Thoughts about most important gender issues for women in Sweden 2022

In a survey about attitudes towards gender equality in the presence of International Women’s Day 2022, the question “which issues do you think are the most important facing women and girls in Sweden?” was asked. The three issues most commonly mentioned among respondents in the country were domestic abuse, equal pay, and sexual violence. That domestic abuse is the issue the highest share of people worry about should be seen in relation with the COVID-19 pandemic, when domestic abuse increased in some countries.

Equal pay

The second most commonly addressed issue among the respondents was that employers should pay women the same as men for the same work. In Sweden in 2021, women’s average earnings were 96 percent of men’s in regard to occupation, age, education, working time, and sector. In other words, there is a high degree of equal payment among the genders in Sweden, but a small gap still exists. In Sweden, the gender pay gap was lower than the EU average in 2020.

Sexual violence and harassment

Sexual violence was the issue that caused the third highest level of worries among the respondents. Indeed, the total number of reported cases of sexual offences increased during the past years. It is difficult to say if there has been a general increase in the actual number of cases, or if the increased awareness around harassment against and abuse of women has contributed to more reporting. Sexual harassment became widely debated after the Me-Too Movement in 2017, and in a survey from 2017 focusing on the movement, 64 percent of female respondents stated that they have at least at one point in their life felt that they were sexually harassed or offended.