Scandinavia and the Baltic - Transnational and International Challenges – serie

Women in Swedish Society is a groundbreaking study by two general practitioners, Annika Forssen and Gunilla Carlstedt, who believed that the medical profession and accepted medical science was inadequately responding to the health problems presented by their female patients. Rejecting the tendency of the male-dominated medical profession to link women's symptoms with female psychological issues or reproductive biology, the authors undertook their own in-depth research, drawing on systematic, wide-ranging interviews with 20 carefully chosen subjects. Their goal was to identify how women's daily lives, in particular their personal circumstances and work experiences - both in salaried employment and in the home - impacted on their health. Women in Swedish Society incorporates the detailed and intimate testimonies of these women. Through them, Forssen and Carlstedt illustrate how changes in female health and wellbeing reflect the radical changes in Swedish society during their lifetimes, which spanned the twentieth century. The authors also make comparisons with the situation of contemporary Swedish women, finding that despite the shift in social attitudes and improved opportunities for women, many issues surrounding power, class and division of labor as well as medical care remain unresolved.