Recognising Men’s Violence as Political: An Analysis of the Swedish Feminist Movement and Its Interaction with the State
Author
Summary, in Swedish
Sweden is a country which is often praised for its commitment to gender equality, as expressed through its high female parliamentary representation and its adoption of measures such as the criminalisation of sex purchase. What many forget, however, is the role of the feminist movement in bringing this about and the large degree of resistance which it has often faced from the Swedish political establishment. In this thesis, I explore the struggle of the new (or “second wave”) feminist movement, from its emergence in 1968 until the end of the 1990s, to break down the traditional division between public and private and to have male violence, in its many forms, recognised as a political and structural issue. From a radical feminist theoretical perspective, I carry out two historical case studies that help to illuminate this process, one looking at the feminist movement’s struggle against the Sexual Crimes Investigation and the other at the activities of the women’s shelter movement over several decades. Finally, I analyse the state’s apparent willingness in the 1990s to, for the first time, take measures based on a feminist understanding and analysis of male violence and to depart somewhat from the principle of gender neutrality. I consider what some of the reasons for this might be and how much of a role can be attributed to the feminist movement as an independent political actor.
Department/s
- Graduate School
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Full text
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Document type
Student publication for Master's degree (two years)
Topic
- Law and Political Science
Supervisor
- Christian Fernández (Doctor)