How Equality Looks in Sweden

There’s already a lot to love about Sweden. From the interior design to the stunning, square-jawed male inhabitants, Swedish style has had us all swooning.

But as it turns out the most amazing thing about Sweden is the country’s forward-thinking approach to gender equality.

Sweden is currently one of the top players in the world when it comes to gender. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap survey for 2015, Sweden comes in fourth behind Iceland, Finland and Norway. Just in case you were wondering, Australia came in 36th. Yep, 36th, as in three-six. The survey measures the participation of women in the workplace, the gender pay gap, and the empowerment, heath and education of women in all areas, including politics.

So with a massive 32 nations standing between Australia and Sweden, what are they doing that we aren’t? Well, this is how equality looks like in Sweden apparently.

The Swedish Image of Gender Equality

1. Equality since the dawn of time

via truthaboutwomenoftheworld.wordpress.com

First off, they’ve had the right idea from the start. Women in Sweden were able to inherit property as early as 1845 and maternity leave was allowed in 1901. By comparison in Australia unpaid job protected leave was first seen in 1979. Yep, that’s 78 years later.

Sweden also does ‘Anti-Sexism Awareness Training’ with children beginning in kindergarten, and of the 24 government ministers 13 out of 24 are women. That’s a majority.

2. Shared Parental Leave

via herculture.org

There’s more. Sweden is beating Australia into the ground in the equality race with it’s forward-thinking attitudes about parenting and parental leave. At the moment parents in Sweden are given 16 months of leave when a new child is born. They can choose to share this leave between themselves, with 60 days for each parent being untransferable. That is, you either take it as a whole or lose it. If you think those 60 days are a lot, it will be raised to 90 days this year. Now the 16 months of leave can be taken as hours, days, weeks or months over a period of 8 years per child. Plus 390 of those days are paid at 80% of the parent’s wage, with a cap for higher earners. That explains the rise in suave Swedish ‘latte papas’ sipping coffee and handing out with their kids in parks.

Think that’s as good as it gets? Well, there’s even more.

3.Government-funded Childcare

via psychologicalscience.org

Childcare is properly subsidised by the state, and is capped at 3% of a family income. This means that instead of forking out hundreds of dollars a day to keep kids in childcare, families rarely pay more than AUD$250 per month for each child. Plus, nurseries are open at all hours to allow for nightshift work. Basically, the Swedish government makes it easier to be a good parent, balancing work and parental duties.

Of course like many countries Sweden does have a gender pay gap, but it’s closing fast with the government offering more incentives and opportunities to even the playing field. Sure, the taxes in Sweden might be higher, but with all the services and offerings, the place sounds like a paradise to us!

Next Page: Looking at equality in Australia..

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