How equal is Sweden?

Sweden, one of the most equal countries in the world today. We have been struggling for
equal rights only for one hundred years, but how equal is it in Sweden?

To find out we must go back one hundred years. It all started in the beginning of the 20
´century. In 1918 all men could vote at the age of 23. Before that only rich men were able to
do so. Then people started to pay attention to female voting and the demand for female
voting was so strong that in 1921 women could finally vote.

In the beginning of the 60´s the modern equality politics is starting to emerge. People started
to question the housewife ideal. A big feminist group required several social reforms. They
wanted kindergarten, free abortion and equal salary. It was also now people began to use
the word “equality”. Later on in the beginning of the 70´s decade, did the government create
a deputation for women with purpose to claim their rights to work. That they should have the
same possibilities as men. During the 90´s the equality was raised a bit more, women are
now half of the government in Sweden but there are still some differences.

In the 21st century there is still some big inequalities between men and women. The biggest
one today is probably the difference in salary. For instance women make 80 percent of what
men do per yearly salary as of 2013. This obviously leads to less tax for the women but the
men have higher profits. It also depends on what occupation they have. Something that
people doesn’t always pay attention to is that women get higher subsidies but it is mostly
connected to being a parent.
Women's carers is repealed when they give birth to their children, most of the times but not
always. Men only use 25 percent of their parental leave at the same time women use 75
percent. Of course this depends on what the families decide. You can’t force every family to
share their leave 50/50 but what the government can do is to exhort companies to give their
workers good conditions when it comes to parental leave. This will in return give the
possibility for every family to distribute their leave as they want.
As a result of the difference between the parental leave women are given higher parental
benefit than men. They do also have a higher child benefit and higher alimony. The only
problem is that all the alimonies isn’t enough for the women to compare their salary with the
men's.

This could be the solution to the salary gap between men and women. If a woman is paid
less for the same job as a man and the company denies to raise her salary, the government
could even out the difference with higher alimonies. One important thing here is that if a man
and a women have the same salary for the same job, they should of course also have the
exact same alimony.

In many of the jobs today there is still an uneven distribution between men and women.
Something that isn’t well known is that jobs like nurse, elementary schoolteacher or child
welfare there are much more women than men. The problem here is that the debate is not
even attentioned, but when there is a majority of men in one occupation the debate is very
big. Why it is like this is not known, but probably because men have always been the
majority and the politicians doesn’t see it as a problem. The strange thing about this is that in
an equal society you need to look at all the areas where it can be provoked. Just because
one area doesn’t seem to be a problem doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem.
To summarize this I think we have a very equal society in Sweden. Since 1921 both men
and women can vote and during the whole 20 century we became more and more equal. It
still exists differences in some parts but we have come a far way. I think people must decide
themselves whether they think something is equal or not unless it is very obvious then of
course the politicians should pick it up. Big questions like salary and parental leave can also
be taken care of by yourself. If you are being treated differently because of your gender then
you should really stand up and say what you think. In Sweden everyone shall be treated the
same regardless to their gender.
Thank you for listening.