Abstract
Sweden is very often taken as a model when a conversation comes to any gender or equity related question. It is said to be, not without any reason, one of the most if not the most advanced country in the world as far as equality of chances or the cause of women are concerned. Tough, it had long been, as had been the same way all the countries of the world, submitted to a clear segregation concerning the sexual division of labour (except maybe in the very agricultural areas where the situation can be a little bit different). Men were supposed to work in order to bring money to the household whereas the woman's main occupation was to make and to raise kids. The Swedish government has had, since approximately the times of the Second World War of active struggle against that situation and instead been promoting a way more gender balanced model, where both sexes should in the end be seen as equal.
Employment is in this respect a crucial matter. Indeed, it is only by (sometimes self) employment that one can earn the money necessary to have a livable life. As Sweden claims and is said to be a pioneer countries as regards to welfare, it should in consequence have some particularities it could be interesting to study. What are the strategies of the Swedish welfare state that aim particularly to reduce the differences between men and women?
