EU och den svenska jämställdhetspolitiken : En analys av hur EU påverkar den svenska jämställdhetspolitiken med inriktning på familje- och arbetsmarknadspolitik

Departing from the statement of the Swedish member of the European Parliament Eva-Britt Svensson that the EU could threat the Swedish development in gender politics this essay aims to investigate if this is possible and probable. In order to acquire a view of the actual differences between European and Swedish gender politics in the domain of family- and employment policies and how they affect one another I have conducted interviews with Swedish members of the European Parliament, civil servants and a lobbyist. By subjecting the answers to critical feminist theory the essay tries to explain the difference in the view of women and gender between the EU and Sweden and what it implicates. It seems that the basic ambition of equality between women and men is to be found at both the European level and at Swedish level. But the view of the family and the role of the women as responsible for care work differ. Swedish gender politics don’t seem to have been affected in any negative way by EU rulings so far. The risk of Sweden to compare itself with other European countries could, however, lead to stagnation in the struggle for equality between women and men as an effect of Sweden considering itself to be far ahead