Toward a Third Way: Women's Politics and Welfare Policies in Sweden

Author(s): MAUD L. EDUARDS

Source: Social Research , FALL 1991, Vol. 58, No. 3 (FALL 1991), pp. 677-705
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40970665

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Toward a Third Way: /
Women's Politics /
and Welfare /
Policies in /
Sweden / by maud l. eduards

x he number of politically active women has increase

dramatically in many Western countries during the last twen
years. But what do they do in politics? How do they interpret
women's interests? Have they been able to influence th
framing of welfare and gender-equality policies? If so, in
whose favor? In which fields? Using what strategies?
"The greatest challenge facing the contemporary women
movement is the translation of its goals and objectives in
public policy," runs the introductory sentence in Ellen
Boneparth's book Women, Power and Policy.1 This applies
women's possibilities of influencing political decision-making,
and accordingly to participation, democracy, power, an
agency. Welfare means not only material benefits and
socioeconomic security but also the right to control an
transform the design of public policy.
This article discusses the role of women and women's politic
in the policymaking process, and what effects this has had on
women's conditions and on their empowerment in relation
men. From a gender-equality perspective, the conditions
men and women must be seen in one and the same context in

1 Ellen Boneparth, Women, Power and Policy (New York: Pergamon Press, 1984), p. 1.

SOCIAL RESEARCH, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Fall 1991)

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 678 SOCIAL RESEARCH

other countries and other time

women have improved their lot
I propose to concretize the p
Swedish public policies from
come-parental insurance (1974)
Equal Opportunities Act (1980),
in the investigation Every Other
policies are in various ways conce
control over motherhood, repr
workplace, and policymaking.
My general question is: Who
whom? There are three aspects
content, and effects. Where acto
all interested in women as po
different women's groups with
cooperation between women's g
political system and outside it- th
strategies and collective actions. A
to highlight purpose and prob
whether the point of departu
neutral" or is specific to women
women's oppression. Where outco
I will be discussing the distributi
between the sexes, and the me
women: symbolic value, mate
empowerment.
In modern Western industrialized countries, there are
basically two ideal types of women's politics or strategies for
furthering women's conditions in society: one liberal and the
other socialist/social democratic. The liberal ideology treats
women and men as individuals or defines women as one of
many interests groups, like immigrants, the handicapped or

2 Maud Eduards et al., "Equality: How Equal? Public Policies in the Nordic
Countries," in Elina Haavio-Mannila et al., eds., Unfinished Democracy: Women in Nordic
Politics (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985), pp. 134-159.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 679

students. The perspective is pluralist

Women and men should be treated e
equal rights and obligations. The corr
representative democracy, with compet
popularly elected bodies. In this politic
structure, public policies are initiated
favor of women and men.

In socialist/social-democratic ideology, women and men are

primarily seen as class members, with congruent interests. Class
takes precedence over sex. The mode of production or the
functioning of the labor market ("the right to work") are the
focal point of this perspective, which is also gender-neutral.
The corresponding structure is the tripartite institutionaliza-
tion of the opposition between labor and capital with state
intervention in policy conflicts. This corporate channel of
influence, as it is called, "in fact gives some of its citizens two
votes."3 Public policies are strongly influenced by the labor
movement, comprised mostly of men, in favor of the working
class (family).
In recent decades, a third ideal type has also made its way into
the political debate: feminism. Seen from the perspective of
this school, women and men are sex groups, and gender is not
primarily an issue that can be added to all the others but a basic
conflict dimension in society. In this view, public policies
should be women-specific- that is, initiated by women's
separate collective actions, defined in terms of women's
interests (as opposed to men's), and, hence, explicitly favoring
women, the subordinated sex.
Each ideal type has its own policymaking logic as regards
relevant actors, policy content, and desired effects and
politicizes gender differently. My general purpose here is to
analyze Swedish politics pertaining to gender equality against
the background of these three ideal types. My more specific

3 Erik Oddvar Eriksen, "Towards the Post-Corporate State?" Scandinavian Political

Studies 13 (1990): 347.

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 680 SOCIAL RESEARCH

aim is to discuss the space for

political life. To what degree ar
Are women building a "third w
socialist models, to safeguard th
are feminist demands dealt with? What would a feminist
political structure that corresponds to a feminist definition of
gender relations be like?

Swedish Welfare Policies

While most political decisions or measures lack any aspect

that has specifically to do with gender, what were once known
as "women's issues" have, in recent decades, acquired a new
profile as "gender equality" or "equal status" policies. Public
policies relate to the gender dimension in society in different
ways, but the scope of those officially labeled "equal status"
policies remains limited, although aspects of gender equality
are, of course, implicitly or explicitly built into most public
policies. Social- welfare policies are regarded as being of special
value to women's needs.
The major social-welfare reforms introduced in Sweden
since the 1930s have had universalism as their guiding
principle -that is, benefits should be equal for all, tied to the
individual as citizen.4 The basic pension system (1935) is one
example. But most benefits are related to the individual as
employee, to his or her wage-earning capacity. This principle
applies to the general health-insurance system (1955) and the
supplementary pension system (I960).5
Tying benefits to a person's gainful employment puts

