Response to interpellation 2023/24:244 on national gender equality goals
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns national gender equality goals and the wording of the sixth goal. L argues that the government wants a more inclusive wording to make all groups subject to violence visible 1. L believes that work towards men's violence against women can be intensified while simultaneously making other groups visible 2 3. L emphasizes that gender equality work requires talking about the power dynamic between men and women 3. S argues that the current goal is good and clear 4. S argues that the concept of men's violence against women is fundamental 4 5 and that a gender-neutral wording contradicts research 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Sofia Amloh has asked me if I intend to take any measures to change the sixth gender equality sub-goal regarding men's violence against women. I would like to thank you for the question and for the questioner's commitment to gender equality.
The basis for the current formulation of the sixth gender equality sub-goal lies in an analysis that violence is both an expression of the power dynamic prevailing between women and men and a means to maintain it. That men are overrepresented among perpetrators and that women are subjected to severe, repeated, systematic and sometimes deadly violence is a fact and a central starting point for Swedish gender equality policy. I share this analysis.
The current sub-goal was presented in the report Power, Goals and Authority - Feminist Politics for an Equal Future (skr. 2016/17:10, bet. 2016/17:AU5, rskr. 2016/17:150). It appears from the report that the sub-goal covers all forms of physical and mental, including sexual, violence and threats of violence directed at women and girls, regardless of whether the perpetrator is an unknown or a close person. The sub-goal further covers honor-related violence and oppression as well as prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
The second objective in the sub-goal, regarding bodily integrity, concerns every woman's and girl's right and opportunity to decide over her own body, sexuality, and reproduction. The vulnerability to violence and bodily integrity of men and boys are also included. Counteracting the commercialization and exploitation of the female body in media, pornography, and advertising, which aims to reproduce notions of women's subordination, is also included. It also appears that the sub-goal regarding men's violence against women has a strong connection to nearby forms of violence, such as violence in same-sex relationships and violence against children.
On August 3, the government gave a special investigator a mandate to analyze and propose a new and more inclusive wording for the gender equality sub-goal that men's violence against women shall cease, while also continuing to consider in the goal formulation that men's and boys' violence against women and girls constitutes the majority of gender-related violence. It is about making visible all groups and individuals covered by the sub-goal so that no one risks falling through the cracks and being left without adequate support and help.
The investigator is also tasked with analyzing and assessing whether a specific gender equality policy sub-goal should be introduced to prevent and combat honor-related violence and oppression and, regardless of the position on the merits, provide proposals on how such a sub-goal can be formulated.
I agree with Sofia Amloh. In order for us to be able to prevent and combat violence, it is central to know who is the victim and who is the perpetrator. With the current objective, however, it is not entirely transparent which groups are covered by the sub-objective. There are thus groups exposed to violence that risk being rendered invisible with the current objective formulation, for example, hbtqi persons, men who are subjected to violence by women, and girls who are subjected to violence by boys. Different contexts of men's violence against women and other gender-related violence may require different types of solutions. All exposed groups shall be able to be offered adequate support and protection.
We must be able to make visible and support particularly vulnerable groups and individuals while simultaneously focusing on the structural dimensions of gender-related violence. Combating men's violence against women, which constitutes the majority of gender-related violence, is a priority issue for the government. The government has strengthened the work, among other things, through a three-year investment of 50 million kronor per year during 2024-2026. In total for 2024, the government proposes that just over 600 million kronor be allocated within the equality policy for the areas of men's violence against women, honor-related violence and oppression, violence in close relationships, prostitution and human trafficking.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! In 1979, Sweden's first equality act was adopted. Men and women were formally given the same conditions in Swedish society. In 1994, equality integration is mentioned within Swedish legislation as a strategy already in the equality policy proposition Shared Power - Shared Responsibility, which was presented by Equality Minister Bengt Westerberg, then of the Folkpartiet; today the party is Liberalerna.
The UN's fourth world conference on women took place in Beijing in 1995. Despite changes in legislation worldwide, the goal of actual equality was still very distant. The 189 nations that participated in the conference unanimously adopted both a declaration and a comprehensive action plan for equality work at the national, regional, and international level, and it was on a Swedish initiative that gender mainstreaming was prescribed as a strategy in the action plan, the so-called Beijing Platform for Action.
The Riksdag decided in 2006 that the overall goal for the gender equality policy shall be that women and men shall have the same power to shape society and their own lives. Sweden signed the Council of Europe's convention on preventing and combating violence against women in 2011.
In 2016, the Riksdag and the government established six sub-goals under the overarching goal, which indicates the focus and direction for the gender equality policy: Power and influence shall be distributed equally, and women and men shall have the same right and opportunity to be active citizens and shape the conditions for decision-making.
