Women and work

Publié le 30 mai 2012 par groupe suède

During our trip in Sweden, we had to study women's status in their professional background and their general working situation, in the country.

Swedish women still earn on average 15% less than men. This difference between men and women can be explained by differences in their profession, sector, position, work experience or age, and it is more pronounced in the private sector. Butone third of women still work part-time, some because they can't find full-time jobs and others because they have family responsibilities which make them busy. And their earnings are reduced when they decide to work less after having children.

In Sweden, most women work, there are almost no housewives. Nevertheless, we notice that the proportion of women in top posts is increasing, it means there are more and more women who practice jobs with high responsabilities. This phenomenon is due to their motivation which has got stronger, certainly to struggle against preconceived ideas about housewives. However, it seems more dificult for a woman to stay at these high positions.

Moreover, mothers work less than women in general, at least when their child is under the age of seven, and children don't represent a problem for a woman who work, indeed, the child care system is much more developed than in France. Following a childbirth, parents can divide maternity leave as they want. Parents have also much more leave time than in France. Compared to other parts of the world, the parental allowance system does make Sweden a good country in which to be a woman.

To conclude, even if Sweden has one of the highest levels of gender equality in the world, even if a lot of Swedish women work in very good employement conditions, more needs to be done and the perfect job exists neither for men nor for women.

Women interviewed :

åsa-wallin maria-sandmark