4 The term "citizen" not only refers to Swedish citizens but also to foreign nationals
resident in Sweden who meet certain requirements. This applies, for example, to the
basic pension system (1935) and to the general child allowances (1948) given to all
children under 16 living in Sweden.
5 Sickness benefits are based on income under the national health-insurance scheme.
Medical care is equal for all, however, and virtually free. Supplementary pensions are
given to persons who have been gainfully employed for at least thirty years. The
amount is calculated on the average of the best paid fifteen years.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 681

women at a disadvantage. Women in

an employment rate that is almost th
are employed on completely different
of the women in gainful employmen
means that they are generally paid le
taking time off work for reasons o
almost entirely peculiar to women.
"To be in an advantaged position t
individual must sell his/her labour, r
work full time and spend some con
labour market," write Staffan Marklun
All these criteria discriminate again
marginal group (those unable to obtai
varies between 10 and 40 percent
welfare programs: retirement pens
family protection, and unemploym
ginal group mainly consists of w
although the percentage of wom
increased labor-market participation.7
On the whole, there seems to be no
tied to wage labor benefits men mo
detailed analyses of the (re)distribut
made, however. It is obvious, thoug
the size of which is equal for all citiz
from men to women and from the
lower, with working-class women b
name implies, however, the income
pension scheme does not redistrib
income groups such as women belon
the upper strata most.8
One unambiguous step toward gre

6 Staffan Marklund and Stefan Svallfors, Dual W

Enforcement in the Swedish Welfare System (Resear
Sociology, University of Umeâ, 1987), p. 22.
7 Ibid., p. 39.
8 Ann-Charlotte Stâhlberg, "Pensionerna- vad beta
Debatt 1 (1988): 13-20.

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 682 SOCIAL RESEARCH

dence for women was the 1971 reform of the income-tax

system. Until then, married and unmarried couples had both
their national and local taxes calculated on the basis of their
combined incomes. As the national income-tax system in
Sweden is progressive, this meant unfavorable economic
consequences for the family whenever the female spouse
became gainfully employed. Since 1971, however, married
persons are for the most part taxed separately. The
introduction of the tax reform implied a changed view of
women: they were no longer regarded as mothers/spouses, in
this respect, but as independent, gainfully employed individu-
als. Separate taxation, first advocated by the Liberal party, has
been regarded as perhaps the most important step in
promoting equality between women and men.9
More selectively applied and means-tested benefits still play
an important role in Swedish social policy as a means of
making the most economical and effective use of resources.
The selective housing allowances for pensioners and for
families with children are by far the two biggest items of this
kind. Welfare policies have the family as one of its major
targets.

Parental Insurance

The two main equal-status goals of the Swedish Social

Democratic government have long been strengthening the
position of women in the labor market and strengthening the
position of men, above all as fathers. It is clear, however, that it
is the first of these that has received most attention. The
essential thing is that everyone, men and women alike, should

9 Annika Baude, "Public Policy and Changing Family Patterns in Sweden

1930-1977," in Jean Lipman-Blumen and Jessie Bernard, eds., Sex Roles and Social
Policy (London: Sage, 1979), pp. 145-175. See also Louise Drangel, "Folkpartiet och
jämställdhetsfragan," in Liberal Ideologi och Politik (AB Folk 8c Samhälle, 1984), pp.
342-425.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 683

be able to support themselves on their

are some reforms that aim at combin
parental insurance, which entitles p
more commonly known in other count
(1974); the right of parents of infan
working day (1979); and ATP (supplem
for the care of children at home (1982).10 The Swedish
family-insurance system is probably the most generous in the
world in terms of duration and level of benefits for those
eligible.
Specific maternity benefits were developed during the
1930s. In 1974 these were changed into a parental insurance,
extending the rights to both parents. Only the mother, though,
was given the opportunity of interrupting her work before and
immediately after giving birth, but thereafter either parent
could stay at home and take care of the child. Parents were
compensated for income loss up to 180 days at childbirth plus
up to ten days per year for occasional care of their own sick
children until they were ten years old.11 A new way of thinking
was introduced with these reforms- not only mothers, but
mothers and fathers together, should have the responsibility
for the care of their children.

These policy changes were prefaced by an increasing trend

for mothers to be gainfully employed. Women did not
exchange paid work for motherhood, they only made
interruptions in their employment of shorter or longer
duration. Women were needed in the labor market, and
women needed gainful employment in order to maintain the
family living standard. The ambition of the labor movement to
ameliorate the situation for families with children could hardly
be realized through expensive cash benefits. The best support
parents could get was the opportunity- for both- to work.

10 Since 1982 care of children has counted as gainful employment in the

supplementary pension scheme.
11 The benefit period has been gradually extended. Since July 1, 1989, it is ninety
days per child annually up to age 16.

