Adaptation or Diffusion of the Swedish Gender Model?

Abstract

In the late 1980s, Helga Maria Hernes (1987) formulated the thesis that the Scandinavian welfare states have gone further than other welfare states in achieving equality between the sexes. Since then, Sweden has joined the European Union (EU), and questions have been raised about the extent to which EU membership may change the Swedish gender model and/or influence thinking on gender issues in other member states and at EU level. Hernes (1987, p. 135) was not claiming that equality had been fully achieved, only that the Nordic welfare states were potentially women-friendly. An important aspect of women-friendly policies is that they give women the opportunity to participate in public life and to reconcile motherhood with paid work. Compared to most EU member states, Sweden has a long history of policies encouraging women’s participation in the labour market and enabling parents to combine family life and employment.