Gender equality

The Government decided on 12 March to task the Folke Bernadotte Academy with initiating the preparatory work to establish a scholarship aimed at supporting UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in 2021. The scholarship will be established in memory of Zaida Catalán, who had served abroad for the Folke Bernadotte Academy as a gender expert.

All government policy must redistribute power and resources for a more gender-equal society. The goal is to ensure that women and men have the same power to shape society and their own lives.

The Government has decided to appoint a commission for gender-equal lifetime earnings. The commission has been instructed to present proposals that aim to increase economic equality between women and men in Sweden in the long term.

In connection with International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is conducting a worldwide campaign for the third year in a row to make the internet more equal. In parallel, edit-a-thons aimed at increasing the number of women on Wikipedia will be held in almost 30 countries. In Sweden, a WikiGap edit-a-thon will be held at the University of Gothenburg.

In a proposal referred to the Council on Legislation for consideration, the Government proposes that a new child marriage offence be introduced that can result in imprisonment for up to four years. The Government also proposes new grounds for tougher penalties for ‘honour’ crimes and a new instrument, a travel ban, to further strengthen protection against honour-related crime.

Sweden has the first feminist government in the world. This means that gender equality is central to the Government’s priorities – in decision-making and resource allocation. Women and men must have the same power to shape society and their own lives; this is a human right and a matter of democracy and justice. There is also overwhelming evidence that gender equality boosts economic growth. Despite this, trade policy today benefits men more than women. With this in mind, the Swedish government’s feminist trade policy includes six focus areas where we will step up efforts to ensure that trade policy and trade promotion activities benefit women and men equally. We must begin to see gender as a market access issue and give priority in trade negotiations to sectors, products and services that have positive implications for women. We will also take a range of measures and initiatives to improve the gender balance in Sweden’s promotion activities.

At the initiative of Minister for Gender Equality Åsa Lindhagen, an EU ministerial meeting on gender equality – The STHLM Initiative – took place in Stockholm on 3–4 December. Ms Lindhagen invited Finland, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the other EU Member States that will hold the Presidency in the coming years.

Strengthened engagement for democracy was announced in the 2019 Statement of Foreign Policy and in the Swedish Foreign Service’s strategic vision for the electoral period. Sweden will stand up for democratic principles and support democracy in all contexts. On 21 November 2019, the Drive for Democracy was presented to the Riksdag Committee on Foreign Affairs by Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde and Minister for International Development Cooperation Peter Eriksson.

Paris, November 14, 2019. Check against delivery.