Swedish Women's Lobby

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It's a social construct
Gender
Icon gender.svg
Spectra and binaries
Males who do not wish to be treated in law and practice as men
—This is how the Swedish Women's Lobby describes trans women[1]

The Swedish Women's Lobby (or Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer; SWL) is a Swedish anti-transgender hate group that serves as an international hub for the TERF movement, and that claims to oppose the "queer agenda." Best known for its radicalization from a mainstream feminist coalition into a promoter of fringe anti-trans conspiracy theories and far-right narratives, the organization now plays a central role in the transnational anti-gender movement. It maintains close ties to international anti-LGBTQ+ and far-right networks, including SPLC-designated hate groups and anti-abortion extremists. It has been widely criticized for its transphobia by feminist scholars, large Swedish civil society organizations, LGBTQ+ advocates, and even by the Church of Sweden.

In 2025 it launched Women's Platform for Action International (WoPAI), a self-described network for "sex-based rights" that includes several far-right anti-trans groups, and that seeks to unite the global organized anti-trans movement. WoPAI states that it opposes the "queer agenda", a "pro-gender movement" in academia and NGOs, and "non-legal and not agreed upon by the international community concepts of 'gender identity'".[2] WoPAI is hostile to mainstream feminist organizations, scholarship, and movements. It denounces "large civil society organizations that claim to be feminist," which it accuses of driving resistance to the anti-gender movement. It portrays these groups as controlled by "corporate and special interest lobby groups," and insists that "left-labeled agendas" are being institutionalised and that "these actors have codified postmodern identity based ideologies (...). They claim that being a woman is a matter of opinion and search to eradicate women in terminology and language. (...) They say that a floating gender replaces sex."[2] WoPAI also derides UN Women as a "men's rights organization." Its website also features imagery of other populist anti-trans slogans such as "adult human female," "large gametes" and "ordinary meaning."[3] WoPAI brings together some of the world's main anti-trans actors, including Women's Declaration International (WDI), a far-right SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate group[4][5] that is also a member and close partner of SWL. WoPAI shares its secretariat and address with SWL,[note 1] highlighting SWL's role in the global spread of anti-trans ideology. In 2025, WoPAI board member Anna Kerr gave a lecture positing that trans people were invented by the Freemasons.[6] In 2025, SWL and WoPAI published a statement in support of anti-trans activist Reem Alsalem's report "Sex-based violence against women and girls",[1] that called for a ban on legal and social gender transition for children and that called on states to "ensure that the terms 'women' and 'girls' are only used to describe biological females."[7] SWL and WoPAI referred to trans women as "males who do not wish to be treated in law and practice as men," opposed their inclusion in analyses of violence against women, accused states and UN agencies of "redefining [women] out of legal existence," called women a "sex class," and denounced "exclusion, harassment, and professional retaliation" faced by those "who advocate for [...] sex-based rights."[1]

Beginning in the late 2010s, SWL underwent a spiraling radicalization, shifting from mainstream feminist advocacy to a platform increasingly defined by trans-exclusionary and anti-gender ideology.[8][9][10] As early as 2018, thirteen gender studies scholars criticized SWL for promoting misleading narratives associated with broader anti-trans discourse.[11] Since then, it has openly aligned with anti-trans groups linked to alt-right, pro-Trump, and fascist movements, most notably WDI, an organization that works with anti-abortion extremists, openly supports Donald Trump and claims to have inspired his attacks on trans rights.[12] In 2019 SWL was strongly criticized for transphobia by the National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organisations and others.[13][14][15] In 2020 gender studies scholars Alm and Engebretsen observed SWL's promotion of "gender-critical" ideology and highlighted the growing convergence between "gender-critical" activists and far-right actors, "even neo-Nazi and fascist movements," as "a key issue in the current political and scholarly landscape."[8] In a talk to Women's Declaration International (WDI) in 2020, WDI's Swedish country contact Fanny Knyphausen said WDI and the Swedish Women's Lobby were the main organizations opposing gender self-determination in Sweden, and that "the Swedish Women's Lobby had a really big loss of organizations" that left the organization as a result of its anti-trans policies.[16] Amid growing criticism of SWL for its anti-trans stance, 943 priests and other employees of the Church of Sweden in 2021 condemned "trans-exclusionary feminism [that] uses rhetoric we recognize from radical right-wing Christian groups and right-wing populists."[17] In 2025, gender studies scholars Michal Grahn and Malin Holm argued that SWL's rhetoric in its opposition to the Gender Recognition Act closely mirrored the "threat to women" narratives commonly employed in anti-trans rhetoric across other national contexts.[10] Gender studies scholars Karlberg, Korolczuk, and Sältenberg situated SWL's anti-trans stance within the rise of anti-gender politics, which they described as part of a broader process of "insidious de-democratization," marked by the marginalization of vulnerable groups.[9]