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 684 SOCIAL RESEARCH

The expansion of day-care cen

child-minding facilities were ther
the Social Democratic governmen
This "women as workers" policy,
day-care centers (1976), were su
parties, as well as by the labor-ma
to be found for women in the e
family made to adapt to the new d
and industrial policies. Not that t
overriding objectives of famil
onward, there was a line of demar
hand, the Conservative and the
more in favor of the housewife fa
Liberals, Social Democrats, and C
the two-provider family.
Many female politicians played a
on family policy, but they did n
women's opinion. If anything, di
came to be expressed- for ex
Democratic and Liberal parties
day-care centers for children or
kinds for parents. As early as 19
of the Liberal party called for chi
payment to parents with small
attracting women into the lab
child-care allowances put forward
party, on the other hand, wa
housewives. The debate within t
ended with a definite rejection
1973.12
Here, then, were latent lines of c
formulated in traditional bloc terms until the 1988 election

12 Jonas Hinnfors, Vhrdnadsbidragsdebatten 1960-1973 (Arbetsrapport, Statsvetenska-

pliga institutionell, Göteborgs universitet, 1988). See also Kerstin Abukhanfusa, Piskan
och Moroten-om könens tilldelning av rättigheter och skydigheter (Stockholm: Carlssons,
1987).

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 685

campaign. For the first time ever,

Conservative parties presented a sp
year parental insurance plus a taxab
15 thousand SEK (the equivalen
annually for all children betwee
seven- in opposition to the traditio
Democratic and Left Party Communis
nonsocialist parties lost the electi
majority consisting of the Social Dem
and the Greens was able to pass leg
extension of the parental insurance b
months as of July 1, 1989. 13 The l
again defined parents' interests in rel
in contrast to the outspoken child-car
Center party women's organization in
What, then, has parental insuranc
men assumed more responsibility f
acquired a firmer foothold in the
extent is it a gender-equality reform
reforms mentioned above have ma
mothers. The reforms are gender-
more closely tied to the labor mark
using these parental rights, takin
insurance only 7.5 percent of the t
earnings" principle has in all cer
fathers to take time off (the reason b
have the biggest incomes). A genera
on the other hand, would reduce th
types of family, but it would probab
staying at home.
Men as fathers have far from assu
regards home and children for whic

13 In April 1990, the Social Democratic governmen

decided to postpone the final extension of paren
months due to financial circumstances.

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 686 SOCIAL RESEARCH

have made a provision, but thei

changed. In the two-provider fa
same economic responsibility f
emotional concern has been a
reforms, which is unusual when seen from an international
perspective. However, if men do not make greater use of their
rights, the introduction of sex quotas into the parental
insurance scheme has been mentioned- even by the equal
opportunities minister. The women's organization of the Social
Democratic party has also long taken the position that parental
insurance must be shared between the mother and the father.
There also remains the problem of the weaker foothold
women have in the labor market. Since women stay at home
with their children, their position in the labor market is hardly
strengthened in relation to that of men. Women become the
victims of the good intentions of the voluntarism and
neutrality of legislation. There are even studies indicating that
women do not dare to make full use of the reforms because
this restricts their opportunities in working life. And without
gainful employment there is no entry into the core social-
security system. This situation has been dubbed "women's
reforms on men's conditions."14 The new extended parental
insurance has been accused by various women's groups of
aggravating the situation.
The ambivalent position of the welfare state is quite evident:
women are a labor force on the one hand and mothers on the
other. But there has been a change, over time, in the public
definition of women, from mothers to "wage-earning par-
ents."15 In practice, parental insurance has been an incentive
for women to be gainfully employed before they get pregnant.
No paid job means no paid leave.

14 Catharina Calleman et al., Kvinnoreformer pà männens villkor (Lund: Studentlitter-

atur, 1984). Cf. Elisabet Näsman and Eva Falkenberg, Parental Rights in the Work and
Family Interface (Stockholm: Arbetslivscentrum, 1989).
15 Gertrud Aström, "Föräldraförsäkring och vârdnadsbidrag- om förhallandet
mellan ideologi och verklighet," Kvinnovetenskaplig Tidskrift 2 (1990): 37-48.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 687

Summing up, parental insurance is

reform, formulated in gender-neutral
out in the interests of the labor movem
the political parties, devoid of any
women's politics profile, and having lim
as regards responsibility for children a
of labor in the home. However, femini
in the legislation, based on women's
been put forward by some groups of w

The Law on Abortion16

In 1974, an Abortion Act was passed by the Swedish

parliament. The new law, which came into effect on January 1,
1975, replaced the 1938 law which was by then very much
outdated in the sense of practical applicability. The 1975 law
leaves the decision on abortion to the woman alone up to the
end of the eighteenth week of pregnancy, but with the
provision that an inquiry and counseling by a social worker is
mandatory after the twelfth week. Late abortions, after the
eighteenth week, may be performed for special reasons, but
only after approval by the National Board of Health and
Welfare.17

By the late 1920s and early '30s Communists and Social

Democratic women were already demanding that a commis-
sion be set up for investigating the fact that abortion was
classified as a criminal act. The 1938 law was a major step
forward, but the number of illegal abortions was still
considerable.

