Feminist Initiative brochure, handed out in city center (text available upon request in a word document)
web address for the initiative: http://www.feministisktinitiativ.se/val2010.php
The pamphlet I was handed from the Feminist Initiative's booth in the city center got my attention. It has a symbol on the front 'F!' with bright pink colors and a woman with the text "Dare to be a Feminist on election day". After translating the front cover, I had to hear more. The pamphlet goes through their platform and what the group is trying to change specifically. After reading through it all, some ideas seemed odd to be put together in the same book. On one hand, this party is convinced that woman are worth less in the work place on a full time scale compared to a male in the workplace on the same full time scale. So, this had me thinking that they want to be equally paid and working for full time just as men do. Later in the pamphlet, in a section about working, they have some statements about how the work day should be shortened since women have responsibilities like children and social outings. This opens up a can of worms concerning gender because if the woman are working full time and also the men are, who is responsible for being a parent and making sure that the kids are becoming a successful generation? The approach to parenting seemed more hands-off than I expected. Perhaps they are suggesting that the welfare state model should arrange for child care while men and woman are allowed 40 hours a week to work. Since the women in this country are given a long time for maternity leave (and men are too), they are leaving the government with a lot of kids to take care of. They also suggested a stern approach to foreigners getting a residence visa, which reconfirms some thoughts I had about Sweden and that they might be a little leery of outsiders. This comes up in famous books like 'Faceless Killers' and the theme of 'fear of the unknown'.
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