Ah, Sweden. Where everyday citizens are given permission to run the country’s Twitter account, where parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave for each child they have, and where all of your friends are threatening to move right now. Oh, and they also have a hotline women can call to report mansplaining.
The largest union in Sweden, Unionen, has instituted a new phone number for women to call if they feel they are being inappropriately mansplained at work. It will run Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will be available to the 600,000 private-sector employees that the union represents. Women are permitted to call in and express their frustrations, and in return receive advice for productive action against those who are mansplaining.
The resident gender expert at Unionen, Peter Tai Christensen, said in a statement, “We all react differently to changes in society. Some of us develop and integrate while others of us consciously or unconsciously resist. Mansplaining can be interpreted as a reaction to the fact that traditional gender roles are being renegotiated.”
