Från manlig rättighet till lagbrott: Prostitutionsfrågan i Sverige under 30 år

Abstract

From male privilege to crime: The debate on prostitution in Sweden during the last 30 years by Hanna Olsson, psychotherapist, author and honorary doctor at Umeå University, Sweden. The Swedish legislation concerning prostitution is the result of thirty years of cooperation between the women's movement and growing parliamentary support, Hanna Olsson argues in this artide. The politicisation of women's issues in the 1970s included the question of prostitution. In an era when the ideas of equality and equat rights were central political concerns, prostitution was viewed as an expression of the exploitation of women in patriarchy. However, the early official inquiries into the phenomenon of prostitution, and all parties involved (prostitutes, pimps, landlords, clients), were controversial. The aims of the activists and some of the inquirers dashed with the implicit and explicit wants of the politicians. Several incidents unravel at the same time, raising public awareness of the issue. An inquiry into the lives of prostitutes in Malmö was published, a TV program me addressing prostitution in several episodes was broadcast, and at the same time a scandal and an attempted cover-up unravelled where, among other high ranking men, the minister of justice was found to be involved in purchasing sex. During the last years the feminist interpretation of prostitution as incompatible with the ideas of women's rights has become all the more accepted even in political circles, most clearly this shift has taken place in the social democratic party and its strong women's organisation. The official stånd today is that prostitution is to be considered as an expression of wider phenomenon of violence against women and that the offending party in the purchase of sexual favours in the man/buyer.