Myth as a Shield Against the RealitySweden is the country
with the highest level of gender equality in the
world. Many say so and that
is often what Sweden is known for abroad. In
a way this is true. We have
progressed a lot in many areas. The
achievements in some, like for example
child care and parental insurance
make women in other countries go green with
envy. And they have absolute
right to feel so. Without the persistent and
indomitable co/work of many
brave and creative women within the parties and
outside the parties, we
wouldn’t be where we are today. None of the rights
have been "given" to
women. Neither by the "left" nor by the "right". We had
to seize power
ourselves. From the suffrage to the law that prohibits the
purchase of
sexual services. Do not forget this!
Measured by
international standards Sweden has achieved a lot. But in
relation to the
goal - an equal society in reality - we still have a
long way to go.
Therefore it is really worrying that the discrepancy
between the political
rhetoric and the practice is so huge. Everyday
reality of women is not in
accordance with the declarations we are so
proud of – neither here nor there,
neither in our parliament, nor in EU
Parliament nor with the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights. We
have a long way to go to reach the society
where nobody is discriminated
or subordinated due to gender. Still long way.
Too long, think many of
us and that is why we are taking new political and
democratic
initiatives to put these issues on the top of the political
agenda. This
provides every woman working with women’s human rights more
space for
action in the politics.
Together we strengthen the work
needed to make the necessary step beyond
the patriarchal power order in the
society. Power order that has
certainly existed for a few thousand years,
that has survived every
revolution, that has been a basis of every existing
economic and
political system and that besides this is being protected by
every
fundamentalist religious movement, but that should not be allowed
to
continue framing our lives for the sake of this.
The consequences
of the patriarchal thinking are also visible in the
rest of Europe. The
results are economic and political stagnation. Women
who educate themselves,
and more and more of us choose this option, are
certainly not doing this to
become housewives. If the society does not
offer social services at
reasonable costs in the form of the fully paid
pre-school and school, women
choose not to have children. If the
geriatric care does not function, women
are forced to leave the paid job
and they cannot use the benefits of the
education that both they and the
society have invested into. If the EU
economic politics have as an idea
that the society should withdraw from the
social responsibility of
offering welfare and social services, the
responsibility will be shifted
back to the families, i.e. women. It is
expected that the private market
of services will offer welfare in the form
of profitable enterprises for
those who can afford this. In reality it
implies that many women’s
unpaid work will increase and in the families where
the man can afford
this, other women will "work as servants". On the
conditions that have
perhaps been created in their own country, according to
the principles
of the country of origin, or at the patriarchal labour market
in a
Europe where the men agree that the women’s work is always of
less
value... Very often this work is done by women who on their part
take
care of children and older parents in a country, far from Europe, in
the
other part of world.
That’s how the gender power order, that is
global in its scope and local
in its concrete expression is being maintained
and reproduced. The
monster is the same – the perception of women and with it
the work that
is stamped as female, that is less worth. Therefore, the whole
labour
market politics, both here and there should be reviewed through
the
feminist glasses. Demands for equal rights to work, regardless
of
gender, should be self obvious, as it should be self obvious that
the
society must guarantee these services and care that are a
precondition
for making it possible for anyone to combine parenthood and
professional
life, regardless of gender.
Every unjust distribution of
power results in violence as its extreme.
That is why male violence against
women is without doubt connected with
this fundamental gender power order.
Here and there. In Sweden, Europe
and the world. Anybody who thinks that it
is just a coincidence that
nine of ten cases of death caused by violence are
committed by a man
should seriously reconsider the matter once again. The
proposition of
Maria Carlshamre, that was recently adopted by the EU
Parliament (with
545 votes for, 13 against and 56 abstained), refers to the
extensive
study in Sweden, Germany and Finland which shows that at least
30-35% of
all women of the age 16 - 67 were exposed to physical or
sexual
violence. Furthermore, 700-900 women die every year in the EU as
a
result of the violence of their partner. Researches also show
that
65-90% of prostituted women were exposed to sexual assaults already
in
their childhood or later in their life. Many countries do not
have
complete statistics about the man’s violence against women,
something
that the EU Parliament is now asking for.
All those who
voted in accordance with this proposition stand thus
behind the definition of
man’s violence against women as a violation of
the human rights and declare
awareness and insight that this violence
reflects the unequal distribution of
power between women and men in our
society. That clearly implies that we
shall be never able to get rid of
the violence if the distribution of power
between genders is not equal.
That means that we always need to look at the
whole picture. We must
understand that low salaries and insecure employment
are a part of the
same monster that is expressed in violence. We must
understand that
sexism, porno industry and prostitution are a part of the
same monster
that is expressed in the trafficking in women and children. We
must
understand that lack of women at leading positions in politics
and
economy, nationally and internationally, means that the picture
is
actually not whole.
Now when EU member country Germany prepares for
the WC in football by
building mega brothels and designing fast purchase of
sex in the form of
"performance boxes", small car-port-like boxes, that with
its full
equipment with condoms and snack machines are going finally to
cement
the perception of the male’s sexuality as unquestionably
uncontrollable,
the whole EU should stand up and protest. But here has the
hypocrisy
reached its peak. The prostitution is allowed in Germany. The fact
that
a crime in the form of trafficking is being planned, as German
"own"
prostituted women won’t be enough, seems not to worry the ministers
very
much. Women from various organisations in many countries have
reacted
and are now planning actions and petitions. I myself have got
the
promise of the Minister of Justice to raise this question for
his
colleagues in the EU. It goes slowly, but still there is a progress.
The
minimum we can demand is a top meeting of the ministers and a
decision
to immediately stop all preparations of committing crime and
violations
of the women’s human rights!
So, there are still things to
be done – both here and there. Those who
give up should be ashamed. I believe
that it has become clear to more
and more people that the feminist dimension
widens the political
boundaries and vitalises the democracy. And it is self
obvious that the
parliamentary arena cannot be an excluded of it, neither
here nor
there.
________________________________________________________________________
Gurdun
Schyman, Member of Parliament, Spokeswoman of the Feminist
Initiative in
Sweden and Member of the Board of the European Feminist
Initiative,
ife@efi-europa.org