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Address by the Deputy Prime Minister, Margareta Winberg,
Grand Hotel, Iceland, 6 September 2003

Pictures from the meeting at Grand Hotel. More pictures->

I am very happy to be in Iceland once again – this beautiful island with its dramatic landscape. Whenever I have the opportunity to come here my heart warms and I feel a great sense of sisterhood with your country and your strong women. It is important for women to have role models. There are many strong women in Iceland who can be role models in our joint efforts to achieve gender equality. This is invaluable.

I was here 1999 at the first conference on Women and Democracy. That was a big and important conference that aimed to make us women to closer cooperate together.

Our joint protest against the Olympic brothels in Athens in the summer felt very good. The fact that we succeeded in getting the Nordic countries and the Baltic countries to rally behind a powerful and clear protest naturally gives the issue considerable weight. It is vital that we work together because only then can we truly be strong.

I would like to begin with the term "gender equality" and what it means. Gender equality is not a natural reality. In fact it has nothing to do with nature. It is not something that just comes about automatically all by itself. Gender equality must be created – just like paper , computers or aeroplanes.

Gender equality is about development – about progress – about creating something that hasn't existed before. It's about creating a whole new society. To achieve gender equality we must leave behind outdated attitudes and oppressive structures and move towards something new. A gender-equal society is still merely a vision.

A gender-equal society is one in which there is no male violence against women and no oppression of women. In a gender-equal society, rape doesn't happen. Being gender-equal means treating other people with respect.

On the first of January 1999 a new law – the law that prohibits Sexual Purchases – entered into force in Sweden. It is unique in that Sweden is the first and so far the only country with this type of legislation.

This Act prohibits the purchase of sexual services and criminalises the client who purchases sex, but not the prostituted woman who is purchased. Many people think this construction is ridiculous and that either both parties should be punishable or prostitution should be legal. I will now explain how we arrived at this legislation, how it works in practice and the preventive effects that we can see this legislation has had so far.

When a prostituted woman and a buyer meet to engage in a sexual act, an inherent power structure is at play. In our view, this is not a voluntary transaction between two equal parties. As we see it, the buyer and the prostituted woman are not on equal levels. Not in economic terms, nor in social terms. In Sweden we go further than that – our view is that being prostituted is never a voluntary act – what it is in fact is a stronger person exploiting a weaker party's vulnerable situation. And as we see it, men do not have to buy sexual services from a prostituted woman. Men have a choice.

Men have the money and can choose not to purchase sexual services, whereas prostituted women are in such a weak position that they cannot choose not to sell their bodies. In Sweden we take a very serious view of the fact that men choose to purchase the sexual services of prostituted women – in our opinion, this is one form of male violence against women. The Law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services is also one of the laws that entered into force as a result of the legislation in 1998 on gross violation of a woman's integrity.

Over and over again we make it clear that prostitution wouldn't exist if men didn't buy sexual services – and when we do so, we are making a very strong point. In our opinion, demand creates the market and not the other way round. If there were no demand there would be no market. Prostitution has always been about the prostituted women – in Sweden we have chosen to put the spotlight on the buyer, the man. Who is he? And why does he buy sex? We also take the view that people must never be the object or the victim of this kind of exploitation.

The law has proved to be very effective. We have seen a sharp decline in the number of street prostituted women. Indoor prostitution has become more visible and the police have been able to confiscate client registers which prosecutors have then been able to use to initiate prosecution proceedings against the buyers for offences against the law. Now the legal authorities even have access to the clients' home addresses.

Another positive side-effect of the Act is that human traffickers, who are interested in maximising their profits, have not found Sweden to be as attractive as other countries. They know the police are actively combating trafficking in women which means that human traffickers will likely have the eye of the legal authorities on them. They often also have other criminal side incomes that they are keen to protect. As a result the human traffickers often choose other friendlier markets in Europe instead, where purchasers of sexual services are not criminalised and where prostitution is considered a job like any other. It is naturally very good for Sweden not to be an interesting market for criminals and criminal activities.
While some countries in Europe are working on legalising prostitution there are other countries that are very interested in following Sweden's example. Finland has a well-developed proposal for similar legislation – even the Russian Duman is now considering a proposal that is strongly inspired by the Swedish law. We are very pleased that these countries have made the effort to listen carefully to what we have had to say about our experiences of this legislation. They have understood that it has had the intended effect.

