Just read this fanaticism :
Tal av Margareta Winberg:
Speech given by the Swedish Minister for Gender Equality at "Women, Work and Health Congress" in Stockholm on the 5th of June 2002.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
First I would like to express my appreciation by the fact that I have been given the opportunity to meet you today and give a closing address to all delegates at the Women, Work and Health Congress here in Stockholm. I am sure you all have had a good and interesting Congress. Sharing experiences in this way and discussing how we might continue our efforts, at both national and international level, is always a good way for developing.
First I would like to describe my fundamental views as regards the gender equality issue, the rights of both women and men to shape their lives, based on the same rights, opportunities and obligations. Apart from the class structures that exist in today's society, there are other parallel power structures ranking individuals and groups. These structures are both formal and informal in character. The clearest and most extensive of these is the social structure that keeps separate and segregates the sexes, women and men, and which tells us:- that the norm is men, and women are the exception- that men are superior and women are inferior- that men have great power and women have little power.
Throughout our everyday lives, women and men confront this structure. For women, it means that we have less power, that we have less pay, that we have more difficulties in finding full-time employment and in having the same opportunities for educational and professional development as men. Women still have to bear the main part of the responsibility and workload for children and home.
This power and gender structure is also the reason why men in the present society are sexual harassing, abusing and exploiting, raping and expose females to other kinds of physical and psychological violence. It is an oppressive structure, which in its worse form leads to women being killed by men.
Until now the struggle for gender equality has have been carried by women, but now men must also take an active responsibility for developing gender equality.Gender equality is a common survival issue in order to create a modern, democratic society able to offer a future to everyone.Gender equality was one of the policy areas permeating the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in the first six months of last year, 2001. Likewise, gender equality is given priority by the Swedish Government in other international organisations, such as the United Nations.
We have, for example, a clear gender equality aspect in the development assistance that Sweden undertakes throughout the whole world, both on its own, trough the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and in collaboration with various organisations and other countries.
One of the fundamental points of focus in both national and international work must be to assert the rights of all women. It is simply a matter of taking responsibility for and ensuring that the UN Declaration on Human Rights is realised and results in practical action.
In my other capacity as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries I have noticed that 80 percent of all farmers in the world are women. These women must be empowered, not only because they are crucial partners in the fight against hunger and poverty. It is also a question about the implication that HIV and AIDS have in rural areas for food security and sustainable development. We know for example, that in several countries, studies have found that rural women whose husband have died of AIDS are forced in to prostitution to survive because they have no legal rights to their dead husbands property.
Therefore we must also take action at all levels and with participation of the civil society in the fight against, and prevention of HIV and AIDS. We must also emphasise the importance of reproductive and sexual rights and the empowerment of women - which will enable women to, if they so wish, say "no"! Without empowerment of women and without reproductive and sexual rights, nobody can fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.
I would also remind us all of the underlying causes of trafficking in women and prostitution. Prostitution is never a work or a result of a woman's free choice and all trafficking is forced. The causes are:� A patriarchal society� Poverty steaming from the inequitable distribution of resources between women and men� Rapes, incest and other form of the male violence against women� The "feminisation" of poverty
Like all other markets the sex industry depend on buyers for their operation. Without men who believe that they have a self-assumed right to buy other peoples bodies and use them for their own pleasure we would have no prostitution. The sexual exploitation of women would cease.
In Sweden, a law prohibiting the purchase of sexual services has been in force for three years now. An offence under this act is punishable by fines or a maximum of six months' imprisonment. Since its introduction, the incidence of street prostitution has fallen sharply. The act has also made it possible for the police to take action against brothels and other actors in the prostitution industry. The Swedish law criminalizes the buyer - usually a man - not the prostituted woman. The latter must be given the opportunity and support to exit. Professional groups that come in contact with these women often declare that they have never met a single prostituted woman who is real happy with her life.
That gender equality is an issue directly linked to economic and political democracy is a cornerstone of Swedish Government policy. In the last decades, from the 1960s, and up until today, enormous changes have occurred in Sweden, which have laid the foundation for the situation that we now have in today's Swedish society.
The Swedish women have worked both within and outside Parliament and the political parties. Within the parties we have worked to get more women into executive positions and have emphasised issues that have been important to all women. Outside the parties there have been many women who have been active in the unions and various voluntary organisations.
The entry of Swedish women into decision-making assemblies has introduced new issues into politics. F�r example welfare issues such as childcare, health care, education etcetera have grown in importance. Women's entry has also meant that such issues as violence against women, sexual harassment and unreasonable pay differences between women and men have entered into the political debate. It is no longer men who decide on their own, which subjects that are important in Swedish politics.What is then gender equality?
One of the basic reasons for women in Sweden today having a relatively equal status is that we over time have worked for all women being able to have the opportunity to support themselves from their own employment. Our own income! Own money - our freedom.
Another cornerstone is our extensive child- and geriatric-care system, which makes it easier for women to work and support them and not be economically dependent on a man. This also requires that the tax and social insurance system is based on the individual. In Sweden we have such a system, based on the individual person.
Women know that only by being economically independent, in the same way as men had been for many years, could women obtain the opportunity to combine employment and political and social participation with family life.
Since women play such a large part on the Swedish labour market, we have gone further and examined women's pay vis-�-vis that of men. We have then found that there are pay differentials of between 3 and 8 per cent which cannot be explained by any other factors than gender, after the effects of working-time, professional experience, qualifications and similar factors are excluded.
This is a problem that I know we share with all other countries. The fact that we can clearly see this in Sweden is thanks to our working consciously with producing sex-disaggregated statistics and other fact.
Counteracting these unreasonable pay differentials between women and men in Sweden is an issue for which the partners to the labour market, employer organisations and trade unions are responsible. The Swedish Government has been working on developing and tightening up our Swedish Act Concerning Equality between Men and Women, introduced in 1980. From 1 January last year, the Act establishes more clearly local responsibility for drawing up gender equality working plans, charting pay differentials and establishing and implementing action plans for dealing with them for a maximum three-year period. The purpose of this legislation is to speed up the abolition of unreasonable pay differentials. But also to ensure that women have the same opportunities as men to develop their qualifications within the framework of their professional lives.
Let me end with citing some lines from the report " The State of World Population 2000" from the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA.:"Gender inequality holds back the growth of individuals, the development of countries and the evolution of societies, to the disadvantage of both women and men."
I think that we should all bear these words in mind.
Gender equality is a key to the future.
Thank you.
Comment : When will the lunacy end ?