The term “feminist” has been extremely politicized in the United States, with strong support and strong opposition to it. In Sweden, however, a majority of people self-identify as feminist. Three out of four women consider themselves in line with feminist ideals, and the feminist party was started a few years back.
With paid family leave and universal childcare, Swedish policies consistently set an example of how feminism is about gender equality, and is hence beneficial to men as well. Their paternity leave policy states that fathers are eligible for more than 400 days of paid paternity leave (most of those days at 80 percent of their normal salary). In divorce cases, joint custody is always awarded unless there is proof of serious problems, such as abuse, from the other parent. Since men and women share child responsibilities equally, stay-at-home mothers are rare in Sweden.
However, in recent years, debate has arisen about the number of successful women employees in the private sector. Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, in spite of their gender equality indices, have a lower number of women working as managers, entrepreneurs and high-achieving professionals than the United States.
This is despite the fact that a higher percentage of women in Sweden participate in the labor market than American women. The high tax burden in Sweden makes it difficult for families to survive on one income, therefore women are usually part of the workforce. However, more women work in the public sector than in the private sector. One possible reason for this is that Sweden has better wages for the public sector than other country.
Public sector jobs offer more opportunity to work part-time. Even though Swedish policies promote gender equality, men still tend to work more hours than women. Additionally, the labor market is still gender-segregated.
It seems like even though Sweden has adopted more gender-equal policies, the society as a whole has not completely adopted this mindset. They still have semblances of traditional gender roles, with women working fewer hours than men, and with certain jobs being heavily gender imbalanced. However, they are also working incredibly hard to make life better for the women who choose not to pursue very demanding careers. As for more women working in private sectors, that may happen with time. It doesn’t seem to be a lack of opportunity that is holding them back, but in fact a lack of social momentum. Social movements like feminism give people tools that they can use, but it still takes time before they actually start using them to their fullest extent.
The lack of women leaders in the private sector is also important because it has given rise to a school of thought called the “Nordic Gender Equality Paradox.” This school of thought initially started in Norway, when the Norwegian State Television aired a documentary called the “Gender Equality Paradox” in 2011. The documentary questions the fact that Nordic countries still have way more male engineers than female engineers and a lot less male nurses than female nurses. The documentary, created by comedian Harald Eia, argues that there is no scientific basis for even having gender equality as a policy goal. It had enough of an impact to cause the Norwegian government to cut its funding for gender studies. To address the lack of female managers and CEOs, this documentary and its proponents say that women typically prefer work that is less technical and involves dealing with people. They say that in Sweden, when women don’t have that much of a financial incentive to pursue technical jobs, they instead take jobs that they stereotypically would prefer.
The problem with this line of thought is that it criticizes all sorts of affirmative action that Sweden has been taking to increase the presence of women in education, government, STEM and entrepreneurial fields. Sweden has introduced quotas for women on the boards of companies, in technical fields, in schools and in government. However, if more people begin to adopt the ideology that women prefer non-technical fields, this affirmative action will reduce. This ideology ignores the historical context of women in the labor force. Women don’t necessarily prefer traditional, non-technical jobs, but they have historically been taught to pursue those. Even though they now don’t have that restriction, the historical context is important because it still influences societal norms.
The Swedish government is doing a lot to introduce policies in support of gender equality. This does not, however, mean that Sweden now has completely gender-equal labor markets and social norms. The policies are working toward obliterating traditional gender roles in all aspects of life, but that goal hasn’t been achieved yet.
