The Nordic model of gender equality has been constructed as very successful in both national and international discourses (Esping-Andersen, 1990; Melby et al, 2009). One of these Nordic countries, Sweden, has a strong and well-documented self-image as the most modern and gender-equal country in the world, an image described by many as ‘Swedish exceptionalism’ (de los Reyes et al, 2002; Andersson, 2009; Shierup and Åhlund, 2011; Habel, 2012; Fahlgren, 2013).

Feminist, queer, anti-racist and postcolonial scholars in Sweden argue that while gender equality as a mythical Swedish success story has become a mantra nationally as well as internationally, this cherishing of the gender-equality norm is also highly problematic. This mantra, as the opening quote indicates, makes gender equality a national trait, which belies the actuality of equality in Sweden, not least in an age when the welfare state is in retrenchment and neoliberal politics rule. It also ignores that this gender-equality model (re)produces a whole range of problematic norms. Our aim in this volume is to explore the Swedish gender-equality model and ask what norms, emotions, challenges and fantasies are produced through, as well as iterated by, this mantra. Drawing on extensive research (de los Reyes, 2001, 2002; Molina and Mulinari, 2002; Martinsson, 2006; Dahl, 2005; Mattsson, 2010; Listerborn, 2011; Lundahl, 2010; Mulinari and Selberg, 2013; Mulinari and Neergaard, 2014), we suggest that the hegemonic norm of gender equality in Sweden builds upon and produces naturalised, nationalist, hetero- and cisnormative and racialised positions in a postcolonial and neoliberal time and space. We will analyse the actuality of equality politics and policies in Sweden in relation to their enactment and argue that the gender-equality norm is strongly performative (Butler, 1990) in ways that are not always predictable. In the Afterword, the possibility of rethinking the Swedish gender-equality model will be discussed.