Gender equality

Equality in the workplace

Sweden has come a long way in making sure that women and men are treated equally in the workplace. Gender discrimination in the workplace has been illegal since 1980. The Swedish Discrimination Act (pdf) from 2009 demands that employers not only actively promote equality between men and women, but also take measures against harassment. Following a 2017 expansion of the law, the preventive work includes harassment related to all grounds for discrimination: an employer’s sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation and age.

The act also states that employees and job applicants who are, have been or will be taking parental leave may not be treated unfairly.

Cases of discrimination can be reported to the Swedish Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen), a goverment agency that protects equal rights. ‘Discrimination’ includes cases of unfair treatment by an employer in connection with an employee’s parental leave.

The global gender gap

Every year, the international organisation World Economic Forum ranks around 150 countries based on the gap between women and men according to indicators within health, education, economy and politics. Since the report's inception in 2006, Sweden has never ranked lower than fifth.

ECONOMIC EQUALITY

Sweden has greatly increased the economic equality between women and men over time. Still, a pay gap remains. This is one of the challenges on the Swedish gender equality agenda.

Why is there not equal pay?

In 2021, women’s average monthly salaries in Sweden were 90.1 per cent of men’s.

The pay gap between men and women can partly be explained by differences in profession, sector, position, work experience and age. But some of them seem to have more to do with gender.

The Discrimination Act states that employers and employees should work actively for equal pay for equal work, as well as promote equal opportunity for women and men to receive a pay rise.

The Swedish Women’s Lobby (Sveriges Kvinnolobby) aims, among other things, to ensure that everyone gets equal pay, regardless of sex. In 2012 a particular 'pay all day' movement was started to illustrate the pay gap by saying that women basically don't get paid for a full day's work.

This movement is a co-operation between political women’s unions, trade union organisations and women’s movement societies.

Part-time partly explains it

Every third woman and every tenth man in Sweden work part-time. The major reason for this is lack of relevant full-time employment, but the second most common reason for women is childcare, followed by caring for an elderly relative.

When women have children, they tend to work part-time more often than men. The downside of this is a less positive career and wage development for women, as well as a poor pension. A woman who, after taking parental leave, works 50 per cent of full-time for 10 years and then 75 per cent for another ten years will have a pension that is only 71 per cent of what a person working full-time will get.

WORK AND FAMILY

Sweden does pretty well when it comes to work–family balance. The average Swedish woman has 1.67 children (EU average: 1.5) and, at the same time, the rate of working women (between 15 and 74) is relatively high, 66.0% .

The kids-and-career equation

A family policy that supports working parents with the same rights and obligations for both women and men makes it easier for parents in Sweden to find a decent work–life balance.

Childcare is guaranteed to all parents and the aim is that nursery school should be affordable for all. It was in the 1970s that public childcare was reformed and expanded to facilitate for families with two working parents.

What’s with all the male nannies?

In 1974, Sweden was the first country in the world to replace gender-specific maternity leave with parental leave. The so-called parental insurance enabled couples to take six months’ off work per child, with each parent entitled to half of the days. However, a father could sign his days over to the mother – and as a result, two decades later, 90 per cent of paternity leave in Sweden was being used by mothers only.

In 1995, the first pappamånad – ‘daddy month’ – was introduced, with 30 days of leave reserved for the father on a use-it-or-lose-it basis. If the father decided not to use that month off work, the couple would lose one month’s paid leave. In 2002, this was extended to two ‘daddy months’, or 60 days. And in 2016, to three ‘daddy months’, with 90 days of paid leave reserved for fathers. Today, fathers take around 30 per cent of the total number of days available to the couple.

The relatively high number of fathers on ‘daddy leave’ has caused foreign journalists to wonder why there are so many male nannies in Sweden. Others call them ‘latte dads’.

MEN'S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Global figures indicate that about 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence, often within a relationship. Sweden works actively to defend and strengthen the rights of women and girls.

Rape and sexual assault

Rape statistics from different countries are difficult to compare as there are differences in definition as well as how a crime is registered.

In 2018, Sweden adopted a new sexual consent law, which states that sex without explicit consent is rape, even when there has been no violence or threats.

In Sweden, unlike some other countries, each and every reported rape is registered as a separate crime. Taking a hypothetical example, if a perpetrator rapes the same victim three times and these three incidents are all reported, then three cases of rape will be registered.

The victim’s willingness to report may also differ between countries.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) publishes statistics on rape in Sweden.

Costly violence

Over the years, the number of reported cases of violence against women in Sweden has risen significantly. This is partly due to changing attitudes that encourage more women to speak out. However, it is not easy to determine whether violence against women has increased, as many cases go unreported.

In 2021, around 28,900 cases of violence against women (link in Swedish) over the age of 18 were recorded in Sweden. In 81 per cent of the cases the reported perpetrator was someone the woman knew.

Sweden’s current Act on Violence against Women came into force in 1998. Each physical blow and/or instance of sexual and psychological degradation against the woman is taken into account.

Please make note that international comparison of crime statistics are notoriously difficult – the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention explains more about that here.

Guy talk

Global Guy Talk is an initiative by the Swedish non-profit foundation Make Equal (link in Swedish). It started as #killmiddag in Sweden and is now being spread to the rest of the world. The concept is simple: a group of men get together and start talking about things that men rarely talk about. It could be vulnerability, love, friendship… The project aims to give men the chance to contribute to a more equal society by starting with themselves.