In the early 1960s, young radicals within social democratic

and liberal groups engaged in an intensive debate, arguing for
the right of women to decide on the abortion question. At the

16 This section is based on material compiled by Dagmar von Waiden Laing.

17 SFS (Svensk Författningssamling), 1974, p. 595.

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688 SOCIAL RESEARCH

1964 congress of the Social D

organization, it was decided that
abortion should be requested at
year. As a result, preparations
begun within the Ministry of Jus
The turning point came in 196
journeys to Poland were bein
wanted abortions. In Poland, ab
all women while in Sweden wome
incriminated unless the operat
boundaries prescribed by the
prosecutor now began to indic
Polish opportunity to terminate
debate was heated, with demands that the Social Democratic
government appoint a commission to consider further liberal-
ization of the abortion issue. Such a commission was
consequently set up in March 1965.
With the exception of the women's organization of the
Democratic party, women's groups are said to have pl
limited role in promotion of the "free abortion law."
"difficult to find evidence that the abortion issue . . . should
have been a specific women's issue where women advocated
specific interests," states Stefan Swärd in his political-science
dissertation on the Swedish abortion law.18 This conclusion has
to be questioned for at least two reasons. First, three of the
four political parties' women's organizations- that is, the Social
Democratic, Liberal, and Center party women- were more
radical than the parties themselves, even if women were also
divided on the issue within each organization. Besides,
nonpartisan women's organizations, like the Fredrika Bremer
Association and the Swedish Women's Left Association, opted
for free abortion.19 In the parliamentary voting of May 1974,

18 Stefan Swärd, Varfôr Sverige fick fri abort (Stockholm University, Department of
Political Science, 1984).
19 Ibid., pp. 89, 93-96.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 689

the Social Democratic bill on a new abo

by a clear majority: 75 percent of the
the men voted in favor.
Conservative politics and Christian ethics played major parts
in the opposition to free abortion. The arguments for free
abortion, on the other hand, were mainly founded on the right
of women to decide about their own reproduction and faith in
their ability to make responsible decisions. Still, in spite of the
ideological overtones in the debate, the strongest reason for
the legal reform was probably the change in practice that
occurred during the 1960s. And this is my second critique of
the Swärd thesis mentioned above.

The social and daily practices women engaged in outside the

political system had a great impact on the political debate and
lay behind the initiative to prepare the grounds for a new
abortion law. The most important step in the politicization of
the abortion issue seems to have been taken at the point when
women, instead of continuing to travel individually to Poland
for abortions, started to go there on organized trips. This
translation of women's personal experiences into collective
action definitely put the abortion question on the political
agenda. In the government bill of 1974 and the ensuing
parliamentary debate, one major argument in favor of the new
law was that a point of no return had been reached with the
change in practice. The grounds for legal abortion specified in
the amended 1938 law had been sidestepped by women who
preferred safe, legal abortions performed in hospitals to risky,
illegal procedures in obscure surroundings.
The 1965 abortion commission dwelled upon the notion of
public support during pregnancy and after childbirth. Apart
from proposals concerning increased activities for family
planning and counseling on birth control, economic and
social-security matters were considered. Family-policy reforms
were to be "pursued in the understanding that the woman
decides over reproduction and that she does not want to give
birth without guarantees that she has the possibility to take

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690 SOCIAL RESEARCH

care of the child."20 The idea in

both parents should be given the
leave- from paid work -was late
parental insurance legislation.
In sum, the abortion law is a
inscribed in a gender-neutral
reform is not regarded in term
question of every individual wo
own body. The simultaneous int
and parental insurance is also
between population and produc
to continue being born after
abortion, the 1970s "women a
combined with a "men as fathe
gender-neutral notion of "wage
Both women and men were a
behind the new abortion law,
women- as individuals as well
changed the course of events.

The Equal Opportunities Ac

The codification of Swedish eq

when the Social Democratic gov
Opportunities Advisory Commit
the Prime Minister. In 1983 a
equality questions were assigned
Ministry of Labor. These have
the Ministry of Public Administr
Social Democratic government ad
promotion of equality between th
equal-opportunities plans for
equal-opportunities committee

20 SOU 58 (1971): 83.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 691

and an Act on Equality Between W

(the Equal Opportunities Act).
The Act on Equality, which came int
was the first Swedish law to addr
working life. It not only prohibits
also deals with active measures desi
equality. In addition, this act provid
agencies- the equal-opportunities o
Opportunities Commission- whos
employers meet the demands of
promotion of equal opportunities. T
is enforced primarily by means of
arbitration in labor-market disputes
tive agreements between unions an
dence over legal provisions requir
further equality.
The demand for an antidiscrimination law was initiated in

parliament by the small Liberal party as early as 1970. The

Liberals then continued actively promoting the issue through-
out the 1970s, until they could introduce their own govern-
ment bill in 1979. The labor-market parties, however, were
critical of the idea of legislation. An Equal Opportunities
Agreement was concluded in 1977 between, on the one hand
the Swedish Employers' Confederation (SAF) and, on the
other, the main organizations of blue- and white-collar workers
in the private sector (LO and PTK), who wanted to show by way
of this agreement that there was no need for the projected law
The law was finally passed, albeit in modified form, against
the basic principles of LO, SAF, and the Social Democrati
party. The opinion of the labor movement had not changed:
work for equality in the labor market should take place within
the framework of collective agreements between the labor
market organizations, and not be prompted by the state. The
result was a compromise, with the ombudsman's activities
confined primarily to groups not covered by collective
agreements. The nonsocialist parties and the Social Democrats

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692 SOCIAL RESEARCH

opted for an act against sexual d

Left Party Communists for an act
women.

