This book is based on the empirical work conducted for my Ph.D. dissertation titled Struggles of Meaning. A Dynamic Frame Analysis of the Swedish Purchase of Sexual Services Act, which was defended at the Department of Government, Uppsala University, in December 2011. The research was financed by the Swedish Research Council, and grants from the Borbos Hansson foundation made it...

In 1998, Sweden became the first country in the world to criminalise the purchase of sexual services, although it remained legal to sell sex. The ban was disputed from the very beginning for its novel approach to prostitution, and it has continued to attract attention nationally as well as internationally not only in media but also among politicians and academics. Critics argue that...

Sweden is often internationally portrayed as a forerunner in political as well as social gender equality. When it comes to political representation or men’s parental leave, there are indeed reasons for this description; yet, there are also issues where Sweden’s progress is more limited – for example, violence against women. In order to understand the preconditions for...

The case focuses on a gendered institutional change in Sweden. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is that the interaction between ideas and actors is key for gaining an understanding of the processes involved. The empirical question addresses how it became possible to agree legislation to criminalise the purchase of sexual services and thereby introduce a new gendered regime concerning...

In this chapter I examine the notions of prostitution that characterised the political process which preceded the 1998 Purchase of Sexual Services Act in order to assess the different framings that were proposed, considered and institutionalised to varying degrees during the period in question. Tracing ideational change is also vital in the effort to understand the context of the behaviour of the...

When policymaking is analysed from a process perspective, certain events stand out as more crucial than others. For example, the prostitution issue came to a head in the autumn of 1992 when two framings of prostitution were pitted against each other in two different committees. The outcome was that the Committee on Justice mandated the government to set up a prostitution inquiry to look into...

So far, we have traced the process of gendered ideational change which brought about the Purchase of Sexual Services Act including identifying the impact of critical junctures at the micro level. In this chapter the actors’ conduct is in focus. The role of actors is another important piece of the puzzle needed to gain a comprehensive picture of this process of gendered institutional change.

This study has focused on the struggle for gendered institutional change. In 1998, Sweden became the first country in the world to criminalise the client in prostitution and introduce a new gendered prostitution regime. As well as breaking new ground in the policy regulation of prostitution, this case is unique in several other respects. First, it challenged the previous institutional...

actors’:

Josefina Erikson is a researcher and university teacher in the Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden, where she defended her PhD thesis in 2011. She has since worked with educational policymaking, both in a governmental inquiry and in a number of research projects.

Why do institutions and international organisations continue to affect the daily lives of women and men (and different groups of women and men) differently? Why do institutions often reproduce or exacerbate patterns of disadvantage and discrimination, even when formally espousing ideals of equality? As well as seeking to expose the rules, norms and practices through which institutions produce...