On March 8 every year, International Women's Day is celebrated. Here are some voices on where feminism and the work for equality stand today.
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Gudrun Schyman, previously, among other things, party leader for the Left Party and Feminist Initiative.
One must acknowledge that equality is regressing at a very high rate in many places. Also in Sweden.
It's regressing in terms of salaries, it's regressing on the labor market, it's regressing when it comes to parental insurance, men's violence against women, and all these parameters we usually look at. It's bleak right now. But then one must make an even greater effort.
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Ebba Witt-Brattström, author and literature professor.
The interest in feminism exists. But I'm very angry about having politicians who don't do their job.
Sweden was world-leading in the 1994 election when we got the world's first equal government and parliament. Then one should have started the work. Instead, the wage differences have increased and we have a pension system that is designed to punish women. It's an ongoing political betrayal.
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Agneta Stark, associate professor of business administration and previously, among other things, rector at Dalarna University.
Looking at income differences between women and men – final income, not just salary – we're standing still today, just like in 1995.
Women have increased their salaries, but the tax system has favored high-income earners. It shows in the statistics.
For women in the working class born abroad, salaries have even worsened over the past 20 years compared to men's, she continues.
It's so infuriating. And a concrete example that feminism can't just be an abstract idea, where you sit and are "feminist". But the question is "do you do feminism"?
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Paulina Brandberg (L), Minister for Equality.
I can acknowledge that feminism and equality are unfortunately under attack, from several different directions. We have current events in the USA that make me very worried and concerned, where I see major threats to the global work for equality.
At the same time, we see other threats from, for example, Islamist directions where we also see a significant setback for equality. So I feel a great concern and for me, it means that I feel that it's urgent to step up this work even more.