SWL's rhetoric draws on conspiracy tropes, including portrayals of shadowy elites as orchestrating societal change and claims of institutional capture. It reflects a broader populist and anti-intellectual framing common in anti-gender movements, which position themselves in opposition to expert knowledge, academic institutions, and progressive NGOs. Their views stand in stark opposition to the overwhelming consensus in feminism, which rejects TERF ideology as a confusionist and conspiratorial ideological movement using the cover of feminism to disrupt real feminist fights.

Trans-inclusive beginnings[edit]

The Swedish Women's Lobby was founded in 1997 as an umbrella group for the Swedish women's movement. It brought together dozens of member organizations to promote gender equality. In its early years, it represented normal feminist positions, at least outwardly.[note 2] A 2015 report on their website, offering guidance for feminist organizing, emphasized the importance of actively working against cissexism and ensuring inclusion of trans and queer people. It noted that individuals who do not conform to the binary gender norm have long struggled to find space within the feminist movement, and that it is essential to combat both the discrimination they face and the ignorance that often underlies it. The report defined "not recognizing other gender identities or gender expressions than man and woman, or not taking transgender people's gender identity or gender expression seriously" as a form of transphobia.[19] Around 2014 SWL was promoting feminist events that actively opposed "sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of discrimination."[20] In 2015, SWL was also one of the five organizations behind a demand that "no taxpayer money should go to religious communities that encourage discrimination against women, homophobia, transphobia, or gender apartheid."[21]

Embracing anti-trans politics[edit]

The ignorance the Swedish Women's Lobby displays regarding the general situation of trans people in need of gender-affirming care is astonishing.
—13 Swedish gender studies academics, 2018[11]

By the late 2010s, the organization's public rhetoric began shifting toward "gender-critical" (TERF) ideology,[11][8] a specific form of transphobia that presents itself as feminism while aligning with far-right populism and targeting trans people, especially women. In 2018, thirteen Swedish gender studies scholars issued a statement criticizing the organization's trans-hostile stance, particularly its opposition to proposed legal reforms intended to improve the lives of transgender people. Writing in Feministiskt Perspektiv, the scholars—including Erika Alm, Irina Schmitt, Ida Linander, and Jens Rydström—accused SWL of spreading misinformation and reproducing a binary, heteronormative, and trans-exclusionary conception of gender. They criticized the organization's framing of trans rights as incompatible with gender equality and refuted its claims that proposed legal changes lacked sufficient gender analysis. The authors warned that SWL's rhetoric not only marginalized trans and nonbinary people, but also distorted the meaning of feminist and intersectional equality work in Sweden. They called on SWL to adopt a more solidaristic approach and to engage seriously with up-to-date knowledge on trans issues, rather than echoing misleading narratives associated with broader anti-trans discourse.[11]

The trans-exclusionary shift culminated in 2019, when the SWL denied board candidacy to Signe Krantz, a 20-year-old transgender woman representing the member organization Maktsalongen. The SWL conducted an unauthorized, invasive and demeaning inquiry into her legal gender, prompting outrage from civil society and the National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organisations, which accused SWL of blatant transphobia. Maktsalongen left the organization in protest. In an open letter to SWL the National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organisations called SWL's actions "offensive" and "directly transphobic," noting that "a person's legal gender says nothing about their identity. The legal gender is determined by the National Board of Health and Welfare's Legal Council after a prolonged process, which is a remnant of the forced sterilizations that ended in 2013."[13][22][14][15]

