Sweden aims to go gender-neutral

• The U.K. learning about equality in Stockholm
By most people’s standards, Sweden is a paradise for liberated women, Slate Magazine writes. It has the highest proportion of working women in the world, and women earn about two-thirds of all degrees.
But for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral.
Activists are lobbying for parents to be able to choose any name for their children. Names should not be at all tied to gender, so it would be acceptable for parents to, say, name a girl Jack or a boy Lisa.
A Swedish children's clothes company has removed the "boys" and "girls" sections in its stores, Slate said.
A new pronoun, hen (pronounced like the bird in English), was recently added to the online version of the country’s National Encyclopedia. The entry defines hen as a "proposed gender-neutral personal pronoun instead of he [han in Swedish] and she [hon].
Last Updated (Friday, 13 April 2012 03:14)










