Konstruktion av genus i rätten och samhället : en tvärvetenskaplig studie av svenska kvinnors rätt till jämställdhet i ett formellt jämlikt rättssystem

Sammanfattning: On the first of January 1992 the present Equal Opportunity Act came into force. A central aim of this law is to improve the conditions of women's working life. One aspect of the law is the possibility to serve as a mean of shifting the balance of power between the sexes. This is meant to be achieved through the inclusion of requirements for active measures to promote equality. As a part of their statutory obligations, employers with ten or more employees are to draw up an annual so-called equality plan. Economic independence is one of the most important conditions, which is necessary in order for a person to develop into an equal individual in the society of today. Equal pay for equal work has been raised as a feminist demand ever since the industrialisation. The demand for equal pay for equal work is not only a feminist issue but also a question that has its roots in the liberal ideology of equality. The central question of the thesis is if there exist social rules that construct gender in the labour market. The question is illustrated from a feminist position and is discussed against the background of employers' active equality work and the Labour Court's judgement of cases concerning pay-discrimination. The starting-point is the paradox of "equal equality"("jämlik jämställdhet"): whilst there is a formal equality between the sexes i.e. they shall be treated equally, there is still the possibility of the law giving preference to one sex at the expense of the other. The thesis is interdisciplinary in its analysis of the Swedish Equal Opportunity Act. Instead of only discussing traditional questions concerning the law, the intention is to find answers to questions of whether the surrounding society affects the actual observation of the Equal Opportunity Act and the Labour court's application of the same law. If that is the case how does this occurs. The intention is thus to bring together two fields, which have been divided for long, that is the study of law and the study of society.