What part did women play in bringing about

The Liberal women brought a great deal of p
but they did so in collaboration with a grou
radical men. It is symptomatic that, during thi
was a man and a woman within the party wh
issue.21 In time, the question also came to attra
of women in other parties, on both the left and
The Equal Opportunities Act has been heavily
scholars as well as by the ombudsman her
measures for equality to be pursued in the w
cautious, informal, and inefficient: they rely
and education to change attitudes, leaving roo
between women themselves, placing them in th
and, last but not least, supporting men wishing
traditionally dominated by women.22 The form
opportunities ombudsman writes that "the Ac
offensive instrument for strengthening men's
labor market."23

The gender-neutral character of the law must therefore be

replaced by an unambiguous support for women, according to
several women's organizations, the former equal opportunities
ombudsman, and other experts.24 However, after having
surveyed the application of the Equal Opportunities Act over a
ten-year period, the Social Democratic government has

21 Drangel, "Folkpartiet."
" Eduards et al., Unfinished Democracy. Ct. Anita üahlberg, Aktivt jamstalldhetsar-
bete- frigörelse med förhinder" (Working Actively for Equality between Men and
Women- Liberation with Impediments), Kvinnovetenshaplig Tidskrift, 3 (1986): 16-32.
See also Ruth Nielsen, Equality Legislation in a Comparative Perspective: Towards State
Feminism? (Copenhagen: Kvindevidenskabeligt Forlag, 1983).
23 Margareta Wadstein, "Sa trubbig är inte jämställdhetslagen," Lag er Avtal 3
(1989): 29-30.
24 See the reservation by the experts Anita Dahlberg and Margareta Wadstein in
"Tio âr med jämställdhetslagen," SOU 41 (1990): 389-391.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 693

suggested that the legislation must re

sex, but with the aim of improving
working life.25
The criticism directed toward the a
entire range of equality policies. Measur
are usually superficial, maintaining n
sexes and oriented toward equal rig
rather than giving priority to equal resu
between women and men are rarely ac
recommended, not enjoined.
It has been said that the most impor
policies is not the actual measures or l
behind them. The ideology of gender
effect for women in that it acknowl
women's conditions and in the relations between women and
men are legitimate.26 Equality policies have a symbolic value,
functioning as a point of reference for those engaged in
questions of equality. There seems to be a tendency for public
policies to become programmatic and symbolic, especially in
new policy areas, such as the environment and gender equality,
that do not fit into existing ideologies and structures for the
solving of political problems.27
Summing up, the Equal Opportunities Act is an individual-
oriented, gender-neutral reform aimed at promoting equality
between men and women, initiated by the Liberal party,
opposed by the Social Democrats and the labor-market
organizations, with a certain- and growing- women's politics
profile and primarily of symbolic value.

Every Other Seat for a Woman

Political parties are clearly more disposed to nominating

25 Olika pâ lika villkor. Proposition (government bill) 1990/91:113, p. 63.
¿ Kann Widerberg, "Har kvinnoforskning med jämställdhetspolitik att gora?"
Kvinnovetenskaplig Tidskrift 3 (1986): 36-47.
2/ Cf. Gunnel Gustafsson, "Symbolic and Pseudo Policies as Responses to Diffusion
of Power," Policy Sciences 15 (1983): 269-287.

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694 SOCIAL RESEARCH

women and broaching women's

organizations. Direct elections an
of the political parties seem t
promoting the political particip
party/parliamentary structure i
than the organizational/corp
nominations to the government
The proportion of women on
invariably low (16 percent in 198
Seat for a Woman, the Commissio
gives its aim as being the achi
between the sexes on nationa
commissions, councils and board
an intermediate target of 30 per
is not achieved on a voluntary b
statutory provision should be
words of the Social Democratic g
In Sweden there has been wide
political establishment to the i
rules do exist, however, but no
their own initiative and under
political parties have, for instanc
nominations, which means that neither women nor men
should have more than 60 nor less than 40 percent of the seats,
for example, in parliament. The parties also work for
"balanced" tickets, representing the various groups among
their members and voters, but do not like the idea of a
compulsory (sex) quota system.
However, as early as 1972, Prime Minister Olof Palme
promised in a parliamentary debate that in the future the
government would ensure that more women were included in
official commissions. In 1977, the Equal Opportunities

28 Varannan Damernas, SOU 19 (1987).

29Jämställdhetspolitiken inför 90-talet (Equality Between Men and Women in
Sweden. Government Policy to the Mid-'Nineties). Proposition (government bill)
1987/88:105. Ministry of Labor.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 695