Madam President! The sixth sub-objective is that men's violence against women shall cease. Women and men, girls and boys, shall have the same right and opportunity to bodily integrity. Men's violence against women is therefore an equality issue.
Men's violence against women is a collective term for the violence that girls and women are subjected to and indicates a power imbalance between the genders. Knowledge of power and violence and of stereotypical gender norms is therefore fundamental for the prevention and combating of men's violence.
In 2018, knowledge of men's violence against women and violence in close relationships was introduced in the Higher Education Ordinance and is now a graduation goal for eight higher education programs.
Just to be really clear, I intend to once again state what the goal regarding men's violence against women encompasses:
all forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence, economic and digital violence, as well as threats of violence against girls and women
violence in close relationships, directed towards girls, women, boys, men and hbtqi-persons
violence against children and children who experience violence in the home
honor-related violence and oppression, including child marriage, forced marriage and female genital mutilation of girls and women
prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes and sexual exploitation of children
commercialization and exploitation of women's bodies in advertising, media, and pornography.
The Minister formulates it well in his answer, and the goal we have today is good. I have also just described the goal, which clearly includes several forms of violence and highlights who the target groups are. Yet, the government still wants to change the goal. My question is: Why?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Combating and preventing violence against women by men is a priority for the government. We have in no way lowered our ambitions in this regard; on the contrary, we are ramping up this work.
The interpellator has in a meritorious manner accounted for everything that today is included in the sixth gender equality goal. From the government's side, there are no plans whatsoever to change the content of the gender equality goal.
The interpellor also says, however, that the concept of men's violence against women is a collective term for the violence and abuses that girls and women are subjected to, and it is here that it becomes a bit skewed. Since we have a sixth gender equality policy sub-goal that also includes the violence that, for example, men are subjected to in heterosexual partner relationships and the violence that occurs in LGBTQI relationships, there is a problem. Violence in these types of relationships is rendered invisible when it falls under the collective term men's violence against women. The effect of this is that we combat men's violence against women and simultaneously render invisible the violence that takes place in other relationships.
Madam President! This is not about any reduction in ambition, but about the fact that we must be able to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time.
In my previous role as a prosecutor, I have met people who are subjected to violence in partner relationships but do not fit the usual mold. I am thinking particularly of a man who was subjected to extremely severe and systematic violence by his wife, including sexual violence. Time and again, he asked for help, but he was not believed. The violence became more and more severe, but he received no help—he was not believed. Instead, he was made suspicious. It was only when it had gone really, really far that there was a police report and a legal process, which showed the severe violence he had been subjected to. I know that this man is not alone, partly because I have had other, similar cases, and partly because I have also taken part in other testimonies.
We must manage to ramp up the work against men's violence against women without downplaying the power imbalance that exists between men and women, which lies behind the violence. We must manage to do this and at the same time see that there are other groups exposed to violence who are affected when the violence they are exposed to falls under an umbrella term called men's violence against women. It is against this background that the government has tasked an investigator to look at whether we can find a more inclusive objective formulation. It should also appear from the formulation that the predominant part of the violence concerns men and boys as perpetrators and that it is women and girls who are exposed.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! I am really trying to listen to the Minister's answer that one wants to change the goal but still not change it. For me, it becomes very unclear, especially if we go back to point 2, which I just read out here, that is, when it concerns violence in close relationships, as this goal includes. It is directed at girls, women, boys, men, and hbtqi persons. What is it that the Minister lacks in the target group to be able to work with these issues? That question remains.
Madam Speaker! Today, one woman per month is murdered by her partner or former partner, and the figures are not heading in the right direction. Now the government wants to reformulate the gender equality goals. The goal concerning specifically men's violence against women, they want to make more gender-neutral, in contradiction to what the research shows.
Sometimes it may be difficult to see the progress that has been made. In Sweden, the tolerance is lower and the reporting rate is higher for violence and sexual crimes compared to how it is in many other countries. Here, there are groundbreaking laws on women's peace and sex trafficking. For 40 years back, there has been knowledge about the mechanisms of violence. Sweden has played an important role for the adoption of international conventions.
Madam President! In October this year, 31 women's organizations published a debate article criticizing the Minister for Equality for undermining the Swedish work against men's violence against women with the initiative we are now debating. It is a very heavy criticism that we Social Democrats stand behind completely.
The background is that the government wants to stop using the term violence against women, which is completely fundamental for us to be able to prevent and combat this violence and provide support to those affected by violence. One must know who is the victim and who is the perpetrator, just as the Minister himself says.
The concept of violence against women has been developed through research and practical work, through women's shelters and in accordance with international conventions. For 20 years, governments from both the right and the left have stood behind this.
