Taking Action Against Sexual Harassment : A qualitative case study of the Swedish Parliament’s responses to sexual harassment

Abstract: Although the descriptive representation of women in parliaments is continuously improving, sexist practices such as sexual harassment and domination techniques continue to permeate the inner workings of parliaments. No workplace is immune to sexual harassment but its prevalence in parliaments has serious implications, not only for those exposed but for democracy itself – conveying a message of who belongs in politics. While previous research has established the scope of the issue and its gendered and intersectional manifestations, little is known about parliamentary responses to sexual harassment. This study thus seeks to address this gap through a qualitative case study of the Swedish Parliament’s anti-harassment work, encompassing both Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff. By conducting qualitative text analysis on parliamentary documents and material gained through interviews with Swedish Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff, three dimensions of the Parliament’s anti-harassment work are explored. Initially, perceptions of sexual harassment are addressed, partly through the use of intersectional theory. Building on pioneer work in the field, de facto measures against sexual harassment are thereafter attended to. Lastly, by approaching parliaments as a specific form of gendered workplace with certain structural features, the difficulties inherent to the Swedish Parliament’s anti-harassment work are explored. Findings from the study indicate an awareness of sexual harassment as a gendered issue in the Parliament, albeit as a problem of limited scope and without recognition of how interactions between different social identity characteristics can further exposure. The mapping of different responses to sexual harassment through the three categories of regulations, complaint mechanisms and preventative/accompanying measures, reveals that measures are substantially more well developed for parliamentary staff and highlights that although there is active anti-harassment work in the Swedish Parliament, progressive efforts for Members of Parliament are continuously halted. While several difficulties are identified, the establishment of an independent complaint mechanism for Members of Parliament appears particularly pressing. Altogether, the findings indicate that the structural features of employment status, power and recurrent processes of socialising newcomers, integral to the parliamentary workplace, are important to consider when attempting to understand the disparities in measures between Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff and the difficulties in coming to terms with the issue.