For a long time, Sweden has been portrayed as a role model when it comes to gender equality. Women’s participation in legislative bodies as well as on the labor market is internationally very high, and an extended public welfare system has enabled Swedish women to reconcile work and family life. An important feature of the Swedish gender equality model is its non-mandatory and reformist character. Increased gender equality has been obtained step by step through active but consensus-seeking state intervention, mainly targeting public actors. This paper draws on state feminist literature to argue that there is a limit to the reach of the Swedish gender equality model. More specifically, we suggest that the non-mandatory measures that characterize Swedish gender equality politics are likely to be less efficient whenever they target private actors. For private actors of different kinds, gender equality as a goal is often subordinated to normative values related to self-determination. Private actors are therefore not as likely to answer to and implement voluntary government initiatives as are public actors working within, or in close relation to, state institutions. We illustrate the argument with two problems that have long been on the Swedish political agenda but where little progress has been made: the unequal use of the parental leave benefits between men and women and the male dominance at top management positions. The paper contributes to increasing our understanding of the challenges for incrementally oriented gender equality models in modern welfare states.
