Swedish State Feminism: Continuity and Change

Abstract

In an international context, Sweden and the other Nordic countries have attracted attention because of their policies to combat inequalities between women and men and their high rankings on various gender equality indicators. Central to the countries’ gender policy regime have been policies to encourage women to become earners and men to become carers, such as individual taxation, provision of affordable childcare, and generous paid parental leave with rights of leave for mothers and fathers. Women have further benefited from the social democratic welfare regime, which has promoted equal social rights. The countries also established women’s policy agencies — or gender equality agencies in Scandinavian parlance — at an early date (Bergqvist et al., 1999; Sainsbury, 1999).