Posted on 05/28/2005 12:16:48 AM PDT by El Conservador
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Sweden already tops the world gender equality league, but the country's feminists, far from resting on their laurels, are stepping up the fight to put an end to what they label "the patriarchal society".
The depiction of women as sexual objects, violence against women, wage inequality and unequal access to positions of power are giving defenders of women's rights ample fuel to continue the struggle, including in the political arena.
"There is a global backlash for women and this backlash is also seen in Sweden," said Gudrun Schyman, 57, one of Sweden's most vocal politicians.
Schyman, a former leader of the ex-communist Left party, quit the party because she felt the class struggle was not going to give women equal rights.
Last month, she and other women created "Feminist Initiative", a political grouping which she plans to turn into a fully-fledged political party in September, exactly one year ahead of the next general election.
"You have the same pattern all over the world.... gender gap, salary gap, violence against women, pornography, prostitution and trafficking which are the results of the understanding that women are less important than men, have less value and can be looked upon as an object ready to use," she told journalists recently.
Not content with just forming a 1970s-style pressure group, "Feminist Initiative" wants to garner more than the four percent of the popular vote, the level required to enter parliament and make a real difference in Sweden's political landscape.
But the Scandinavian country has not waited for a political party to tackle some long-standing misogynous practices, taking some landmark decisions against the exploitation of women as mere sexual objects.
In 1999, Sweden became the first country to outlaw the purchase of sexual services.
Beauty contests became another target. For the first time this year, there was no "Miss Sweden" pageant, and there will be no Swede at the forthcoming " Miss Universe" contest in Thailand.
"It's a huge symbol, it shows that ordinary citizens can make a difference," Fia Sandlund, an artist and feminist campaigner who disrupted the 2001 "Miss Sweden" competition, told AFP.
Due to the protests, the beauty contest had to be held under tight security in subsequent years, before being abandoned altogether.
Night clubs have also come under fire, and clients and staff of a Stockholm strip joint recently required hospital treatment after clashing with feminist demonstrators armed with baseball bats and umbrellas.
In a sign of the times, Prime Minister Goeran Persson lashed out at the weekend against advertisers and tabloids showing scantily-clad women, and threatened them with a future law banning such pictures.
One of the companies that has drawn the most criticism is Swedish fashion retailer H and M, which has become famous, or rather infamous, for its sexually charged lingerie ads.
Sweden is also waking up to the fact that physical violence against women is much more widespread than has been admitted in the past. A television programme at the weekend on shelters for victims of domestic violence provoked a strong emotional reaction.
Workplace inequality is becoming a major issue again since Sweden, although world leader in salary equality, has seen an earlier trend towards more fairness reversed.
Women's wages now stand at 83 percent of those of men for comparable work, against 85.6 percent 25 years ago.
Women are getting better representation in corporate boardrooms, but 2004 figures showed that female board members still made up just 11.3 percent of the total.
Is the one in the background a woman?
Actually, these guys have it partly right--we should act against pornography, violence towards women, sexual trafficing, and so on and wages should be dependent upon qualifications regardless, but they are missing the boat on a lot. For example, it does not say one thing about motherhood and respect for moms. That doesn't make them very credible in my book then.
Unnngh.
Does anyone really believe that feminists are struggling in Sweden? Come on...
I wonder what the birth rate in Sweden is nowadays
It's a good thing that these women can't reproduce naturally.
Maybe it's because of the long winters up there, but Sweden is really bizarre.
Now they may have decided that Swedish girls should just "give it away", or not, but they're hardly the first country to outlaw selling it.
I have to say, it will be amusing to see what happens to these utterly degenerate, self-hating nihilistic morons when the Muslims establish Sharia in Sweden - perhaps the ultimate wonderland of Euro-crapweaselry.
I wonder if they will don the Burkhas and Chadors willingly, or if we'll get to see some videos on Al-Jazeera Stockholmabad with tiles like "Ugly infidel female squealing as head is sawed off by glorious Jihadi in praise of Allah"? What's the consensus among Freepers - willing Dhimmitude or slaughter on the streets?
Feminazism and homosexuality = The 4 th REICH , the Feminist and the Gay agenda domination of the world.
Careful. You're being baited here, and I don't think you realize it.
So women can't buy MALE sexual services either. And they can't go to MALE strip shows. And what about child sexual abuse and pornography?. That's actually more in the fashion now. Etc.
I couldn't understand what that was supposed to mean either. Laws against prostitution are on the books in almost all countries. You've really got to take these articles with a bagful of salt.
Gudrun Schyman (Right), one of the founder of a new Swedish feminist party and board member Tiina Rosenberg (Left), pose outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm in April 2005 (AFP/PRESSENSBILD/File)
You're probably right.
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