Introduction

Discussion around whether prostitution should be regulated, legalised or criminalised has had a long history in Sweden (Svanström, 2000 and 2005). In 1999 a new and unique law was introduced that criminalised only the ‘buyers’ of prostitution (1999 Act Prohibiting the Purchase of Sexual Services). Challenging the traditional view that those (generally women) who ‘sell’ sex are the greatest problem, the new law also hoped to see a reduction in the level of prostitution:

The law was promoted as a ‘feminist law’ where prostitution is seen as a form of violence against women (Proposition 1997/98: 55); this chapter outlines the discussions that led to this unique policy change and the impact that it has had.

The national context

Since the 1960s the Swedish state has partly integrated what has been called a ‘Swedish gender equality discourse’ in its politics. This has led to a number of changes, including: the development of a Ministry of Equal Status in 1976; a parliamentary commission on equal status in the same year; and the creation of an Equal Opportunities Ombudsman in 1980 (Florin and Nilsson, 1999). The gender equality policy has mainly focused on women's right to work and to equal pay however, work life is still organised traditionally. Women work mostly in the care and education professions or in offices, and a large majority work part time (Florin and Nilsson, 1999). In spite of its ‘gender equal’ image, there are still substantial income differences between women and men in equivalent occupations in Sweden (Nyberg, 2005).

Comparatively, Sweden is financially well off. In indexes measuring welfare such as the UN Human Poverty Index (HPI-2), or the ZUMA welfare index for EU countries (rather than a crude GDP index), Sweden is situated at the top (Vogel and Wolf, 2004, pp 10-11). However, the retrenchment of the welfare state has seen a new polarisation between classes, although the gender gap seems to have decreased.