Women face a bright future in the cleaning business (Or: Puking at (the) Metro)
Posted by: Jenny Penny in Feminism, Media, Sweden, WorkI picked up a copy of the free newspaper Metro when I went to Stockholm yesterday.
At page four, they ran a story titled “A brightening future for female business owners” (”En ljusnande framtid för kvinnliga företagare”).
And, along with the article, a picture of a mop and a bucket.
Yes, a mop and a bucket is, according to Metro editors, the perfect way to illustrate that Svenskt Näringsliv (the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise) believes that the possibilities for Swedish women of starting their own business are really good right now.
Because, you know, you should start your business within something you’re good at. And everyone knows that women are just born with a mop in their hands.
It is also disheartening that the reason that the time for a woman to start her own business is now, is that the public sector is being more and more privatized. Thus Svenskt Näringsliv believes that the possibilities for business ownership for women lies within the traditional female spheres of taking care of children and the elderly, tasks which previously has been the responsibility of the public sector.
I am no friend of privatization, but as it says in the article, there are many women within for example child care who have years of experience and are extremely competent, and if they feel that they want to try it on their own, best of luck to them. It is just sad that within some editor’s head, female entrepreneurship = mop and bucket.
Update: I did a Google search on the article headline to try and find a link for it (no luck on the Metro website), but I only found Katrineholms Syndikalistiska Ortssektion (the syndicalist section of Katrineholm) who also have noticed the awful picture choice.
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