By 2020, Nordic gender studies scholars such as Alm and Engebretsen were drawing attention to SWL's promotion of "gender-critical" ideas,[8] making SWL one of the first "gender-critical" organizations in the Nordic region and arguably its most influential anti-gender and anti-transgender lobby group. Alm and Engebretsen situate SWL's alignment with "gender-critical" positions within a broader trend, highlighting the early signs of a growing convergence between "gender-critical" activists and far-right actors, a pattern that would later materialize in SWL's own alliances. They note that "a key issue in the current political and scholarly landscape is the growing convergence, and sometimes conscious alliances, between 'gender-critical' feminists (sometimes known as TERFs – Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists), religious and social conservatives, as well as right-wing politics and even neo-Nazi and fascist movements."[8] This shift aligns with what Claire House has identified as a broader international trend beginning in the mid-2010s, where (radical) feminist actors increasingly participate in anti-gender and regressive politics, often with particularly harmful consequences for trans rights, a trend she illustrates, in part, by referencing Alm and Engebretsen's discussion of developments in Sweden.[23]

In a talk to Women's Declaration International (WDI) in 2020, WDI's Swedish country contact Fanny Knyphausen said WDI and the Swedish Women's Lobby were the main organizations opposing gender self-determination in Sweden, and that "the Swedish Women's Lobby had a really big loss of organizations" that left the organization as a result of its anti-trans policies.[16]

Since then, SWL has emerged as a prominent actor within the European anti-gender movement and an active promoter of anti-transgender ideology on the international stage. During the COVID-19 pandemic—a period marked by intensified circulation of anti-trans conspiracy theories and broader radicalization around gender issues—SWL further entrenched its alignment with gender-critical discourse. It adopted rhetoric commonly associated with far-right actors, presenting its opposition to trans rights in the language of "sex-based rights" and mobilizing narratives around "gender ideology" that resonate with populist and reactionary agendas.

By 2023 SPLC-designated hate group Women's Declaration International had become a member of SWL. SWL has also hosted and promoted Kajsa Ekis Ekman,[24] a conspiracy theorist, leading figure in the Swedish transphobic movement and co-founder of WDI Sweden, who is also known for her pro-Kremlin and "anti-woke" views, and who was even denounced for her transphobic views and disinvited by the radical feminist National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters in Sweden in 2018.[25] For example, in 2025, SWL translated a text by Ekman, full of conspiracy rhetoric, attacking the political left, in an apparent effort to promote it internationally.[26][27] SWL is often seen as an inspiration by anti-trans "gender-critical feminists" in other countries, and has hosted Meghan Murphy in the year she was permanently banned from Twitter for anti-trans hate speech.[28] In 2023, SWL and the anti-trans group "Women's Rights Watch" co-organized a seminar critical of gender self-identification, which promoted anti-trans rhetoric and opposed trans rights. The event featured prominent figures in the international anti-transgender movement, including Reem Alsalem.[29] In 2024, SWL aligned with the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party, to oppose the Gender Recognition Act supported by nearly all other parties, including the entire political left.[9] Gender studies scholars Michal Grahn and Malin Holm observed that SWL's claims—that the Gender Recognition Act would endanger "women's rights" and allow "men" to access "women-only spaces"—closely mirror the "threat to women" narratives commonly employed in anti-trans rhetoric across other national contexts.[10] In 2024, SWL accused "progressive parties and movements" of working against women.[30]