It would be an illusion to believe that prostitution will be under control as soon as a country makes it legal. This is just a way of sweeping the problem under the carpet.

We will never achieve a gender-equal society if men think that women and girls can be bought. The Act is therefore very important from a normative perspective – it should not be possible to buy any human being! No one must be able to believe that this is normal behaviour. If we are going to move closer towards our vision of a gender-equal society then this must be one of the steps along the way.

The clearest proof that women are subordinate to men is the violence that women are subjected to – by men. The power that men have is manifested in the physical, sexual and psychological violence that is directed against women in different ways.

Men's violence against women is expressed in different ways. Prostitution is one example, assault is another. In Sweden about 20 000 cases of assault and battery by men against women are reported every year. In most cases the perpetrator is a man with whom the woman has a close relationship.

The number of cases that are not reported is probably much higher. It is generally estimated that 80% of battered women do not file a report. For this reason, Sweden's legislation against male violence against women has focused in particular on women who are abused by men with whom they have a close relationship. In 1998 a new offence was added to the Penal Code – gross violation of a woman's integrity. This means that in the event of prosecution acts of violence or abuse are not dealt with as isolated crimes but are judged in a wider context.

We know that women who live with men who abuse them live in very difficult and often extremely tough circumstances – and it is important that society makes it very clear when a man's acts are part of a repeated violation of a woman's integrity.

Violence by men against women is about men's superiority and the subordination of women. It is never about hormonal overload; it has nothing to do with evolution by natural selection; it has nothing to do with men's impulse control problems or brain damage at birth. It is about men's power over women.

When a man assaults a woman it not unusual for him to draw the curtains so that no one outside can see what is happening. He turns up the volume on the stereo or the TV so no one can hear, and he often also bandages his hands to prevent bruises.

Most men that claim that their violent acts were the result of some kind of uncontrollable aggression have enough control to make sure they do not beat the woman to death. In other words, men that assault women are very well aware of what they are doing and have a high degree of control.

Three years ago the Swedish Government set up an advisory body to deal with issues converning violence against women. The work carried out by this body, the National Council for the Protection of Women Against Violence, called attention to the fact that violent acts were committed against certain groups of women who were not normally considered potential victims. Its report contained for example information about:
• male violence against older women
• male violence against pregnant women
• male violence against women with disabilities

The study entitled "Captured Queen", which was carried out in Sweden in 2001, revealed that these men come from all echelons of society and that their acts of violence are quite similar regardless of which cultural background they come from.

We see a connection between this violence and men's self-image in relation to masculinity, and it is the image that equates masculinity with violence that we have to do something about.

"It's night time, there's a row, things are being thrown, the kids are crying, mum is crying, dad shouts and hits mum. Mum and the kids run out of the flat as fast as they can – out of their houses – in their nighties and pyjamas. There they stand – outside in the cold."

This has been the situation in Sweden – for many years. The perpetrator – the man – remains in the family home, determined and able to dispose of their joint property. The woman and her children move in for a while with friends or relatives. Sometimes the women's shelters give them a bed for the night.

Now women and children can remain in their homes. Five days ago, on the first of September, a new law entered into force in Sweden which means that women and children in danger of being exposed to violence need not leave their homes in order to protect themselves. The perpetrators – men – are to be prevented from committing violent crimes against women and are therefore to receive restraining orders prohibiting them from visiting the family home.

Gender equality is not easy, and it's not straightforward. Neither is it natural, as I said at the start. But for those of us involved in gender equality work, it is a question of improving people's lives – women's lives and men's lives. It is very stimulating work and I am happy to be able to share the responsibility of this work with you. The future and the vision are around the corner, and to get there we must work together and across borders.

Thank you.

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