ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights key aspects of the law and policy-making landscape in Sweden with a view to emphasising recent moves by the Swedish government to develop a process-oriented, as opposed to a structural, approach to dealing with gender equality. Sweden is a country which, like many other European countries, has experienced a gradual shift of power from the King in Council to the people. Differences between women and men become more clear-cut when analysing who promotes gender equality issues in Parliament; almost all the MPs stating that they promote such issues are women. The legal provision has proven to be effective at securing openness (transparency) and access to information in cases where 'classification' has been contested in court. Swedish mainstreaming recognises the necessity of changing societal norms and emphasises process rather than structures, and the importance of a bottom-up implementation approach.
