'Equality in Sweden moving backwards'

The message, not surprisingly, comes from the Feminist Initiative together with Sweden's Green Party. 

  • Per Bolund from the Green Party. Photo: Miljöpartiet de Gröna

  • The income differences between men and women have steadily increased since the alliance government came to power in 2006, according to a debate article in Dagens Nyheter by Per Bolund (from the Green Party) and Gudrun Schyman (from Feminist Initiative).
    In that year, the government had as a goal for men and women to get equal power to shape their lives. Schyman and Bolund mean that the deveopment in most areas have moved backward, and that the government has ”a lot to answer for.”

  • Gudrun Schyman from the Feminist Initiative. Together with Bolund, she has written an article in DN, in which the two suggest the equality movement in Sweden is going backward. Photo: Adville

  • They write: ”Next year, after having implemented the fifth earned income tax, women will make on average 63,900 SEK ($9,800) less than men. In 2006, the difference was 44,600 SEK ($6,800). After the alliance’s two terms in government, the income gap will have increased by 43 percent.” And if you look only to those who work full-time, the gap has increased by 62 percent.
    Bolund and Schyman conclude their article by writing that much suggests that 2014 will be the last year the alliance government will be in power. Therefore the possibility to turn the financial politicis around in order to reach the equality goal is gone.
    ”The two of us who have written this article don’t agree on all issues, but we agree on one thing: We now need politics that take an equal society seriously,” they write.

  • The collaborating politicians "..agree on one thing: We now need politics that take an equal society seriously.”