Sweden is a pretty progressive place when it comes to women’s rights. About 45% of the members of parliament are women, second only to nominally democratic Rwanda. They even have a Ministry of Gender Equality. Female participation in the workforce is among the highest in the world. Men can take 10 months off work to care for kids. All in all, it’s the last place you’d expect a “Women’s Party”Â? to emerge.
But the current state of affairs aren’t good enough for Ms. Gudrun Schyman, who just founded a Women’s Party in Sweden that will canvas candidates for next year’s parliamentary election. Based on a similar institution in Iceland that won seats in parliament a decade ago, the new party is backed by a number of prominent intellectuals and sidelined politicians. Their platform: close Sweden’s wage gap.
Who is this Ms. Schyman? She was elected to Parliament shortly after the Cold War ended and lead the transformation of the country’s dying Communists into the third-largest party (renaming it the Left Party). In 2001 she accused Swedish men of being “no better than the Taliban.”Â? She was reportedly furious when she was deposed her as party leader in 2003 after a tax scandal and her alcoholism came to light. Two years later she’s staging her comeback—broadening her appeal by applying her communist ideals to only one half of the population. One of her proposals includes a Men’s Tax, saying “We have to have a discussion so that men understand that they have a collective financial responsibility.” (For a different take on the problems facing Sweden’s women, click here.)
Sweden’s Social Democratic Party, who have ruled for all but nine of the past 73 years, are terrified she may siphon off votes from their majority. Should the SDP and their coalition partners lose their majority, Sweden’s perpetual opposition, the Christian Democrats and Moderates, will have a chance at power. I share the SDP’s concern and wish Ms. Schyman all the best in next year’s election.
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