SWL has been widely criticized for its anti-trans views in Sweden. Sofia Magnusson and Emmeli Nybom argued that the trans-exclusionary stance seen in SWL is the result of a broader shift in values that has taken place over time within parts of Swedish feminism. They criticized how SWL is often portrayed by its supporters as representing "the unified women's movement," despite promoting a clearly trans-exclusionary agenda. According to the authors, this shift aligns with international anti-trans campaigns and echoes rhetoric pushed by far-right actors and by anti-trans campaigners like J.K. Rowling.[31] Amid growing criticism of SWL for its anti-trans stance, 943 priests and other employees of the Church of Sweden in 2021 condemned "trans-exclusionary feminism [that] uses rhetoric we recognize from radical right-wing Christian groups and right-wing populists." They added: "We mourn a rights movement that punches down. You, me, we, all of us, need a broad, solidarity-based feminism that fights restrictive gender norms."[17] In 2024 Edward Summanen, a trans health expert and writer, criticized SWL for legitimizing transphobia by accepting extremist member groups like XXantippas Vrede (WDI). He warned that their tactics, such as misgendering and public shaming, amount to harassment in the name of feminism and pose a threat to democracy by silencing trans people.[32]

Gender studies scholars Karlberg, Korolczuk and Sältenberg have situated SWL's anti-trans stance within the rise of anti-gender politics, which they argued is part of a broader process of "insidious de-democratization," a set of discourses and practices that erode liberal democracy by marginalizing already vulnerable groups.[9]

In 2025, SWL's secretary-general (and former president) Susannah Sjöberg appeared in a video with Sharon Byrne, the head of the far-right anti-trans astroturf group Women's Liberation Front, which works with Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation, and which is closely linked to anti-abortion extremist, evangelical Christian hate group Focus on the Family. According to Byrne, they talked about how "her team at the Swedish Women's Lobby had worked to kill" the gender recognition act in Sweden, and how she loved meeting "TERFs in the wild."[33][34]

Sjöberg has also started using the word "safeguarding" when talking about trans people,[35] a dog whistle imported from UK anti-trans rhetoric, where it's used to suggest that trans women are "predators" in places like changing rooms and schools. Closely associated with the long-standing LGBTQ grooming conspiracy theory, it's weaponized to mask anti-trans hate speech as concern for child protection, and feeds fears and conspiracy theories. Tanja Olsson-Blandy, a board member of SWL, repeated a familiar conspiracist claim when she stated that "soon only men will be able to be women."[36] This remark draws from the "erasure of women" conspiracy theory central to anti-trans ideology. At the same time, she openly misgenders and dehumanizes trans women by denying their identities.

The Swedish Women's Lobby describes itself as "the free women's movement,"[37] in opposition to what its international arm WoPAI derides as "large civil society organizations that claim to be feminist,"[2] in other words, established, trans-inclusive feminist organizing. This language mirrors broader conspiratorial narratives common in anti-gender and far-right spaces, where self-declared "grassroots" actors position themselves as resisting a supposedly elite-controlled establishment.

Anti-trans activist Dianna Kenny lists the Swedish Women's Lobby as a group opposing trans healthcare alongside Moms for Liberty, Gays Against Groomers, LGB Alliance, Genspect, Sex Matters, Transgender Trend, WDI, and other well-known anti-trans hate groups.[38]

An international TERF hub: WoPAI[edit]

The UK Supreme Court knows what a woman is
—Women's Platform for Action International, SWL's international arm[3]

In 2025, the Swedish Women's Lobby launched Women's Platform for Action International (WoPAI) as an international umbrella group for the TERF movement. According to its own statements, WoPAI was created to promote "sex-based rights"[2]—a pseudolegal slogan TERFs weaponize against the legal recognition of trans people—and to put "women and girls first."[39] It rejects what it calls "non-legal and not agreed upon by the international community concepts of 'gender identity.'" It positions itself against what it calls the "pro-gender movement" in academia and NGOs, and opposes "queer, postmodern, or neoliberal agendas of liberal and leftist origin." It condemns what it calls "large civil society organizations that claim to be feminist," which it accuses of driving resistance to the anti-gender movement. It portrays these groups as illegitimate, claiming they lack grassroots support and are controlled by "corporate and special interest lobby groups." WoPAI further claims that "the very concept of sex is being annihilated in language and legislation, and women as a legal class of right holders are being erased." Despite claiming to be politically neutral, WoPAI's rhetoric obsessively targets the left: progressive feminist NGOs, academic institutions, and international human rights groups that support trans people. It claims that "neoliberal, relativist, left-labeled agendas" are being institutionalised and that "these actors have codified postmodern identity based ideologies and theories which harm women's rights. They claim that being a woman is a matter of opinion and search to eradicate women in terminology and language. (...) They say that a floating gender replaces sex."[2] Its website also features imagery of other anti-trans slogans such as "adult human female," "large gametes" and "ordinary meaning."[3]

