The Swedish Woman

Miss "In'am al-Saghir" is one of Lebanon's highly cultivated young women. She has lately returned from her journey to Europe carrying within her, from those lofty climes, a feeling all goodness, ardor, and release, which she offers to this small country, Lebanon. In this article of hers she presents a splendid model of the Swedish woman, as she came to know her through her visit to that country.

"The Editorial Desk"

At the opening of the thirteenth century, the father and the husband alone had the right to decide the affairs of the family, and the home was the sole field for woman's work—it was her kingdom, and she was its crown and its jewel. In the year 1734 a law was issued that altered this position of woman a little, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries new opinions came in concerning the status of women. With the coming of the industrial revolution and the shift of occupations that followed it—from the home to the factory—these occupations passed out of woman's hands; but scarcely had she begun to fit herself to this different program of life than she began to demand and to insist, and at last she found reassurance when in 1772 she obtained certain rights: widows, and those women who had no provider, were permitted to sell tobacco, and afterward they were permitted to sell candles. As for the unmarried, the demand for political rights was the concern of every one of them and her single goal. Fredrika Bremer pointed, in her literary and poetic writings, to woman's need of freedom. Between 1856 and 1858 the Parliament resolved to grant unmarried women who had reached the age of twenty-five political rights; but this law kept girls back from marriage, so it was repealed between 1872 and 1882, only to return anew in 1889 and grant this right to the woman who had reached twenty-one years.

In the middle of the nineteenth century woman was permitted to engage in certain professions: she was first a teacher, then a worker in the telegraph and post office, and after that came women dentists and holders of higher university degrees, and women doctors and lawyers graduated alongside women engineers. There is now no door closed in the face of the Swedish lady, for she has the right to enter all fields of public employment except the office of heir to the throne and the crown, or that of priest in the church. This was by virtue of a law that appeared in 1923 but was not applied before January 1, 1925.

Although the number of women in Sweden exceeds the number of men, the Swedish woman—who obtained political rights like the man in 1921, that is, the right that permits her to elect and to be elected—despite this, we see that she does not take part in elections in the same proportion as the man. In 1940, for example, we find that 72.6% of the men entitled to vote cast their ballots, while the figure for women did not exceed 68.1%. In the elections of 1944, 74.4% of the men elected their representative in the Parliament, while the corresponding proportion for women was 69%. And of the 380 members of the Parliament in 1946 there were twenty-two women. The first woman to enter the executive council was Professor Karin Kock, who was appointed to the post of minister without portfolio but was styled Minister of Economy, 1947.

And although all the doors of work stand wide open before the Swedish woman, there are several problems still under study and in need of a just solution—among them the question of equal pay for equal work, for the man still earns more than the woman for performing work in which a woman shares with him. Woman has lately demanded several things, among them the following:

First — the abolition of the husband's guardianship.
Second — that each of the two spouses have the right to determine his own property in the economic partnership.
Third — that each of the two spouses must share in the family's expenses, each in proportion to his income.
Fourth — equal rights over the children.
Fifth — the necessity that the woman married to a foreigner keep her nationality, provided she lives in the country.

She has obtained some of these demands. In 1921 a new marriage law appeared, providing in certain of its parts for the equality of the two spouses in deciding the destiny of the family and whatever concerns its affairs. Economic questions were likewise settled in the same way—that is, each individual is responsible for his own private debts—and it obliged each

of the two parties to maintain the financial bond in matters held in common. Thus, in case of divorce, each has the right to take half of the property common between them, and both parties are obliged to look after the portion belonging to the other and not to injure it in any way. Thus the wife was given economic equality with her husband. This law is general among all the inhabitants of Scandinavia, and a proposal was presented last year to change and amend this law.

But how is the problem of the wife solved—the wife who works outside the home? A solution appeared there that was not destined to succeed: the one calling for the payment of a fixed salary to the wife who does not work outside her home; but this did not last long, and was rejected. Yet when the feeling came to prevail that rights and duties are equal between the two sexes, and that it is the duty of every individual to attend to the family's support, a law was issued fixing the value of the woman's work in the home and pronouncing it equal to the man's work outside. The husband must pay his wife the expenditure necessary for running the house, and she has the right to receive this amount at fixed times, since she is not to be made to ask for it every time she needs something. She likewise has the right to know her husband's income, and he hers in the same way. And where the woman performs the household duties herself, the husband must bear her personal expenses alongside the expenses of the family's life and the children's schooling.

