Sweden, a Model for Gender Equality, Aims to Make Its Record Even Stronger

Sweden, a Model for Gender Equality, Aims to Make Its Record Even Stronger
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström speaks to journalists, New York, June 28, 2016 (UN photo by JC McIlwaine).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the status of women’s rights and gender equality in various countries around the globe.

Last week, Sweden’s minority center-left government announced that it plans to propose legislation that will require 40 percent of all corporate board members to be women by 2019, with fines for companies that fail to comply, despite the fact the center-right opposition has said it will vote against the measure. In an email interview, Ann Numhauser-Henning, a professor at Lund University, discusses gender equality in Sweden.

WPR: To what degree is Sweden’s reputation as being a model of women’s rights and gender equality deserved, in terms of advances for women and their current legal and societal status?

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