WoPAI's rhetoric reflects a broader conspiratorial narrative common in anti-gender discourse, which treats established feminist and human rights institutions as corrupt or co-opted enemies of "real" women. WoPAI repeats the standard talking points of the broader anti-gender movement, blaming social change on shadowy elites, presenting trans rights as a threat to women, and portraying gender diversity as a dangerous "gender ideology." A central part of this narrative is the baseless claim that inclusive language and the recognition of gender diversity "erase" women from law or society. This is often packaged in pseudolegal slogans like "sex-based rights." WoPAI's actual agenda mirrors that of the far-right: dismantling legal protections for trans people and pushing an an exclusionary, biologically essentialist definition of womanhood. WoPAI publicly supported a UK court ruling that defined women solely as biological females, promoting it with the slogan: "The UK Supreme Court knows what a woman is."[3]

In June 2025 Tanja Olsson-Blandy, a board member of both Swedish Women's Lobby and WoPAI, supported[40][41] anti-trans activist Reem Alsalem's report "Sex-based violence against women and girls", that called for a ban on legal and social gender transition for children and that called on states to "ensure that the terms 'women' and 'girls' are only used to describe biological females and that such a meaning is recognised in law," while insisting trans women are "males." The report also promoted the "erasure of women" conspiracy theory.[7] Alsalem was praised by Alliance Defending Freedom for resisting "gender ideology".[42] In July 2025, SWL together with WoPAI and the European Network of Migrant Women, also issued a joint statement in support of Alsalem and this report. They accused states and UN agencies of "redefining [women] out of legal existence," called women a "sex class," and denounced "exclusion, harassment, and professional retaliation" faced by those "who advocate for [...] sex-based rights," whom they said are met with "institutional power and public vilification." They referred to trans women as "males who do not wish to be treated in law and practice as men" and opposed their inclusion in analyses of violence against women.[1]

WoPAI is active on Twitter, where it retweets hate groups, derides UN Women as a "men's rights organization" and complains about how TERFs are supposedly being "silenced."

WoPAI is effectively an international extension of SWL itself, as SWL has aligned with the most extreme, far-right anti-trans actors in the global anti-gender movement. From its establishment SWL secretary-general (and former president) Susannah Sjöberg served in the same role at WoPAI, while former SWL president Gertrud Åström was WoPAI's inaugural president. Both groups share the same infrastructure and office at Karlbergsvägen 86A in Stockholm. In June 2025 activists noticed that WoPAI had removed any mention of SWL's secretary-general Susannah Sjöberg also being WoPAI's secretary-general.[43]

WoPAI presents itself as a global voice for women, but its actual role is to expand anti-trans activism beyond national borders. It builds on trans-exclusionary campaigns already active in countries like the UK and Sweden, reworking the language of rights to support efforts that target and exclude trans people. References to "women's rights" are used not to promote gender equality, but to justify opposition to gender recognition laws, inclusive policies, and protections for trans people. Rather than advancing feminist goals, WoPAI's agenda aligns with a broader anti-gender movement that seeks to roll back gains in equality and limit the rights of marginalized groups.

