Sweden's political policies and governance

¶ … Gender and Public Policy or Activism. Does your state (Sweden) have gendered policies, if so, for how long? What are the stipulations of their policies? Are there major feminist activists within the country, if so what are they pushing for?

Sweden has long made a sustained effort to include women in the architecture of its government and also to pursue policies that make it easier for women to balance the demands of work and home. Sweden offers free public child care to women as well as paid parental leave to both parents. "The vast majority of women claim virtually the whole amount of permitted parental leave at the 90% replacement of income rate," (Lewis & Astrm 90). About 40% of the Swedish parliament and local government representatives are women, and the present Swedish national government includes an equal number of women and men (Gustafsson 43). However, despite such family policies, one study found that there was actually more of a 'glass ceiling' effect in lower and middle managerial levels in Sweden than in the United States. The authors of the study hypothesized that more energy has been devoted to pressure the government to reformulate social welfare policies; given the critical role the government plays in Swedish society, than using the law to fight discrimination in the private sphere (Baxter & Wright 289). Female penetration into commerce was not on par to that of government, but this could also be due to the fact that women were more attracted in Sweden to public service in greater numbers than in the U.S.

Regardless, the overall numbers regarding female participation in the workforce are impressive: "Swedish increase has been more dramatic both because participation rates were lower during the 1950s and early 1960s than in countries such as the United States or Britain and because of the very high participation rates achieved by women with young children. By 1986, 89.8% of women aged twenty-five to fifty-four (only 5% less than men of comparable age) were in the labor market and 85.6% of women with children under seven worked compared with 55% in 70 the United States and 28% in Britain" (Lewis & Astrm 70-71). The policies that caused such a radical shift in Sweden are unique, even in comparison to other Western countries, because of their lack of gender specificity, even though they address concerns critical to activists in the feminist movement in Sweden and around the world. "Most states operate a gendered model of welfare entitlements that defines and treats women as wives and/or mothers. Their labor market position then becomes a matter of individual 'choice'....In Sweden, the definition of women's entitlements to welfare in family policies has changed dramatically since the early 1970s, away from the provision of benefits to them as mothers and toward benefits that they draw by virtue of their labor market status. Yet, paradoxically, the outcome of this shift has been the strengthening of policies that recognize women's needs as mothers. The framework of equal treatment on the basis of labor market participation supported by a full employment policy seems to have made possible the greater recognition of women's caring work in the family" (Lewis & Astrm 59).