Committee wrote to the governmen

experimental and voluntary scheme
per sex. And in 1981 the then Cent
adopted a recommendation to the e
and political parties should nominat
for every available appointment. T
Liberal women introduced a bill for further measures to
increase women's representation on government commissions
but the proposal was defeated. Subsequent developments have
shown the voluntary principle to be none too successful.
The Every Other Seat for a Woman report is very interesting in
terms of principle, departing as it does from the cautious line
of equal-opportunities policy. First, it comes as a result of
women's increased participation in the political process and o
women's specific demands and actions. The inquiry was
inaugurated in 1985 by the equal opportunities minister, a
woman, and the remit was entrusted to another woman, a
Social Democratic member of parliament, who was aided by a
secretary and an assistant, both of them women. In addition,
the inquiry was supported by women in parliament and in the
parties' women's organizations. The Fredrika Bremer Associa-
tion, the nonpartisan women's organization which has for
decades been pressing the issue of women's representation,
was a tower of strength "on the outside."30
However, this new consensus has a history of division. After
the 1976 election, the Fredrika Bremer Association sent an
open letter to the three nonsocialist party chairmen who were
to form a government, reminding them of the aim of getting
more women into politics. This action was not supported by
the women's organizations of those nonsocialist parties. Prior
to the 1979 election, the Fredrika Bremer Association revived
its "more women into politics" campaign, this time together

30 The Fredrika Bremer Association, founded in 1884, is Sweden's oldest women's

organization, and was, for example, one of the driving forces behind the campaign for
female suffrage (obtained in 1921).

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696 SOCIAL RESEARCH

with the women's organizations o

cooperative venture did not last,
women's organization of the So
nounced that it was no longer able
other three women's organization
The parliamentary Communist
Fredrika Bremer Association's "v
more women into politics." Im
election, however, women from a
agreed to campaign for greater r
politics.
Second, the report highlights the question of women's power
and influence as it has not been since perhaps the suffrage
controversy at the beginning of this century. The report
defines women and men as political categories on the basis of
sex, not as individuals or socioeconomic groups. Reactions to
these ideas were not long in coming. The political parties and
labor-market organizations were consistently opposed to sex
quotas, partly on the grounds that they were an encroachment
on the liberty of organization, indeed on democracy itself. One
exception was the Communists, who advocated "a resolution of
principle on legislation here and now." The equal opportuni-
ties ombudsman and the women's organization of the Social
Democratic party, which had for ten years been advocating a
40/60 representation ratio in all political assemblies, also
wanted earlier legislation.
Third, the report has had a number of positive effects,
above all on cooperation with respect to women's politics.
Simplified, it puts the responsibility on parties and organiza-
tions to choose between immediate, voluntary participation in
the work for more women in politics and legislation. And as
they could hardly avoid both, politically, they chose the first
option. Hence, the women's organizations of the parliamentary
parties, the Communists (which do not have a separate
women's organization), and the main labor-market organiza-
tions have joined forces in common action aimed at increasing

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 697

the representation of women on all

boards at the regional level. This ca
three-year project organized by
Administration. In addition, gran
projects aimed at increasing women'
In short, the sex-quota proposal
politics, inaugurated by Social Demo
women, supported by other women
practically the entire political establis
at redistributing power. From a narr
could be seen as the disapproval by
of their party's policy regarding s
perspective, though, it can be view
more feminist definition of power
critique of the liberal as well as t
definitions of social conflicts.

Two Ways: Individual and Class

The four public policies presented here point to great

differences regarding women as political actors, the formula-
tion of the problem, and the anticipated and actual effects on
women. The three ideal types define women's interests as
individual rights, in terms of socioeconomic conditions/class, or
as an expression of sex/gender, respectively. The effects can be
similarly divided: women are allotted benefits as gender-
neutral individuals, as gender-neutral members of a class, or as
women. In the discussion which now follows, I will consider
the extent to which there is a three-dimensional political
structure in which class, individual, and sex are all accommo-
dated and how the gender dimension fits into traditional
Swedish politics.31

31 Attention to the need for iAr^-dimensional thinking in politics and political

science has been drawn by Anna G. Jónasdóttir in Maud L. Eduards et al., "Könsmakt

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698 SOCIAL RESEARCH

Swedish political discourse i

reference to two dimensions: the individual and class.

Demands from individuals and groups of individu

processed primarily within the party/parliamentary str
while the labor/capital antithesis is resolved in a cor
structure. The prominent feature of Swedish politics is o
thinking in terms of a left/right cleavage in society.32
Benefits are distributed on individual grounds (the sam
all, or related to work input) or else distributed to group
special needs, especially families with children- the symb
the Swedish folkhem (people's home). Male and fe
workers, for example, act as individuals (in voting) and a
members (through their trade union), and are given bene
productive individuals (sickness benefit) and as mem
the working class (solidaristic wage policies). Obviousl
possible to combine an individualistic and a class perspect
actual politics. But the very fact that there are two diff
sexes in society is rarely seen as a problem that could
solved through existing procedures and structures. Sex/g
is regarded as an issue, not a dimension. Women's interes
subordinated to the question of the rights of the individ
the demands of the labor market and production.
However, there seems no doubt that both the camp
against unemployment and the support given to
families- that is, families with children- both of which
formed part of Social Democratic countercyclical policies

och maktlöshet i nationalstaten," in Kvinnors makt och inflytande JÄMFO 1

25-52. Brita M. Gulli, who has analyzed the Norwegian public equal status p
the 1970s from a mother's perspective, defines two basic strategies in so
attaining gender equality: one gender-neutral (social-liberal) and one gende
(feminist); see Gulli, Modrepolitikk-En analyse av den offentlige likestillingspolit
70-talet, sett fra modres situasjon (Oslo: unpublished manuscript, 1986).
The political-party spectrum, consisting ot two major blocs, has rema
constant for decades. This stable pattern was disrupted in the last three elect
"green" party, which finally managed to get into parliament after the 1988
The Social Democratic party, though lately losing ground among the vo
nevertheless dominated the political scene in Sweden since the 1930s (excep
1976-82 period when nonsocialist parties formed coalition governments).

