Men at the top and the bottom of society

In this presentation, we will address some of the main challenges to
understanding power and masculinity in contemporary societies. At the
theoretical level, we will argue that there is a need to rethink the
understanding of gendered power relations and th at the most widespread
theoretical approach in men and masculinity studies, the hegemonic
masculinity approach, has some limitations in understanding the
ambiguities and differences in men’s access to patriarchal power. As an
alternative, we suggest an in tersectionality approach arguing that
different social categories (such as gender, class, ethnicity, age)
mutually constitute each other both at a structural level and at a level
for identity constructions. This means that the category of
gender/masculinit y cannot be understood without taking into account
other social categories.
At the empirical level, we will elaborate this argument in relation to
men’s position in the Nordic societies, which is characterized by an
extreme polarization between men at t he top and men at the bottom of
society. At the top of society you typically find corporate elites and
upper middle class men in government and public administration who in
their work often promote a masculine culture directly or indirectly
excluding women , whereas they in their family lives are devotes to a
high degree of gender equality and involved fatherhood. At the same
time, other groups of men, which are constructed as opposed to a
dominating gender equality discourse, are often relegated to lower
p o sitions in the masculine hierarchy, especially if they are unskilled
working class men representing competences that have lost their value in
a globalized word. Or if they are ethnic minority men, who are
marginalized or illegitimated.
This complexity i s essential to understanding the gendered power
relation in contemporary Nordic Welfare states and a requirement in
order to rethink the ideals of equality in relation to gender as well as
class and ethnicity