Achieving economic equality between men and women is a challenge to every country. The approach taken politically and legally in Sweden is to encourage greater economic independence of women from the family through paid work, as well as men assuming a greater share of unpaid work. This work takes the Swedish approach to the problem of economic equality and compares it to the legal systems as found in the EU, UK and US. The efforts in Sweden have made within the context of the parameters of the Swedish model of labor, in ...
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Achieving economic equality between men and women is a challenge to every country. The approach taken politically and legally in Sweden is to encourage greater economic independence of women from the family through paid work, as well as men assuming a greater share of unpaid work. This work takes the Swedish approach to the problem of economic equality and compares it to the legal systems as found in the EU, UK and US. The efforts in Sweden have made within the context of the parameters of the Swedish model of labor, in which the preferred mechanism of resolution is agreement between the social partners and not legislation. To this end, the role of the social partners as well as collective agreements are analyzed in addition to the statutory schemes in each of these four systems. Both Sweden and the UK are subject to the parameters as set out by Community law. The recent emphasis in the UK has been on a family friendly workplace, to be achieved at least in part through flexible working. In the US, the focus has been on discriminatory behavior as a societal phenomenon, with concerns as to balancing family and work new to the legislative scheme. Each of these four systems is also analyzed with respect to access to justice issues, particularly the allocation of attorney's fees, the remedies available under the statutes as well as the statute of limitations with respect to sex discrimination claims.
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