Equality for women in Sweden
- infobacagency
- Nov 8, 2024
- 2 min read
Sweden offers a lot of jobs for expats and many females decide to make a big move on their own. From the outside it might be hard to grasp what living in Sweden means for a single woman or how the work culture is around the gender questions.
First of all: equality is a fundamental constitutional norm and an explicit policy objective in Sweden (even a separate Swedish Gender Equality Agency exists to work with those questions!).
On a personal level, moving to Sweden as a single woman is much safer than to many other countries. From our experience, it is highly unlikely to hear any comments about one's appearance on the street or to face harassment even during late evening hours. Unlike many countries, gaslighting and victim blaming are extremely rare here and are also against the law.
Sweden is working towards creating an inclusive society in many aspects. Cities are accessible for disabled people, with ramps in public transport and public spaces. Big Swedish cities are inclusive and diverse regarding ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
When it comes to creating a family, Sweden has gender-neutral marriage laws. Moreover, same-sex couples have a right to adopt children, and lesbian couples have insemination rights.
Let's dig into work-related matters:
At work, everyone's opinions must be heard and valued, regardless of employee's sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or even age. Otherwise, it can be reported as a discrimination act. Equality for women in Sweden is taken quite seriously.
Many traditionally male-dominated industries actively attempt to bring more women and transgender personas into higher management levels.
The pay gap is something that the Swedish government is also actively working with. In 2021, women earned 10% less than men on average. It is believed to be caused by more women working part-time than men to care for children or elderly relatives.
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