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Address by the Deputy Prime Minister Margareta Winberg
at Háskola Íslands, 5 September 2003 Island

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak at this event today.

I would like to begin by giving a picture of a society in which women and men are real equal. What are the characteristics of such a society? As I see it, it is a society in which both men and women have the same right to a paid job – because a paid job gives money in your bag or in your wallet. It is the bases of equality. It’s a society where there are no pay differentials between women and men performing the same work.

It is a society in which it is just as natural for a woman to train to be a pilot as for a man to train to be a nurse. It is a society in which at many levels we have broken through traditional boundaries for what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man. A gender equal society is a society in which no violence against or repression of women occurs.

A gender equal society is a society in which rape does not exist. To be equal means meeting other people with respect. In an equal society oppression has no place nor has valuing a person less on grounds of gender.

There is a whole new world to be won in a gender equal society. There is a greater chance of men being grown up and mature – when they grow up in a liberal society in which they can show their feelings – when they can wholeheartedly participate close to their children in the family.

The expectations associated with today’s man’s role force many men to be the provider, they are forced to work continually and lose time they could have spent with their children because their role as men demands this. The most extreme male stereotype is for a man always to be big and strong, however small and weak he feels.

Also women are getting a better life in a gender equal society. Women would not have to perform two jobs which is the case today.

Women would not always have to look after and care for others. There is no genetic evidence suggesting that women are more suited than men to care for others. This is something we have chosen to include in the social construct that we have drawn up in creating the concept of a “woman”.

Today, women and men in Sweden have all formal rights – but that does not mean we have a gender-equal society – we can see that in the trafficking in women for purposes of prostitution, we see it in men’s violence against women, we see it in the fact that women’s wages are lower than men’s.

In Sweden we know
- that men who are ill are more likely to be transported by ambulance to hospital than women who are ill. It is also more likely that the ambulance will use its sirens and flashing lights if the patient being transported is a man as opposed to a woman.
- that medicines are tested on men despite being intended for women
- that care of the elderly is provided more often for men despite the fact that women in Sweden live longer today.

Therefore it is so important to work politically for change. It is a major task but I think bringing about change is very exciting work.

Sweden has a feminist government today – the first in the world. The government is feminist because we consider there is a power structure based on gender and that it cuts through class. The power structure applies to all social classes and we encounter it on a daily basis – the superiority of men and inferiority of women. Men have more options – men have more power over their lives and higher wages on the labour market than women. We use feminism as a tool for understanding the power structure. When we understand and have the will we can bring about change.

The bases of Social Democratic ideology when it comes to equality as I said, is the right to employment. This has meant that women in Sweden today are active in the labour market almost to the same extent as men.

The Swedish welfare state is based on a dual breadwinner model. Sweden has, in other words, adopted a gender-neutral concept of social citizenship. Apart from circumstances directly related to childbirth, married women in Sweden are covered by the same labour, tax and social security legislation as men. No entitlements are targeted at women in their capacity as wives.

The state uses separate taxation, generous public day-care provision for pre-school children, and extensive programmes of parental leave to encourage married women/mothers to remain in gainful employment.

The Swedish dual breadwinner model contrasts sharply with generally welfare state model, which is designed around the single (male) breadwinner.

The Swedish model grew out of a distinctive national experience, characterised by late industrialisation, widespread poverty and dramatic demographic challenges: first mass emigration, then declining fertility. In contrast to more affluent European societies, Sweden was for a long time highly dependent on women’s paid labour.

The consequent strain on the birth rate encouraged the belief that extensive state intervention was needed to support families with children. Social policies have long recognised women’s dual role as both mothers and breadwinners.

We are witnessing a process of female emancipation and a crisis of the traditional male-breadwinner family. These dramatic changes in the demographic and family patterns in Europe as a whole are a major challenge to us all.

It’s interesting to behold all the leaders of Europe – most of them men – joining in a common chorus of: “We must have more children! The demographic trend is a threat to economic growth and prosperity!” But we can’t force people to have more children.
People must have a decent standard of living before they feel they can bring children into the world.

And we can see that many women in Europe today are forced to making the same choice –a paid job or children. Rather than having children, women are giving priority to their work and independence. Many choose not to go in for the double burden that comes with combining work and children.

In Sweden, where the childcare system is well developed, women do not need to choose between work and family. We also see that an individualised social insurance system makes women more independent since women’s financial situation is not tied to that of their husbands. But let me highlight, there is still a lots to do in the families to transform the family of today into equal families.

Family-based systems often disadvantage working women – since women usually earn less than men and tax effects mean that women working is not to their financial advantage. Consequently, many of them are obliged to be housewives.

This is why we in Sweden believe it is important to give women the opportunity to choose for themselves.

Women no less than men must be entitled to earn wages of their own – pay their own taxes – earn their own pension. Swedish work on gender equality is strongly linked to the right to work and to the premise that the individual as such is the smallest unit in society.

To achieve a society in which women and men are equal, we need a tool. At the Beijing Conference in 1995, all countries agreed that this tool is Gender Mainstreaming. Gender Mainstreaming can highlight completely new sides of reality, revealing differences in women’s and men’s situations; it is, moreover, a fairly simple method to apply. What it entails is simply that before any decision is taken, a question must be answered: how will this decision affect women, and how will it affect men?

And now we educate all ministers, state-secretaries and managers in the different ministries in using this method –to create a feministic policy. Another tool we use is legislation. One example I would like to mention is the Swedish Sexual Purchases Act. This unique law entered into force in 1999.
Its effect is to make the purchasing of sexual services a criminal offence, while not making the prostitute a criminal.

We have introduced this law because we see the phenomenon from a power perspective – men have the possibility of not choosing to buy sexual services – the prostitute who often comes from the most marginalised groups in society does not have this choice.

In conclusion, there is much still to be done before we reach the goal of a society where men do not hit women – where violence is not an option. A society where girls too are allowed to roar like lions, play with cars and kick balls. A society where boys too can take up ballet dancing and bake or sew – without there being anything odd about it. We want to work for a society that is free of prejudices and repression. Our goal is a society in which women and men are equal.

This is a challenge for politicians in all the countries in Europe.

Thank you.

Last updated 8-sep-03 by Salvor Gissurardottir
feministinn@feministinn.is