In the gender equality investigation from 2005, the goal was formulated. This built upon the bill presented by the Bildt government in 1994, with Bengt Westerberg as the responsible minister, which I previously referred to. There, violence was raised for the first time as a gender equality issue.
The consequences of changing the goal regarding violence against women is that we women, our living conditions, and important equality issues are rendered invisible. When the violence is rendered invisible, the perpetrator and men's opportunities to take responsibility are also rendered invisible.
In the answer to the interpellation, it actually sounds like the minister thinks it is important to make visible the violence against women and that gender plays a role. But at the same time, I can read a quote from the minister that reads as follows: I believe that one does oneself a disservice if one divides people into different categories based on what gender they have.
Equality rests entirely on gender and on how power, living conditions, economy and influence are disproportionately distributed between men and women. Men's violence against women is a societal problem. In what way does the Minister of the Interior mean that the work on equality would be strengthened by making it more gender-neutral?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam President! The interpellator says that she does not understand what I mean – that I want to change the goal but still not change it.
This is about the government not wanting to change the content of the case in any way. On the other hand, we see that there are groups that are rendered invisible when the case is formulated as it is. I would like to ask the interpellator if she thinks it is clear that, for example, violence in hbtqi-relations, same-sex relations, is included in a case defined as men's violence against women. Is it clear, or can the interpellator see that there is a risk of rendering exactly this violence invisible, which we also need to be able to handle?
When one hears the interpellator debate, it appears as if we are in a situation where we need to choose between highlighting men's and boys' violence against women and girls and highlighting other groups affected by violence. I mean that it becomes a very one-sided way of thinking.
This government at least has the ability to handle several social problems simultaneously and make several groups visible at the same time.
The government has no ambition whatsoever to make men's violence against women or boys' violence against girls invisible. On the contrary, we want to ramp up that work. At the same time, we are capable of making other groups subjected to violence visible, who also deserve society's support and protection. We do not need to choose.
When these issues are debated, it is with a lot of emotion. There are many misunderstandings, and some of them are present in the debate article that Sofia Amloh takes up. It is a debate article where there is a perception that the government not only, as is claimed, wants to stop using the term violence against women even when it is precisely this that is meant, but where it is also claimed that the government no longer considers that one should even be able to use the word woman. This is very far from the truth.
I completely share the interpellant's view that if we are to work with equality, we must talk about men and women. We must talk about the power structure that exists between men and women and which constitutes the basis for virtually all the equality problems that I work with daily at my department.
I mean, however, that it is not reasonable to help certain groups at the expense of other groups, but it is a matter of keeping several thoughts in mind at the same time and that everyone who is subjected to violence in a partner relationship, sexual violence, and violence in close relationships should feel that they are being made visible and that society's support and protection is available for them as well.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Madam Speaker! I say it again: Equality is about the power relationship between men and women. If the Minister to the Riksdag wants to present other national political goals aimed at other groups, she is welcome to do so, but when it comes to equality, it is about men and women. That the structural violence—this violence occurs every day and every month, where the ultimate consequence of an unequal society is that women are subjected to violence and simply die—is being made invisible, is very remarkable, I think.
Madam Speaker! The non-answer is perhaps answer enough. In Sweden in 2023, we have a Minister for Equality who does not seem to think that gender plays such a large role. It will have consequences for Swedish equality work.
You are absolutely writing history. Unfortunately, it is not a history that we will be particularly proud of, on the contrary. It is a grim history. And who thought that it would be a liberal cabinet that would hold the axe?
The women's movement demands that the policy regarding the work against violence and for equality be developed instead of being phased out. It is deeply sad that we have a government that does not see it that way.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! The interpellor cites as reasons against having a more inclusive concept for the sixth gender equality sub-goal that equality is about men and women. I would therefore like to know if Sofia Amloh would like to change the content of the sixth gender equality sub-goal, which already today includes, for example, violence in same-sex relations.
Now there are no more exchanges, but I would have been very curious to know how Sofia Amloh views precisely that question. Does she think this does not belong under the sixth gender equality sub-goal? Why, in that case, did the Social Democrats, when they were in government, not change the content of the gender equality sub-goal? That is what is relevant, which policy one works with.
I would also like to know if Sofia Amloh sees any problem with the fact that boys' violence against girls is also rendered invisible when we talk about men's violence against women, as if this is an adult problem. We need to implement the truly important measures regarding our children and young people.
Madam Speaker! There are very many reasons to use words that reflect what one actually means and what one actually wants to work with. Otherwise, we risk going wrong in our work and making invisible groups that need to be made visible.
With that said, I would like to thank Sofia Amloh for the debate. I know that Sofia Amloh has a great interest and a commitment to these issues. We share it. Even though we do not share the path, I thank her that we time and again get the opportunity to discuss these important issues here in the chamber.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.