Women's rights in Sweden

Last semester, I learned many women's situation in developing countries in my women's studies class 395. I was very sad to know many single mothers in the world are facing some difficulties such as working in the first world far away from their children, no support from their ex-husbands, and many more problems. Today, I was reading an article from government about family situation and women's rights in Sweden. Then I started to get interested in it.

In Sweden, one fourth of children under 18 have only single fathers or single mothers. It is considered most of them live with their mothers. Divorce is not too common in Sweden. However, Sweden has system of "Sambo" which means unmarried couples can have children and live together just like normal family does. It is considered this Sambo system is process to marriage. However, sometimes Sambo couples break up. So, there are many children who only have single mothers.

In this situation, however, children in Sweden can get good supports. For instance, their father is forced to pay the children support every month. This is guranteed right after divorce or breaking up of Sambo relations. Therefore, children can get at least some support from their fathers. If the fathers did not have ability to pay, the government helps to pay. Therefore, children and mothers would not be worry about life too much.

In addition to the children support from the fathers, Sweden government offers apartment or house support. This would often happen to people who have low incomes and many children. The government will help to pay about 50 percent of the rent or loan.

One more thing I was especially interested in is education. People in Sweden can have free education in public school untill graduate school. This means everybody has rights to have education equally. Many people in the world give up going to college or graduate school because of the economical reason. Especially, more children who have single mothers have to give up the college education compared to children who have parents. This is also support for the single mothers.

I think Sweden has a great society for children and women. I have heard the country has good system for old people, too. I hope more countries have the society like Sweden so women have more rights to spend with their children without working far away from their children. It is very hard to change the society individually, however, many countries can try by looking at the model like Sweden. I hope more happiness and comfortable society for children and women in the future.