Swedish women sue varsity over affirmative action
AFP
STOCKHOLM - A group of Swedish women filed a class-action lawsuit against a university Wednesday because it gave under-represented male students admissions priority, their lawyer said.
"These women wanted to study psychology, but they were not competing on equal terms with men ... The case is all about equal treatment," lawyer Clarence Crafoord told AFP.
Crafoord represents 31 women who were refused admission in 2008 to the competitive psychology programme at Lund University, one of Sweden's largest higher learning institutes.
That year, the university started giving priority to men applying for the psychology programme because women applicants were over-represented.
Women represent about 60 percent of university students in Sweden, a pioneer in gender equality. The government has allowed universities to practise affirmative action since 2003.
"It is almost always women who are treated unfairly when institutions of higher education give automatic priority to applicants of the under-represented sex," Crafoord and fellow lawyer Gunnar Stroemmer wrote in an open letter published Wednesday in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
They pointed out that three-quarters of Sweden's largest academic institutions have affirmative action admission policies, and that it is women who are discriminated against in 95 percent of cases.
Crafoord explained that there were no legal means to force the university to admit the women, but that they were each suing for 75,000 kronor (7,300 euros, 10,850 dollars) in damages.
The lawyers are also lodging a separate complaint against the country's equality ombudsman -- a government agency which advises on and investigates cases of discrimination -- because it refused to hear the women's case.
"The lawyers at the equality ombudsman have said it is illegal (for a university to apply affirmative action), and even so they have chosen not to do anything," Crafoord said.
He added they were asking the justice ombudsman, an agency that ensures that public authorities comply with the law, to examine the matter.
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That year, the university started giving priority to men applying for the psychology programme because women applicants were over-represented.
Women represent about 60 percent of university students in Sweden, a pioneer in gender equality. The government has allowed universities to practise affirmative action since 2003.
"It is almost always women who are treated unfairly when institutions of higher education give automatic priority to applicants of the under-represented sex," Crafoord and fellow lawyer Gunnar Stroemmer wrote in an open letter published Wednesday in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
They pointed out that three-quarters of Sweden's largest academic institutions have affirmative action admission policies, and that it is women who are discriminated against in 95 percent of cases.
Crafoord explained that there were no legal means to force the university to admit the women, but that they were each suing for 75,000 kronor (7,300 euros, 10,850 dollars) in damages.
The lawyers are also lodging a separate complaint against the country's equality ombudsman -- a government agency which advises on and investigates cases of discrimination -- because it refused to hear the women's case.
"The lawyers at the equality ombudsman have said it is illegal (for a university to apply affirmative action), and even so they have chosen not to do anything," Crafoord said.
He added they were asking the justice ombudsman, an agency that ensures that public authorities comply with the law, to examine the matter.
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