Meet the members[edit]

Did Freemasonry have a role in the roots of the trans movement?
—A lecture by Anna Kerr, board member of SWL's new project WoPAI, published by WDI.[6] WDI is both a member of SWL itself and its international umbrella.
Some of WoPAI's founding members, like Women's Declaration International (WDI), are enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump and even claimed credit for influencing his first anti-trans executive order, written by Stephen Miller.[12]

WoPAI's founding members include a familiar cast of trans-exclusionary organizations, such as Women's Declaration International (WDI),[44] an SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that is closely aligned with alt-right, authoritarian and even fascist movements. WDI is described by recognized feminist organizations as "an extreme anti-trans group,"[45] and claims to have inspired Donald Trump's assault on trans rights. WDI boasted about its influence on May Mailman, a far-right anti-abortion activist and Trump appointee who co-wrote Trump's executive order "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" with Stephen Miller.[12] WDI's Swedish branch, XXantippas Vrede, is also a member of SWL,[46] highlighting the tight integration between national and international arms of the TERF movement. Given the deep ties and overt admiration many of its international affiliates, especially WDI, have for the Trump administration, it is no surprise that SWL's latest anti-trans initiative echoes the rhetoric of the MAGA movement, prominently adopting slogans like "we put women and girls first."[39]

One of the board members is Susan Smith, a co-author of the transphobic book The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, a co-director of British TERF group For Women Scotland and an active collaborator with J.K. Rowling on her transphobic projects.[47]

Ideology and analysis[edit]

The Swedish Women's Lobby (SWL) presents itself as a champion of "women's rights," but its evolving discourse reveals a deep entanglement with the global anti-gender movement. Central to its contemporary agenda is the promotion of so-called "sex-based rights," a biologically essentialist framework that functions as both a trans-exclusionary rhetorical device and a pseudolegal scaffold for denying trans people legal recognition and protections. This language, while cloaked in the terminology of rights and protection, aligns with internationally coordinated campaigns aimed at rolling back gender diversity and queer inclusion in law and society.

From a gender studies perspective, SWL's ideological shift reflects a broader trend in which elements of second-wave feminism are being reconstituted into a reactionary framework centered on exclusion and boundary enforcement, as discussed by Claire House.[23] This phenomenon has been observed across Europe and the Global North, where trans-exclusionary self-styled radical feminists position themselves as guardians of an essentialist womanhood under threat. Rather than engaging in structural critique of patriarchy and power, SWL has increasingly oriented its activism around border policing of gender identity, reifying rigid sex binaries and presenting gender variance as a threat to the category of "woman" itself. This is emblematic of what scholars like Paternotte, Kuhar, Korolczuk, and Graff describe as anti-gender mobilization, a transnational project that weaponizes moral panic and anti-intellectualism to erode feminist, queer, and democratic gains.

Through its alliances with far-right actors, anti-abortion extremists, and transnational hate groups (e.g., Women's Declaration International), SWL has become a prominent node in what gender studies scholars term the global anti-gender network. This movement is united by opposition to trans rights, gender self-determination, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the legitimacy of academic gender studies. It advances an ideology of gender authoritarianism, where the boundaries of womanhood are enforced through exclusion, surveillance, and moral panic.

From a social psychology perspective, SWL's discourse demonstrates classic features of ingroup-outgroup dynamics, moral essentialism, and dehumanization. The portrayal of trans women as "men in disguise" and the deployment of "safeguarding" rhetoric are particularly revealing. These tropes exploit deeply rooted fears (e.g., threats to children or the sanctity of "women's spaces") to justify exclusionary policies, while simultaneously eroding cognitive and emotional empathy toward trans and gender-diverse individuals. What emerges is a form of motivated reasoning, a defense of group identity through the systematic denial of others' realities.

Politically, SWL's shift must be understood within the context of de-democratization. As scholars like Karlberg, Korolczuk, and Sältenberg (2025)[9] argue, anti-gender actors contribute to the erosion of liberal democratic norms by marginalizing vulnerable populations, attacking civil society institutions, and undermining the legitimacy of expert knowledge. SWL's increasingly conspiratorial rhetoric, framing trans rights as elite impositions or neoliberal inventions, mirrors the populist tactics used by far-right authoritarian movements globally. Its opposition to the Gender Recognition Act, its alliances with groups promoting QAnon-adjacent theories (e.g., Freemasonry behind trans rights), and its embrace of pseudoscientific discourse mark a profound break from its earlier outwardly trans-inclusive feminist commitments.