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 699

the beginning of the 1930s, have in

individual women. In practice, the
Swedish labor movement has often
economic security for the family with
can be seen as a means of guaranteei
of the working class.33 But they are also part of a
population-productivity package deal.
The policy of full employment, which has been given top
economic priority during the last fifty years, has had a
significant effect on women's (and men's) labor-force partici-
pation. This is what Mary Ruggie calls the Swedish tendency
toward the "universalization" of the category of worker. No
distinctions are made among workers on the basis of class,
occupation, or sex. She points out that the Social Democratic
party has, over time, "become less of a working-class party than
a party for the class of persons who work."34
Mary Ruggie's view of Sweden is worth dwelling upon. Her
point of departure is the Swedish corporate structure of labor,
capital, and the state united in a joint venture of national
economic growth and productivity. She maintains that this
structure, oriented toward the labor market and not primarily
aimed at equality between the sexes but, rather, at social
equality in a class sense, has been extremely important for
women- indeed, more important than the women's move-
ment. This could hardly imply, though, that the corporate
decision-making structure per se is good for women. Measures
have rarely been taken specifically in favor of women or by
women. Their conditions have, as it were, rather been a
by-product of the comprehensive welfare project.35

33 Cf. Harold L. Wilensky, The Welfare State and Equality. (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1975), who argues that the revitalization of family allowances in the
early 1970s in several wealthy nations was a back-door means of reducing poverty in
general. Welfare benefits were not meant for the family per se, but as a way to
guarantee the level of income (p. 41).
34 Mary Ruggie, The State and Working Women: A Comparative Study of Britain and
Sweden (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 341.
Ct. Anette Borchorst and Birte Sum, 'Women and the Advanced Welfare

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700 SOCIAL RESEARCH

Growth (at the national level) an

level) are viewed as the road to
corporate political structure, or
issues, full employment, product
tions between labor and capital,
"women-friendly." "The collaborat
nizations which is inherent to th
individual women: it also keep
important areas which concern w
and Eva Hänninen-Salmelin.36 R
unpaid- is hardly taken into acco
sets the standard of values in So
spite of the fact that the typica
employed woman with children.
Equal-status policies, mainly ba
sumptions, have not succeeded
established, narrow definitions of
have thus been of little use in
sex-segregated society. Their value
have focused attention on gender e
uting to a certain politicization an
The Swedish "model" can be descri
socialist-liberal, gender-neutral, or
ogy/structure. Women and men
equality through cooperation, as p
decision-makers, citizens, clients,
women and men with conflicting
regarded as a question of com
should be based on work perfo
merit, regardless of sex.37 Ho

State- A New Kind of Patriarchal Power?" in

and the State (London: Hutchinson, 1987), p. 1
3b Helga Maria Hernes and Eva Hänninen-
System," in Haavio-Mannila et al., Unfinished D
37 Swedish gender-equality policies could be
productivity, pragmatism, and paternalism

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 701

gender-neutral ideology/structure to
what degree will women's collective
women-empowering policies?

The Third Way: Sex

The "third way" is based on women'

on a definition of sex/gender relations
conflicting interests. This line of acti
by certain women's groups, previou
outside the established political syste
well. In a timespan of fifteen years-
to the Every Other Seat for a Woman ca
and organization of women's dema
become more feminist in thinking.
being formed between elected women,
the women's organizations of the p
however, are suffering a decline in me
san women's organizations, social m
groups. We seem to be entering what
new era of more direct and intended intervention on behalf of
women."39

What conclusions regarding a third feminist way can be

drawn from women's collective actions and demands in the
four policymaking processes presented above? First, all the
political parties in Sweden, but especially the Social Democrats,
have been remarkably efficient in coopting both women and
women's demands. Still, in the growing group of women in
central political positions, including 38 percent women in

Gender Model: Productivity, Pragmatism and Paternalism," West European Politics, July
1991.

38 The Social Democratic women's organization, for example, has 38,000 members
compared to 45,000 ten years ago, according to Morgonbris 3 (1989).
3y Drude Dahlerup, "Confusing Concepts- Confusing Reality: A Theoretical
Discussion of the Patriarchal State," in Sassoon, Women and the State, p. 123.

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 702 SOCIAL RESEARCH

parliament, we can notice a ce

become more common for fem
together explicitly in support of w
discussed (parental insurance) or
for a Woman) even by female polit
circles.

