SWEDEN: Swedish feminists, accusing their Nordic nation of failing to live up to its egalitarian image, launched their own party yesterday and said it may contest parliamentary elections next year.
The founders of the Feminist Initiative said they would decide in September whether to fight in the 2006 elections, a move analysts say could take votes from the ruling Social Democrats and their allies, the Green Party and the Left Party.
"I personally believe it [that the group will run]," said Gudrun Schyman, one of Sweden's best-known politicians and formerly the head of the Left Party.
"I think that we will get lots of support and if we do, of course we will stand." The Feminist Initiative aims to highlight areas like pay inequality and violence against women. Ms Schyman accused Sweden of being a society that "looks at women as being of less worth [ than men]".
A 2004 government survey showed that women earn only 90 per cent of male salaries for the same job, and that women's participation in the workforce, though high, comes at a cost - 64 per cent of those on long-term sick leave are women.
Prime minister Goran Persson, whose party has been in power for six of the last seven decades, warned at the weekend that a women's party could split the left-wing vote. Analysts agreed.
"They will mainly take voters from the Left Party and the Green Party, but also from the Social Democrats," said Tommy Moller, professor of political science at Stockholm University.
The Social Democrats are already trailing a four-party centre-right coalition in opinion polls. Support for a feminist party has come in at more than 20 per cent. Ms Schyman said feminist politics cut across the spectrum.
"Women are discriminated against in the home, in the workplace, everywhere," she said. "This is step one. Step two is in September when we decide whether we stand, and step three is the election." - (Reuters)