#MeToo in Sweden - Over 75,000 voices raised

The disintegration of the Swedish Academy and the subsequent decision not to award the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature are perhaps the most palpable fallouts of the Swedish #MeToo movement. Manifestations in Sweden against sexual harassment had begun already in October 2017. A cascade of over thirty different Swedish hashtags from different sectors followed, signed in total by over 75,000 individuals sharing their own experiences of, or witness to, rape, sexual assault and harassment. The legal aftermath of the Swedish #MeToo movement, aside from a few criminal convictions, has been minimal. The Government dedicated SEK 120 million in the 2019 budget to educate judges, lawyers, police, teachers and students as to issues of sexual harassment and criminal offenses. However, the same pattern can be traced in most sectors, first denial, then shock that such problems actually exist, and then calls for greater educational efforts. Aside from the labor unions, few strong civil society organizations have taken up this issue. And as seen above, one of the Swedish #MeToo hashtags concerned sexual harassment within the labor union movement.