Equality Labeling Sustainable Development

In 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Deve10pment consolidated the need for a sustainab1e deve10pment that wou1d reconci1e global ecological, economic and social cancerns. To operationalize this three-dimensional agenda the global action plan for sustainable development, Agenda 21, emphasizes the need for a broad participation and cooperation among states and societal groups. Women betong to the major groups that were given specific attention at UNCED. As stated in both Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration, women's participation in crucia1for a successful implementation of sustainable development. Drawing on ecofeminist and social feminist theories this thesis explores the implications of women's highlighted rote in sustainable development. It a1so makes lise of theories on eco10gical modernisation to illustrate how the cooperative effort suggested in Agenda 21 has been implemented in many countries in the North. The purpose is to create a theoretical framework for the role Equality Labeling, a new market-based method to bring about gender equality in Swedish society, could play in the Swedish implementation of sustainable development. The argument in the thesis is that men and women should have equal fights and responsibilities in the implementation of sustainable development. Equality Labeling or certification of companies and organizations builds on the methods used in the politics of ecologica1modernisation to reconcile economic incentives with equality cancerns in the corporate world, and thus spread a broader awareness and commitment to men' s and women's equal fights and responsibilities on the laber market. While this voluntary method secures women equal access to societal decision-making and encourages men to take parentalleave, it also supports a democratic implementation of sustainable development. Building the experiences of environmental management systems Equality Labeling further offers a symbolic step towards an integration of economic, ecological and social cancerns on the corporate agenda.