FEMINISM AND LEGISLATIVE REDRESS - SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN SWEDEN AND THE UNITED-STATES

This article provides an historical overview of the politicization of sexual harassment and legislative remedy in the United States and Swed en. While the American state formally recognizes the existence of sexu al harassment and has taken steps against it, the Swedish state has be en reluctant to provide legal remedy. This difference can be attribute d to Sweden's centralized state and the strength of labor, which had t he organizational capacity to effectively dismiss issues pertaining to women's sexual inequality. By contrast, American women benefitted fro m an autonomous feminist movement and a decentralized state that prove d more permeable to feminist demands. Sweden's lack of legislative rec ognition of sexual harassment provides one of the most compelling chal lenges to the conventional characterization of the Swedish state as in terventionist, innovative and egalitarian. While Sweden prides itself on the adoption of its most recently revised Equal Opportunities Act ( 1994), intended to promote equal rights for women with respect to empl oyment, it has failed to mitigate effectively a central condition at w ork which is highly disadvantageous to women, sexual harassment.