Women and men, including girls and boys, shall, pursuant the Swedish policy for equality, have equal access to training and the same opportunities to develop personnel ambitions, interests and talents. The Government is continously undertaking measures in order to achieve these goals.
Measures 1995 - 1997
* In 1995, Parliament acted on a Bill from the Government concerning equality between women and men, girls and boys, within the area of education. The Government Bill contains a series of proposals concerning the promotion of equality both within the public school system (compulsory school and upper secondary school) and higher education and research.
* Amendments to the Education Act, which includes rules for the public school system, have been implemented entailing, inter alia, a requirement that employees within the school system promote equality between the sexes. This means that the teachers shall base their teaching on issues and perspectives which interest both girls and boys. In addition, pursuant to the Education Act, all children and young persons, irrespective of issues such as gender, shall have equal access to education within the public school system. Corresponding provisions exist with respect to issues regarding adult education. The school's responsibility for actively promoting equal rights and opportunities for girls and boys and to counteract traditional gender patterns will also be emphasised in the curricula for schools.
* During 1997, the Government appointed a Parliamentary committee which shall deal, inter alia, with issues regarding training of teachers as well as the continuing and subsequent training of teachers. The investigation shall specifically consider the gender perspective and propose, inter alia, measures to accomplish an egual recruitment of women and men teachers.
* Rules in the University Ordinance concerning the grounds for promotion of teachers have been amended such that it is permissible, where necessary, to apply affirmative action of the underrepresented sex. A rule has also been introduced requiring universities endeavour to ensure that students are not subjected to sexual harassment.
* The Government has given all colleges and universities offering natural science and technical training the task of undertaking measures to increase the number of women within those educational programmes. In order to increase the number of men, a corresponding task has been assigned to educational institutions with respect to teacher and health-care training.
* The Government has allocated funds for the establishment of a number of professorships and research assistant positions for the underrepresented sex. Funds have also been allocated for female doctoral candidates and post-doctoral stipends and guest professorships for female researchers.
* During the autumn of 1996, the Government presented a Bill regarding research which contains proposals to increasingly promote research with a gender perspective. By way of example, it was proposed that funds be allocated to establish a number of professorships with this aim, and a secretariat connected to a university with the task of investigating, creating opinion, stimulating, documenting and providing information concerning gender research.
* In the spring of 1997, a Bill was presented to Parliament with, inter alia, a proposal for concrete time-bound targets for the recruitment of professors of the underrepresented sex at each of the universities and some of the colleges. If the target is not fulfilled by the university in question, the Government can withdraw funds from the university and stipulate that such funds should be used only for the recruitment of professors of the underrepresented sex.
Continued measures
* The Government, through supervision by the National Agency for Education, will continue to pursue the goal of equality concerning, inter alia, the division of the Education Act into manageable and concrete goals in the schools' own school and work plans.
* The Government has appointed two committees to investigate whether the rights of boys and girls to equal education is observed in compulsory and upper-secondary schools. The committees' work will be concluded in 1997.
* The Government has given the National Agency for Education the task of pursuing and evaluating equality within schools. The National Agency for Education is currently preparing a strategy for equality issues and is carrying out a comprehensive project which, inter alia, aims to pursue the development of equal opportunities within schools and, specifically, to ensure that equality issues are considered in connection with the Agency's evaluation and development work.
* The Government has taken the initiative to implement a five-year adult education programme with 100,000 new places. The adult education measures, to be commenced on 1 July 1997, will have an especially significant roll for women and men in fields which suffer from economic and structural changes, e.g. within health care and manufacturing industries. The programme will also actively contribute to breaking the gender imbalance within the labour market.
