Notable years
History
1846 - Unmarried (widowed or divorced) women are allowed to work as
artisans and tradeswomen.
1853 - Women are entitled to teach at small elementary schools.
1859 - Women can be appointed to certain lower-grade positions as teachers and civil servants.
1864 - Unmarried women have the same formal rights as men in private
industry and commerce (after the introduction of new commercial, industrial,
and handicraft statutes and regulations).
1874 - Married women are entitled to administer and manage their own
property and estate, and to decide over their own wages, to be regulated by
prenuptial agreements.
1886 - The first women’s professional society is formed: Sveriges
barnmorskeförbund [Union of Swedish Midwives].
1886 - The first women’s trade union is formed: Home seamstresses in Lund.
1888 - Kvinnliga Arbetarförbundet [Women Worker’s Union] is formed, the
first organisation in the proletarian women’s movement.
1900 - Legislation prohibiting underground work for women, in quarries
or mines. It is further stated by this legislation, that a woman who has
recently given birth may not work in industry for four weeks after delivery.
In 1912 this period is extended to six weeks – always without payment.
1901 - Right to leave of absence without payment at childbirth.
1902 - Kvinnornas Fackförbund [Women’s Trade-Union League], chiefly consisting of seamstresses, is formed.
1904 - Kvinnornas Fackförbund joins LO (the Swedish trade union organization).
1907-1909 - A franchise reform gives women the right to participate in
municipal commissions under the condition that they are entitled to franchise
in accordance with the new income-related 40-degree scale.
1909 - Prohibition against night work for women is introduced.
1910 - Women are entitled to hold municipal appointments.
1913 - National pension insurance is introduced, for women and men.
1918 - Women may work as senior masters/headmasters in national grammar schools.
1923 - According to the law regulating formal competence, women are
equal with men concerning the right to be appointed civil servants, with the
exception of appointments associated with risk of violence (e.g. military
service), or working as priests or judges.
1931 - Motherhood insurance is introduced, transacting a 30-42-day
sickness benefit through the health insurance offices. There is a certain
motherhood allowance for those not entitled to benefits from the health
insurance offices. The allowance is revised in 1937 into an allowance based on
a general means test.
1931 - Yrkeskvinnors klubb [Business and professional women’s club] is established in Stockholm.
1935 - Women are granted the same old-age pension as men.
1936 - Women civil servants are entitled to leave of absence, with sick
pay, at pregnancy and childbirth. In 1939, female municipal employees in Malmö
are entitled to leave of absence for 12 weeks, with sick pay.
1937 - Equal pay for female and male elementary school teachers.
1939 - Betrothal, marriage, pregnancy or childbirth can no longer be
used as reasons for dismissal of women civil servants. The law excludes small
firms (less than three employees) and is valid only in cases with a continuous
period of employment of at least two years.
1945 - The above-mentioned law is revised to include also all employers,
and the requirement of a two-year employment is reduced to one year.
1946 - The right to equal pay for all civil servants (with the exception
of priests and military service) is established. Women members of the
parliament agree on a bill: pay to be determined by performance, abolishment of
women’s wages.
1955 -Nationalization of health insurance – right to 90 days of
continuous maternity leave.
1958 - Women acquire the right to become priests. According to a
so-called conscience clause, a bishop cannot be forced to ordain women priests.
1960 - Equal pay for equal work, for women and men.
1960 - LO and SAF decide to abolish separate wage rates for women.
1962 - The government adheres to the UN convention on equal pay for equal work.
1971 - Individual taxation is introduced.
1974 - Through the introduction of parents’ insurance, parents are
entitled to share parental leaves when their children are born.
1976 - Statute on gender equality in government sectors.
1979 - Parents with small children acquire the right to six-hour workdays.
1979 - Law on gender equality in working life is accepted by the parliament.
1980 - Law against gender discrimination in working life is introduced.
1982 - ATP points are introduced for care at home of children less than
three years of age. National allowances for women’s associations are introduced.
Agreement on gender equality is signed between SAF and LO-PTK.
1983 - All professions are available for women – also in the Armed Forces.
1984 - Agreement on gender equality within the government sectors.
1991 - The law on gender equality is created, with the aim to equalize
and prevent difference, in pay, and in other terms of employment. The employer
shall work purposefully to promote equality in working life (replaces the Law
of 1979).br />
1995 - Statute on positive discrimination is accepted, concerning
appointments of professors and postdoctoral fellows.
1995 - Compulsory demand to map income disparities between women and men
at all places of work.
First women
1884 - Sonja Kovalevsky is appointed Professor in Mathematics in the
private university college of Stockholm.
1897 - Elsa Eschelson receives a Doctor of Laws degree and is appointed Docent (Associate Professor).
1937 - Nanna Swartz becomes the first permanent woman professor in Sweden, in medicine.
1947 - Karin Koch becomes Sweden’s first woman Minister.
1976 - Anna Christensen is appointed Professor in Law.
1989 - Lillemor Arvidson becomes the first trade-union chairwoman in
Sweden (Kommunalarbetareförbundet [union of municipal workers]).
1992 - Boel Flodgren is appointed the first woman vice-chancellor of Sweden and Europe.
1997 - Christina Odenberg is appointed bishop.
2000 - Wanja Lundby-Wedin becomes the first chairwoman of LO.