Sweden is a much smaller and far more homogenous country than the US. They didn’t need intersectionality to succeed.
Sweden used to be run by the Social Democrats for decades and they have helped a lot with emancipation from the 1960s onwards. Back then Sweden was even more homogenous.
Swedish culture of lagom är bäst emphasizes harmony instead of confrontation and conflict. Americans are pretty much the opposite of that.
Remember that the US is far more religious. Lots of religious fringe lunatics emigrated to the US from Europe and you can still see the results today.
Currently in the US you have elite white activists preaching long about intersectionality, while alienating the lower working classes, especially whites.
I don’t like the term succeed. It’s not a case of once you have it you have it. You have to keep working for it to keep it.
As it stands, we’ve not had a majority-left government in ages, our welfare is being sold off to private interests, and the gaps between classes are widening. The younger generation in particular has been susceptible to the influence of American right-wing media and as such we’re seeing an increased amount of religious extremism and right wing thinking.
Hell, the xenophobic lobbying has lead to the Nazi party having a majority seat in parliament.
Understanding of intersectionality is a useful tool regardless of the size or homogeneity of the population.
xenophobic
Nazi
Grew because the population became less homogenous.
Despite that Sweden and the Nordics are still leading in women’s equality. Have they been rolled back in a significant way over the last two decades?
Intersectionality is useful for analysis. As an activist method in practice it leads to alienating white men, oppression Olympics, purity testing, division.
Grew because the population became less homogenous.
I’d argue that it’s more complicated than that. It’s a factor, but we don’t exactly have a great track record of treating non-Swedes that well. We were quite cosy with the German nazis prior to and during WWII, and were enthusiastic about racial biology. Note how poorly we’ve historically treated the native Sami population.
We also still have a lot of systemic problems with e.g. “women’s professions” like nursing, cleaning, etc. not being valued fairly. Women’s health problems aren’t taken as seriously either.
Further, the right-block are campaigning to restrict rights overall. It’s not just the nazis but the Christ-democrats as well. We’re talking restricted abortion rights, there’s arguments against LGBTQ+ people, and so on.
The homogeneity was a helpful factor in establishing a more egalitarian system, but it’s not truly egalitarian, and there are still unequalities endemic in our society.
I admit I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction whenever Sweden or Scandinavia is mentioned, because we’re so often, unfairly, painted as some kind of nigh utopia, where people are equal, education and healthcare is easily accessed, etc. etc. but we have problems. I grew up in poverty, to an abusive single mother. I’ve seen some low points of Swedish society and I resent people glossing over their existence.
Thanks for being real about it. As a non-Swedish-speaker living outside Scandinavia, I could only suspect that the frequent lionizing of Scandinavia (and dismissal of counterpoints with the magic word “homogenous”) was another flavor of white supremacy. I’m sorry that you’re dealing with exactly the same bullshit as many other places though.
Yeah, it is a problem.
Like the most recent example I can think of is literally from yesterday. Used to be that healthcare and schooling was generally owned by the state, but over the past few decades with the right-wingers at the helm privatisation has grown and we now have significant problems with private companies exploiting public resources for financial gain.
Thus we have people arguing that we should ban operating a company for profit in the welfare sector. So this Centre party leader demands that welfare should be profitable, while owning several private healthcare companies. That’s “jäv”, a conflict of interest, but this kind of bullshit is common nowadays.
There are memes about it, every time a person in the Sweden Democrats get caught being a total nazi, there’s another “individual rotten egg” because that’s literally the entire party.
We’ve had some great things going for us. We really went all in on workers rights back when the military came in and shot workers demonstrating for their rights., but we’ve got problems too. The most recent time a eugenics law was abolished here was in 2013.
Chat Control was originally proposed by a Swedish social democrat.
I’m happy to live here, but we’re not some utopia.
Swap the names and this could have been an article from where I am. I’d give examples but it’s a small enough place that I try not to mention it online these days.
The military action against workers doesn’t surprise me, but the eugenics sex change law thing was a truly bizarre law to begin with - and 2013 is… quite late. I’m guessing the name “Sweden democrats” is deceptive given that vote.
I’m happy to live here, but we’re not some utopia.
I hear you, I’m in the same situation. And thanks for the links, I’ve learned a lot more about Sweden than I have in many years!
I hope we both are fortunate enough to make and experience progress again in our lifetimes.
What do you mean by “lack of intersectionality”
Initially, I thought you just need to do more geometry math problems to get enough intersections. Turns out, this type of intersectionality exists too.
US feminism is mostly centering on the issues of white, middle-class women, failing to fully integrate the needs of women of color, marginalized, or lower-income women. This lack of a unified approach leads to fragmented advocacy and fragmented outcomes, rather than a broad movement.
Also 53% of white women vote for trump compared to 7% of black women who voted for trump. This showed that they gave more priority to racial identify over collective welfare of all women in usa .
White feminist often ignore of won’t acknowledge that in usa —specifically land ownership and early capital accumulation were built upon the exploitation of Native American and African people.
The systematic removal of Native Americans from their land provided massive amounts of property that was subsequently passed down through generations of white families, serving as a primary source of generational wealth which black women or native American women doesn’t have.
The wealth generated by the labor of enslaved African people in agriculture and other industries directly enriched white slaveholders and, by extension, their present generation . Jim crows law curbed wealth generation for black women compared to white women
Wealth disparity between Black and white women in the USA is severe, with white households holding nearly 10 times the median net worth of Black households, or approximately 15 cents for every dollar. Black women face lower income, less intergenerational wealth, lower homeownership rates, and higher debt, often keeping them in lower-wage service jobs without benefits.
white feminists often ignore these issues Best example would be :-1)DEI
Despite DEI mostly benefitted white women , most of the white feminist organisation ignored whether black women benefitted or not .they doesn’t cared about native American or black women . They often fail to view things from racial angle by focusing just on gender angle
2)Most of the educational scholarships are benefitted by white women over native American ,black women
Whereas in
Nordic feminism is embedded within a strong, universal welfare state that prioritizes collectivism over individualism. Their approach addresses inequality by providing universal healthcare, subsidized childcare, and high-quality education, which inherently benefits marginalized groups.
Nordic feminists despite america feminists supported and worked for the the welfare of minorities like Sami people and supported affirmative actions for Sami women…
Unlike Scandinavia where conditions of minority women are getting better , in usa wealth disparity is widening everyday
I wouldn’t frame it as lack of intersectionality.
More like lack of class consciousness.
Well, then, why isn’t Kentucky more feminist? It’s about as homogenous as Sweden.
