The Swedish Parliament – A Gender Sensitive Working Place?

The Swedish parliament is usually presented by international organizations such as IPU and OSCE as a good example or best practice pertaining to gender sensitivity. Usually quantitative aspects are addressed, such as having an equal distribution of women and men in the leadership of standing committees, but also the extent to which family-friendly reforms have been adopted such as fixed meeting hours and a child care center. However, internal studies of the working conditions of parliamentarians show that women face several challenges in parliament, such as having difficulties in advancing to higher positions in parliament, and that they are being subjected to domination techniques such as belittling and ridicule. This paper describes the formal and informal institutions that have been set up in the Swedish parliament in order to promote gender equality. Based on three sets of interviews, conducted in 2005, 2010 and 2015, the paper discusses the extent to which these supposedly favourable conditions correspond to full inclusion of women and men on equal terms, as perceived by parliamentarians themselves, and possible changes over time.