Crucially, SWL’s political independence is a rhetorical construction, not an empirical reality. Its infrastructure, messaging, and personnel are deeply integrated into the international TERF network and the far-right populist agenda. This network positions itself against what it calls "gender ideology," a constructed enemy that includes feminist NGOs, UN agencies, academic researchers, and progressive parties. In reality, what is being opposed is not ideology but gender pluralism, intersectional justice, and inclusive democracy.

SWL's transformation from a feminist umbrella organization into a platform for anti-trans mobilization offers a compelling case study in organizational radicalization. It shows how feminist language and institutions can be co-opted by authoritarian politics, stripped of their liberatory potential, and repurposed as tools for exclusion. While it claims to speak for women, the version of womanhood it defends is a narrow, biologically deterministic fiction, one out of step with both academic feminism and the lived realities of women and gender-diverse people.

SWL's campaigns do not protect women; they endanger the very people feminism is meant to empower. By advancing a regressive, exclusionary agenda under the guise of women's advocacy, the Swedish Women's Lobby contributes to the erosion of democratic values, human rights norms, and the inclusive future that global feminism continues to fight for.

External links[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. According to Swedish official records, the address of Women's Platform for Action International is: "SVERIGES KVINNOORGANISATIONER [Swedish Women's Lobby], Karlbergsvägen 86 a, 113 35 Stockholm." See Allabolag (Internet Archive, Archive.ph). This information is also published on WoPAI's "Who we are" page, which lists WoPAI's address as "Karlbergsvägen 86A, 3 tr, 113 35 Stockholm" (which is SWL's address). WoPAI's "Who we are" page also listed SWL's secretary-general Susannah Sjöberg as secretary-general of WoPAI and SWL's former chair Gertrud Åström as chair of WoPAI from its establishment. Archived versions of WoPAI's "Who we are" page: Internet Archive, Archive.ph. Their "Legal Notice" also lists WoPAI's address as "Karlbergsvägen 86A, 3 tr, 113 35 Stockholm" and its legal representatives and "responsible for editorial" content as Gertrud Åström, Anna Zobnina, Susannah Sjöberg. Archived versions of their "Legal Notice": Internet Archive, Archive.ph. On their own Instagram account, SWL specifically said that "we [SWL] have launched the new global movement Women's Platform for Action International" [Vi har lanserat den nya globala rörelsen Women's Platform for Action International]. Despite this well-documented relationship, and the fact that WoPAI was created by SWL to spread anti-trans ideology globally, representatives of SWL have, oddly, tried to deny the relationship.
  2. There have been reports of anti-trans attitudes within the organization before, but these views were not openly promoted as a matter of policy prior to the late 2010s, nor were they widely known. By 2024, however, after several years of drifting in an increasingly trans-hostile direction, SWL intensified its opposition to the Gender Recognition Act, employing rhetoric that drew on familiar moral panic and conspiratorial narratives associated with the transnational anti-gender movement. As gender studies scholars Michal Grahn and Malin Holm observed, SWL's claims—that the Act would endanger "women's rights" and allow "men" to access "women-only spaces"—closely mirrored the "threat to women" narratives common in anti-trans discourse internationally.[10] One activist commented at the time, "They have always been anti-trans, so it's good if more people become aware of it. They've been portrayed as reasonable and normal for far too long. (...) I can imagine people feel deceived. I would have too, if I hadn't come across these views from them earlier (in 2013 I sat at a conference with the chairperson and was stunned)."[18]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Joint Statement in Support of Reem Alsalem's Renewed Mandate". Women's Platform for Action International. 8 July 2025. Archived from the original on 8 July 2025.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Why Wopai is needed (archived)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The UK Supreme court knows what a woman is – now the rest of the world must follow, Women's Platform for Action International (WoPAI)
