By Bosse Parbring
When Susanne Dodillet came to Sweden from Germany ten years ago, she was shocked. Among left-wing German feminists, she had
heard that the occupational choice of prostitutes was to be accepted and that one should campaign for their rights. In Germany,
prostitution has had the status of an occupation since 2001. This gives the prostitutes the right to be included in the system
for unemployment benefits, health care and pensions. In Sweden, the sex-purchase law that prohibits the buying of sexual services
was introduced in 1999.
- I found the debate in Sweden one-sided. When I talked about this with my Swedish friends, they thought I was totally crazy.
Why was their view of prostitution so different, when they shared the same values on so many other issues? The cultural differences were obviously greater than she thought at first. Susanne Dodillet decided to study the differences between the Swedish and German views on prostitution. At the beginning of 2009 – ten years after the introduction of the Swedish sex-purchase law – she will defend her doctoral thesis on the history of ideas at the University of Gothenburg.
There are three aspects that explain the differences between Sweden and Germany, according to Susanne Dodillet:
• Attitudes to the welfare state.
• Feminist orientations.
• The influence of religion
Let us begin with the welfare state:
- In Germany, people are more critical of state interference in people’s private lives. In Sweden, many believe in a strong
state contributing to our norms and values, explains Susanne Dodillet.
On feminism she says:
- In Sweden, radical feminism has had a strong impact on feminist ideology. This means that power structures are perceived
of in terms of male superiority and female inferiority. In Germany, feminism is more like queer feminism. This, in turn, is
connected with the common view of the state.
And lastly, on the influence of religion:
- In Germany, the Christian Democrats have half the seats in Parliament, and thus exert a strong influence on the social debate.
The Church opposes prostitution for moral reasons. So, the Christian Democrats are, in a way, in a position reminiscent of
that of the feminists in Sweden. Because of the Christian Democrat dominance, it is more legitimate to discuss moral issues
in Germany than in Sweden. The German left-wing opinion opposes the moral arguments, and therefore their view of prostitution
is more liberal than in Sweden.
Hidden Swedish morality
Susanne Dodillet emphasizes that in Sweden, not that many people talk openly about norms and values, or stand up for them. Therefore there has been no need for the Left to go through this debate in Sweden. But that is exactly why she thinks there is still an old moralistic view in Sweden.
- My research shows that moralistic values have survived in Sweden, too, but they are very much hidden - although nobody is actively hiding them. The fact that the sexual legislation originates in traditional Christian sexual morality has gradually been forgotten, which is exemplified by the concept of morality disappearing from the Swedish Criminal Code. The ‘morality offences’ were renamed ‘sexual offences’ in Sweden in the 1980s without the underlying Christian tradition being discussed at all. In Germany, however, there is still an active debate on the significance of morality. The concept is also included in the German legislation. I think the Swedish lack of awareness is explained by the fact that Christian morals have been openly upheld by relatively few in this country.
Susanne Dodillet is very critical of the Swedish research on prostitution that was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s, and
which is the basis for the sex-purchase law.
- There is a degrading view of women in early Swedish research. The researchers saw prostitution as a social problem that
they wanted to eliminate. But they never talked to the prostitutes. They just regarded them as social problems that were ill
and suffering. Even the women who said they felt fine were regarded as social problems.
Lack of civil rights
But Susanne Dodillet is not only critical of Sweden. She also criticizes the fact that German prostitution has now fallen into a legal void. It is legalized, but although German politicians say that prostitution is an occupation, there are no laws ensuring good working conditions.
- It is now permitted to open brothels, but there are no regulations on how a brothel is to be run and by whom. Other occupational groups have rights that prevent salary dumping and ensure safety in the workplace. Prostitutes in Germany lack all of this. In other words, not even in that country do sex sellers have the same rights as other people.
If Germany has not yet come that far, such an attitude is even more unfamiliar in Sweden. Susanne Dodillet thinks that the various cultural, ideological and political differences between Sweden and Germany explain why politicians often find it difficult to discuss issues on prostitution. The debate is simply at cross-purposes. Swedish politicians can be perceived as arrogant within the European Union when they praise their sex-purchase law, and present it as the only right path.
This was the case before the Football World Cup in Germany in 2006, when the Swedish Equal Opportunities Ombudsman and the Swedish Government claimed that Germany had built brothels next to the arenas, where the prostitutes were said to be victims of trafficking. “Unfortunately the work we have done has not come as far in Germany. Therefore we find reasons to try to push the debate in Germany forward in this area”, said Social Democrat Bosse Ringholm, then Sports Minister in Sweden. However, prostitution is no longer a left-or-right-wing issue in Sweden. In December 2007, Minister Maria Larsson, representing the Christian Democrats, said in a parliamentary debate, referring to the sex-purchase law, that “the struggle for human rights has actually gone one step further in our country than in many other countries”.
Support for the Swedish view
One of the politicians who was most active in creating the sex-purchase law was Inger Segelström, who was then Member of Parliament and Chair of the Social Democratic Women in Sweden. Since 2004 she has been a Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chair of the European Social Democratic Women. She does not recognise herself at all in the explanation provided by Susanne Dodillet.
- I think the explanation is to be found elsewhere, says Inger Segelström.
- What happened in 1994, was that women got half of the seats in Parliament. Before then, there had been no possibility to pass any laws concerning violence against women or similar questions. Subsequently we got the law on violence against women, and later the sex-purchase law.
The first thing Inger Segelström did after having been elected into Parliament in 1994, was to propose a motion on the prohibition of buying sex. It was voted down. But in 1997 she won the support of the Social Democratic Congress for the issue, in 1998 the law was passed in Parliament and it came into force in 1999.
Inger Segelström has had similar experiences in the European Parliament. When she entered in 2004, nobody listened to her when she talked about prostitution. Now she is getting greater support for the Swedish view, to a great extent due to the increasing problem with human trafficking. Inger Segelström consistently emphasizes the association between the existence of prostitution and trafficking, which many have previously denied.
- I have the support of women’s organisations around Europe. Only Germany, the Netherlands and Austria constitute an exception.
All the others recognise the connection between prostitution and human trafficking.
- The Football World Cup showed that those who claim there is no connection, are wrong. The Germans were shocked when it turned
out that their legal prostitutes were imported women.
- We, the Social Democratic women in Sweden, have actually been proven right in our view that prostitution is a question of power which should be included in the whole gender equality debate.
