SwedishLanguageandCulturePart1,Swedishhistory:Democracy,Genderand

Welfare.

Writtenassignment

To introduce this topic, it is important to know that Spain and Sweden are two countries with
many differences, starting by the fact they are so far from each other. Spain is located in the
south of Europe and Sweden belongs to the nordic countries, in the very North. Sweden is
450.000 km2 and Spain is more or less 500.000 km2. That means that Sweden is a big country
with a low level of inhabitants in contrast to Spain.

From a political and historical point of view, Sweden is characteristic of having stability in
politics and democratic governments. These governments have been long term in office what
means that they have enough time to settle projects and take good steps for the population.

First of all, before starting to compare, we will know some essential things about the Welfare
State. A Welfare State is known to be the combination of interventions that organises the
state to guarantee the provision of a minimum level of services to the inhabitants through a
system of social protection. This Welfare State is based on four main pillars:

1. Compulsory and free primary education and subsidised education at higher levels.
2. Universal and free health treatment. This pillar has been restricted to certain population
in some areas of Europe.
3. Social security and fundamentally pensions.
4. Social services.

Spain and Sweden belong to different welfare models:

In one hand, Sweden is known to belong to the Social Democratic or Nordic Model. This model
is characterized by his high taxes and high degree of income redistribution. Also high level of
participation of women in the labour market. Its population has a high standard of living and
they have confidence in their public system. In this model we also find countries as Norway or
Finland.

On the other hand, Spain belongs to the Conservative or Corporatist model. This model is
known of having a high level of unemployment and a low level of participation of women in the
labour market. Also they have a high dependency on social contributions instead of on taxes.
Generally speaking, population do not trust in their government and politicians. To this model
belong countries like Portugal, Austria or Germany as well.

Secondly, I will compare education in Sweden and Spain. Concerning Sweden, the main aim of
education is respond to liberty of choice and guarantee equality of opportunities not
determined by the socioeconomic factors. Furthermore, in Sweden they care about diversity in
the classroom and children with special needs and the teachers are more prepared for that.
However, in Spain, we have two educational networks (public and private education) in our
system. That means that population with more money have a private education in a high level
environment while inhabitants in a low economic situation or immigrants have to join the
public education. Also we have some schools that only accept people from one sex. These facts
show an evident inequality in the educational system of Spain. Teachers are not permanently
training and that means a low educational quality when the same teacher is in the same
classroom for a lot of years.

Thirdly, I will present differences in free health treatment and social security. Regarding Spain,
all population have a minimum public health service including immigrants and people who do
not work. This medical support includes maternity, illnesses and accidents and the professional
recovery in one of the previous cases as well. We have also economic benefits in different
situations like maternity, retirement, death, disability, etc. In some cases our public sanity does
campaigns to instil healthy habits and prevent the tobacco, drugs, unwanted pregnancy, mental
health and gender violence. About Sweden, it is quite similar to Spain because they belong to
the same healthy model (Beveridge model) and they have mostly the same benefits for the
population. One thing that is criticised in Sweden is the fact that sometimes the waiting lists are
so long and people have to wait more time to get their check-up or their results. Nevertheless,
pensions in Sweden are much better than in Spain, not only for the money but also because
inhabitants get them easier.

Lastly, to finish this essay, we will see cultural differences and the role of women in society. On
one hand, concerning Sweden, this country is known to have a distinguished equality in gender,
diversity and opportunities. Sweden has a lot of politics to guarantee the equality of the woman
in the society like the maternity insurance or the protection to the right for women to work. On
the family setting, every member has the same role and people do not distinguish between
father and mother things to do. Also, as I said before, women have an active work life with the
same salaries and opportunities as men have and they can live and be sustainable with their
own incomes. Furthermore, in Sweden there is a equality of opportunities for homosexual
people as well. They can be together and get married without any problem and they will not be
rejected by society. On the other hand, regarding Spain, the role of women in society has
improved for the last years but there are still some differences that can be visible. The
traditional family in Spain have always been seen as the man as the main sustenance for the
family with his salary while the woman has the role of taking care of children, doing the
housework and cooking. Nowadays, many women in Spain are fighting against this conception
and they have an active work life every time getting more important. However, it is a shame
that there are still a lot of chauvinist conducts and total equality is not possible yet. For
example, we can see that in the legal regulations women have to have the same salary as a men
doing the same job but when we are in the real life, women sometimes have less salary or less
opportunities. Besides, homosexual people have no equality as well. It is a short time ago that
they can get married with any problems but they are often rejected by homophobic society and
it is not comfortable for them to show their sexual condition in public places. Nevertheless, we
are fighting against this fact to finally get equality of conditions in all of these aspects and
people is getting more and more open-minded everyday, leaving behind antiquated ways of
living.

References

Explanations from the teacher in Swedish and its Culture I course.

Snchez de Dios, Manuel. El modelo sueco de estado del bienestar.

https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/docs/862-2014-04-09-REP-147.pdf (Accesed 2015-02-18).

Misgeld, Klaus, Molin, Karl & mark, Klas (1992) (Creating Social Democracy. A Century of the
Social Democratic Labor Party in Sweden University Park : Pennsylvania State University
Press, p. 1-96, 409-446

Garca-Zarza, Pilar. Convergencias y divergencias entre el sistema educativo sueco y el espaol.

http://www.uned.es/reec/pdfs/23-2014/13-REEC23%20-%20ES-03.pdf (Accesed 2015-02-18)

Models of the welfare state in Europe.

http://www.learneurope.eu/index.php/en/temas/300/
(Accesed 2015-02-18)

Los Sistemas Sanitarios en los Pases de la UE: caractersticas e indicadores de salud 2013.
http://www.msssi.gob.es/estadEstudios/estadisticas/docs/Sist.Salud.UE_2013.pdf (Accesed
2015-02-18)

La seguridad social en Suecia

http://www.issa.int/html/pdf/GA2001/3monographie.pdf
(Accesed 2015-02-18)
Eklund, Alexander.
La diferencia cultural entre Suecia y Espaa con respecto a las
organizaciones econmicas.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:474153/FULLTEXT01.pdf (Accesed 2015-02-18)

Captulo III: La transformacin del modelo sueco y sus repercusiones en la mujer.

http://catarina.udlap.mx/u_dl_a/tales/documentos/lri/cacho_r_a/capitulo3.pdf (Accesed
2015-02-18)

El papel de la mujer en la sociedad espaola.

https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/133674/filename/El_papel_de_la_mujer_e
n_la_sociedad_espanola.pdf (Accesed 2015-02-18)

Gmez Bahillo, Carlos.

Mujer, familia y trabajo.
http://cederul.unizar.es/noticias/chile3/libro/05.pdf
(Accesed 2015-02-18)

Assignment by:
Paula Company Feger