But how is this problem solved if one of them, or both, should attempt to refuse to inform the other of his income? Here the two resort to the courts, which decide the dispute—and in the margin it must be mentioned that the courts in Sweden work only upon such family cases, since crime plays no part there, and freedom is given to every individual; and for all that, their soil does not breed criminals as our soil does, especially in these days—and if the two persist, the court then decrees divorce; and such separation happens often, and for such a reason. And speaking of divorce: the wife has the right, as the husband has, to demand it, and the separation is accomplished in two stages. The first is the separation of the two spouses for the space of a year, in the hope that distance may endear the one to the other anew, so that they return to married life; and at the second session they decide together either reunion or final separation, and in this latter case they settle upon who shall undertake the upbringing of the children, and the amount the husband must pay is fixed in case the mother takes the children. Thus they lodge a paper in the court declaring their inability to live together for the reasons stated, and afterward they obtain the divorce paper—that is, after the passing of the year since the first session, as we have said. Among the general causes that warrant divorce in that far-off land are: the separation of the spouses for three years, or the failure of each to share with the other the same views and aims; marital infidelity is likewise an important cause, and imprisonment for two or three years, and contagious diseases are grounds for divorce as well.

There is another very common problem, namely the position of unmarried mothers; it remained a real problem throughout the past twenty-five years, but it has now found some solution. For the mother and the child there are special homes offering her the necessary care and a comfortable living; perhaps the motive is to encourage the increase of offspring after that general decline in the number of the population in 1932 and 1933. Care, in their view, is the essential thing, and the manner, however disgraceful it may be, is of no consequence: the sin is not the child's fault, and in this case the children's teeth must not be set on edge when the fathers eat sour grapes; and so long as he has been born, he is a child of the state and has the same rights as other, legitimate children. This is their view of such a question, and it differs altogether from our view, ours in the East; it differs likewise between town and village—the view of the latter draws near to ours without quite equaling it—and this is the case in most, if not all, the countries of the Western world.

The illegitimate child has the right to take his mother's name if she wishes, provided that the father pay her his expenses; and if the mother declares that a certain man is the father of her child, and the blood test indicates otherwise, he must pay the expenses. In Denmark a single child may have nine fathers, and no more...!! And this truly is the joke of jokes!! And the father in such a case must pay the expense of the child's upbringing and schooling.

As for the law of inheritance, it accords woman the same right as man. If she dies, her husband's family and her own family divide the inheritance—this if the two have no children; but if children exist, they take everything, and no one else inherits at all. Woman has the same rights in the courts

as man: she signs contracts and bills, and writes her testament for after death. And in case of the husband's death, the wife takes half of what he leaves, and the children take the other half.

And in order for the woman married to a foreigner to regain her nationality, she must reside for a period of eight to ten years in his country, provided that her husband be with her as well.

As for the children of paternal and maternal uncles, they do not inherit in Sweden at all. And the father has the right to write his testament over half of his property only, since the other half goes to the wife by law.

As for bachelors, they pay more in taxes than married men, who in their turn receive higher salaries, or additional pay for each child, to the amount of 260 Swedish crowns (or the equivalent of 182 Lebanese lira) a year.

And if the illegitimate child bears his father's name, he inherits from him, but he does not inherit from his grandfather. Likewise the child born in the period of betrothal inherits from his father by law—we mean by this the child who is the fruit of the betrothal period, before the lawful marriage, the two partners separating before it takes place.

Swedish justice regards the operation of abortion as a crime if the doctor performs it without a justifying cause—among such causes being the case of the mother's illness, though in this case he must hold a certificate bearing the signature of the "Royal Medical Board"; and another justifying cause is if the girl has been violated by force, or if she is ill in her mind.

— Here, then, is the legal and social position of the Swedish woman: a position which many daughters of other lands envy her, especially the Eastern ones—or, more particularly, those in which her rights are still trampled and her position shaky and unsettled.