It was in November 2025 that the then 60-year-old woman applied for a marketing manager position at a security company. When she didn't hear back, despite feeling she had the right skills, she emailed the recruitment manager.
The answer she received was that the company wanted “someone who was where she was in 1994.”
The woman turned to her union, which initiated legal proceedings.
“It is difficult to understand the reasoning: in what way would her competence have disappeared since 1994?” says Hanna Mikaelsson, an ombudsman at the Swedish Association of Academics SSR.
With the case close to going to court, the company has now offered the woman 50,000 kronor, which she accepted.
