Male-dominated board rooms – so far

The business sector, on the other hand, is a heavily male-dominated field. On the average board of a Swedish stock market company, almost one in three were women in 2015 – a great increase compared with a few years earlier. In fact, if this development continues at the same pace, the boards of listed companies in Sweden will be gender-equal within ten years. However, there’s a hitch: nine out of ten people who appoint the board members are men. Some politicians suggest quotas for women as a quicker way of achieving gender-equal board rooms.

Equality in the workplace

Sweden has come a long way in making sure that women and men are treated equally in the workplace. Gender discrimination in the workplace has been illegal since 1980. The Swedish Discrimination Act from 2009 demands that employers not only actively promote equality between men and women, but also take measures against harassment. Following a 2017 expansion of the law, the preventive work includes harassment related to all grounds for discrimination: an employer’s sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation and age.

The act also states that employees and job applicants who are, have been or will be taking parental leave may not be treated unfairly.

Cases of discrimination can be reported to the Swedish Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen), a goverment agency that protects equal rights. ‘Discrimination’ includes cases of unfair treatment by an employer in connection with an employee’s parental leave.

The global gender gap

Every year, the international organisation World Economic Forum ranks around 150 countries based on the gap between women and men according to indicators within health, education, economy and politics. Since 2006, Sweden has never ranked lower than fourth. But if the Global Gender Gap Report is anything to go by, the global labour market is far from gender equal. For example, on average about 78 per cent of men between 15 and 64 are in the labour force, but only 55 per cent of women of the same age.