal legislatures in the world, namely, the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen). Based on a series of in-depth interviews between 2005 and 2016 with 90 legislators in the Swedish Parliament, we ask whether there is agreement over gender-equality problems in Parliament that cut across gender and party affiliation, and whether there is convergence over time in this regard. Our findings show that there is a trend of convergence of the gender-inequality framings over time, which indicates the establishment of a shared legislative gender-equality norm. We suggest that a legislative gender-equality norm might work as a catalyst for progressive and continuous work in this area.

  Read more about A legislative gender equality norm as a catalyst for change? Discursive convergence in the case of the Swedish Parliament

• Gender knowledge and gender expertise

  2020. Lenita Freidenvall. Social Politics 27 (4), 742-764

  Article

  Through an analysis of the Swedish government development program for gender mainstreaming in state agencies—the JIM (Jämställdhet i myndigheter)program—this article analyzes how gender equality is constructed (gender knowledge) and what role specialized knowledge (gender expertise) has in policy implementation. The article claims that even in best-case scenarios, such as Sweden, where intensive efforts to integrate a gender perspective have been undertaken, gender knowledge is based on visions and strategies that do not question prevailing policy paradigms. However, cross-cutting and intersectional conceptualizations of gender equality have created epistemic space for transformative interventions on the part of gender experts.

  Read more about Gender knowledge and gender expertise

• The speaker's gender equality group in the Swedish parliament - a toothless tiger?

  2020. Lenita Freidenvall, Josefina Erikson. Politics, Groups, and Identities 8 (3), 627-636

  Article

  A recent wave of research has engaged with gender-focused bodies within parliament studying their status, organization, and function. One type of body scarcely studied is issue-based parliamentary groups such as the Speaker's Gender Equality Group in the Swedish Parliament. This article focuses on the form and function of this body, as well as its potentials and pitfalls. On the basis of secondary sources, two waves of interviews with men parliamentarians (MPs) and inside observations the Speaker's gender equality group is analyzed from the 1990s until today. We conclude that despite lacking formal legislative power, this body has a key symbolic and informal role, manifested in the political will and engaged leadership to ensure that equal working conditions for women and men MPs are promoted. We also find constraints in terms of the limited and general (rather than expert) administrative support as well as the need for consistent authorization.

  Read more about The speaker's gender equality group in the Swedish parliament - a toothless tiger?

• Women’s Descriptive and Substantive Representation in Nordic Politics

  2020. Lenita Freidenvall. Women, Policy and Political Leadership, 169-179

  Chapter

  Read more about Women’s Descriptive and Substantive Representation in Nordic Politics

• Gender, ethnicity, and political inclusion

  2019. Lenita Freidenvall, Drude Dahlerup. Borderlands in European gender studies, 230-251

  Chapter

  This chapter explores a critical perspective on today’s diverse processes of rebordering within Europe, with a specific focus on the unfulfilled goal of full and gender-fair political citizenship. A West-centric skew has permeated feminist knowledge production within a geopolitical space in which Central and Eastern Europe has been transformed from the Second World to the second Other of Europe. Political citizenship, or equal representation of citizens in elected decision-making bodies, is a central pillar of modern democracy. The point of departure in the quota debate is the social composition of elected assemblies, i.e., the descriptive representation. The Communist parties mobilized separate women’s organizations, which in some countries, for instance in the German Democratic Republic, were guaranteed a certain number of seats alongside trade unions and youth organizations. The political parties were asked about their general positions on the importance of gender in candidate selection.

  Read more about Gender, ethnicity, and political inclusion

Show all publications by Lenita Freidenvall at Stockholm University