Second, the women's organizati

are often more militant about women's conditions than the
parties themselves. The Social Democratic women's organiza-
tion forced the party to take a stand against nuclear weapons in
the 1950s and for a radical family policy in the '70s, but has not
(yet) succeeded in convincing the party to accept a regular
sex-quota system or a six-hour working day.
The youngest but largest women's party organization, that
of the Center party, has tried to disseminate its family-policy
program directly through the party, a strategy which has met
with some success. However, the women's organization and the
party have also had different opinions on several issues,
including, for example, the importance of child-care allow-
ances. The party has not relented in its opposition, and the
women's league has chosen to avoid confrontation.40 The
women's organization of the Conservative party has had a
more militant profile, maintaining that, as soon as a series of
demands concerning equality has been fulfilled, the league will
dissolve itself. Conservative women have followed the party
line of resistance to free abortion and sex quotas. Liberal
women have been very active on equal status but mainly within
the party.
The parliamentary Communists, finally, comprise the only
party which has a women's committee instead of a separate
women's organization. Yet the Communist women have
persuaded the party to regard the liberation of women both as
an integral part of the class struggle and as a struggle in its own

40 Anita Dahlgren et al., Kvinnor pàverkar-Centerns Kvinnoförbund ur tre vetenskapliga

perspektiv (Stockholm: LTs Förlag, 1985).

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 703

right. The party program explicit

conditions in society are inferior to m
conflict of interest between the sexes.
Third, though having a weak autonomous feminist move-
ment, Swedish women organize and act in other manners.
Different groups of women are active in different ways. The
old, established Fredrika Bremer Association has played an
important role in furthering women's interests. A women's
party, albeit tiny and unknown, has been founded by a group
of women in Stockholm, and women are setting up networks
within and between the labor-market organizations. Another
more direct and target-oriented activity has been the creation
of more than a hundred crisis centers for battered women

across the country. On the whole, women take more often

strikes and protests than do men. The Study of Power an
Democracy in Sweden notes that "women are bolder than men i
the matter of strikes, illegal protest activities and oth
demonstrations than May Day parades."41 The typical demo
strator of today is a female salaried employee; twenty years a
it was a male worker.

Fourth, women also influence policy making through their

daily social practices. Women quite simply take matters into
their own hands, expressing their demands through concrete
civil disobedience, away from the political process of problem-
formulation.

Finally, the specific features of women's politics in Sweden

will be translated into some general questions and conclusions.
I would argue that the greatest challenge facing contemporary
women's research is to find out when, how, and under what
circumstances women's politics change the course of events. To
what degree can we talk about women's agency or capacity to
transform politics? Do women in politics make any difference

41 Olof Petersson et al., Medborgarnas makt (Stockholm: Carlssons Bokförlag, 1989),

p. 150.

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704 SOCIAL RESEARCH

for women? Thorough empirica

in different countries and con
terms of women's agency is req
can be answered. I would like to contribute to the debate with

a couple of statements.
Two dimensions are included in the notion of women's

politics here: the way women organize- with men o

separate groups- and their definition of the relation
between women and men- as conflictual or not. This sim
definition gives us four categories of politics for furthe
women's conditions in society. The first one is activity
women and men, where the sex/gender problem is define
neutral terms. Most political parties, liberal as well as social
fit into this category. The second type is activity by women
men based on a feminist definition of women as oppres
This seems to be rare, but can be found in the Swedish Left
party (Communists).42 In the third category, women organize
separately but do not regard the gender relationship as
conflictual. Many established women's organizations fit in
here. These three types of women's politics might influence
women's empowerment and equality with men in different
ways, but my assumption, based on the Swedish example, is
that none of them have the capacity to bring about basic
transformation.

The fourth type, however- which I will call feminist- does

appear to have this specific capacity. It is made up of women's
separate collective actions and built on the assumption that
women and men have conflicting interests. Both these
conditions seem to be necessary, but not sufficient, for
women's politics to influence the policymaking process and its
outcomes in favor of women. A feminist conception of
women's conditions is a difficult one to translate into structure.
Strategies and procedures have to be constantly recreated

42 The Left Party Communists changed its name to the Left party in 1990.

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 TOWARD A THIRD WAY 705

from one issue to the next.43 There

structure channeling women's dem
benefits on the basis of sex. Women
political category.
The success or failure of feminist p
strength of other modes of collectiv
definitions of social conflicts. It also de
which existing rules and political no
feminist politics. The less women accep
boundaries and loyalties, the more ch
regardless of policy program. Henc
between political parties and interest o
much more threatening and influent
women's movement working outside
system. The new, separate, ad hoc or
within the existing political order is a c
is based on a notion of power-structure
sexes, whereas the old women's organ
idea of sexual differences. A conflict-o
definition of the sex/gender problem
en's collective actions even more threat
To sum up, in simplified terms: w
separately organized nor acting explicit
(as opposed to men) when it comes t
conditions in society. But if a group is
acts explicitly on behalf of women, i
And when women are separately organ
behalf of women, they win agency for

43 Cf. Paul Bagguley et al., Restructuring: Place, C

1990), who write that "One reason why women's polit
the practical-political difficulty of turning a gender
organization" (p. 193).

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