What American Men Can Learn from Swedish Women

Marie Claire recently published an article declaring Sweden as the world's most female-friendly country. The report conducted by the World Economic Forum held Sweden as number one, and the US - despite the higher wages for American women - as 17^th on the list.

So if they don't make as much money, how can they be happier? Seems like a question a typical money-hungry American yank would wonder, doesn't it? Because in America, we are trained to in a way revere the mighty dollar. Money has become synonymous with power, freedom, and sex appeal (just think - how else would someone like Donald Trump get hitched with such a knock-out?).

It's because Sweden has forsaken the Middle Age beliefs that the Puritan in America still clings to. Young boys and girls are both encouraged to play with dolls, fire trucks, and are required to take home economics along with shop class. Gender stereotypes simply don't exist with the same kind of stigma that America is stuck in. Women are encouraged to pursue careers wholeheartedly, and aren't expected to perform household tasks like cleaning, cooking, and child rearing as they do in the US.

It's not as if the United States isn't progressive. We have certainly come a long way from the era of praising the White Protestant Male and denigrating the worth of women and those of other colors and creeds. But there still remains some social stigma that - even if somewhat covertly - still encourages the female to be the stay at home parent, the sexual prude, and the emotional support of her family.

But Swedes know that men and women are equally capable of the same professions, emotions, intellect, and positions of power. Economist of the World Economic Forum and co author of this report Saadia Zahidi puts it this way: "If you are not using fully one-half of the human resources in your country, you're undermining your competitive potential."

To illustrate the point further, Swedish law mandates that both women and men take 60 days for parental leave - and can split the remaining forty-four weeks of leave however they choose. (In contrast, US law only requires 12 weeks of maternity leave for the mother only. Fathers are, for the most part, out of luck in this department.) This encourages the value of fathers in family life, and puts an end to the expectation that women be the primary care takers of their children.

What American men (and women) can learn from all of this is that we are still a ways from true gender equality, and there is much we can do to change. If we teach our children that it's okay to climb trees, play with dolls, and pretend to be cops and robbers no matter who they are, we will begin to see a change for a more evenly balanced society. It's time we realize that we are clinging to old beliefs; the earth ain't flat, folks, and men and women really aren't so different.