Norms and values

Here you will find information about Swedish norms and values.

Definition of Swedish culture

What defines Swedish culture and what is typically Swedish is hard to say. In all parts of the world, in every single country, within all groups of people, there are cultural values that for many create a sense of togetherness but which do not do that for everyone. Thoughts and ideas about what is considered typically Swedish for one person are therefore not necessarily shared by other Swedes.

Typical Swedish?

Many people might associate Sweden with the footballer Zlatan, the pop group ABBA or perhaps with the furniture store IKEA. Some things may be said to be distinctive to Sweden and Swedes. For example, in most people there is a strong faith in the state and its authorities. People rely to a relatively high degree in authority decisions, the judiciary system and in official people and corruption is low. Furthermore, many Swedes often have a strong sense of nature and many who visit Sweden think it is clean here. People from other countries sometimes perceive Swedes as reserved and difficult to connect with.

Questions to ponder

Is there something that is typically Swedish?
Is there something that is typically Ukrainian?

What is a norm?

People's lives are affected by norms. Norms are ideas and unwritten rules about how people are expected to be, live and look like. Certain norms are needed in all societies. For example, they control how we should behave in the grocery store, how we should stand in line or how to greet each other. Norms are hard to see and they are usually discovered only when someone violates them.

Norms and gender

Under the section Sweden — a Democracy, you could read that it was not until 1921 that we had democracy in Sweden with the right to vote for both men and women. Work to change society into a more fair society often takes a long time because the notions on how things should be are often difficult to change. This is one of the reasons for why it took so long before women could get the right to vote. There were notions and standards that women were not fit to engage in political discussions. Notions and norms like these have occurred or are occurring, of course, in all societies.

Norms and discrimination

Norms can also restrict people and create discrimination. There are, for example, in most societies standards for how women and men should dress, what to work with, who gets to use makeup, and who gets to cry when they are sad. There are also norms for what a family should be like, how to live so that one does not embarrass one's family or oneself.

Question to ponder

Have you ever noticed norms that have restricted you?

Equality

Norms can also affect the relationship between men and women in society. Equality is about achieving equality between men and women and that is something that we have to work towards both privately, at work and in society.

Gender equality policy

The Swedish Parliament has decided that the overall goal of gender equality policy in Sweden is for women and men to have the same power and opportunity to influence society and their own lives. Women and men should also have the same rights and obligations.

This means that

men and women should have an equal amount of power and influence on society
women and men should have the same right to economic independence throughout their lives
everyone should have the same right to education regardless of gender
work at home should be evenly distributed between men and women
everyone should have the same conditions to feel good with the same right to healthcare, regardless of gender
men's violence against women must stop and all people should have the same right to decide over their own bodies.

It is possible to affect and change norms. Sweden works in different ways to change norms that restrict people and create discrimination.

Questions to ponder

How did responsibility for work in the home used to be divided when you were growing up?
How can work at home be shared among everyone in the household?