  4. "Timeline: Building a Pseudoscience Network". Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023.
  5. "Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network". Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2023. Table 5.2: Networked Groups by Typology [...] Narrative Manipulation: [...] Women's Declaration International
  6. 6.0 6.1 Women's Declaration International (WDI): "Anna Kerr, Australia, Did Freemasonry have a role in the roots of the trans movement?"
  7. 7.0 7.1 Alsalem, Reem (2025). "Sex-based violence against women and girls" (PDF).
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Alm, E., & Engebretsen, E. L. (2020). Gender Self-identification. Lambda Nordica, 25(1), 48-56. https://doi.org/10.34041/ln.v25.613
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Karlberg, E., Korolczuk, E., & Sältenberg, H. (2025). Insidious de-democratization: Conceptualizing anti-gender politics in Sweden. Journal of Gender Studies, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2024.2446345
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Grahn, M., & Holm, M. (2025). Trans inclusive no more? Allies and adversaries of gender self-identification in Sweden. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 8(1), 234–241. https://doi.org/10.1332/25151088Y2024D000000052
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Schmitt, Irina; Bremer, Signe; Nord, Iwo; Holmqvist, Sam; Alm, Erika; Linander, Ida; Wurm, Matilda; Lundberg, Tove; Lindqvist, Anna; Wagner, Anthony; Bäck, Emma; Olovsdotter Lööv, Anna; Rydström, Jens (9 June 2018). "Vi kan bättre än så, Kvinnolobbyn!". Feministiskt Perspektiv.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Kara Dansky: FFS Friday: May Mailman
  13. 13.0 13.1 Ortiz, Joel Mauricio Isabel (9 June 2019). "Hur ska vi förstå transfobin?". Ottar. Detta ledde till stark kritik mot organisationen och till en diskussion i medier och sociala medier om transfobi
  14. 14.0 14.1 Lindgren, Joakim (8 April 2019). "Öppet brev till Sveriges Kvinnolobby". National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organisations. Archived from the original on 2025-05-04.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Nilsson, Emelie (13 April 2019). "Förtydliganden om vårt öppna brev till Sveriges Kvinnolobby". National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organisations. Archived from the original on 2025-05-04.
  16. 16.0 16.1 "Who opposes gender identity politics in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Sweden?". Women's Declaration International. 14 July 2020.
  17. 17.0 17.1 943 Church of Sweden employees (2021). "Personligt brev till dig som är trans" [A personal letter to you who are transgender]. Church of Sweden. Archived from the original on 2021-05-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. "Vilka är dessa kvinnoorganisationer som är emot nya könstillhörighetslagen? Jag vill veta. Hur FAN kan man efter århundraden av förtryck själv sparka neråt istället för solidaritet. Har inte feminismen lärt er ett jävla skit?". 2024.
  19. Organiserad eller oorganiserad feminism? Metodkit och idébank för stärkt feministisk organisering (archive.ph)
  20. FEMTECH 2014 (archived)
  21. "Dags för feministisk regering att agera," Svenska Dagbladet, 2015-12-14
  22. "De lämnar Sveriges kvinnolobby i protest". su.se. 16 April 2019.
  23. 23.0 23.1 House, C. C., (2023) "'I'm Real, Not You': Roles and Discourses of Trans Exclusionary Women's and Feminist Movements in Anti-gender and Right-wing Populist Politics", DiGeSt: Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, Special Issue: Varieties of TERFness, 10(2), 14-32. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/digest.85755
  24. Kajsa Ekis Ekman (2024): Avtackning för Clara Berglund och Malpuri Groth från Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer
  25. Uttalande angående Kajsa Ekis Ekmans deltagande på Roks konferens 20 februari, ROKS, 2018
  26. Plus att Spinifex Press (Sheila Jeffreys (WDI) bokförlag) har en översättning på sin sida som de krediterar till Swedish Women's Lobby.
  27. Kajsa Ekis Ekman: The Two Front War Against Women. Translated by the Swedish Women's Lobby.
  28. Meghan Murphy (2018): So much love and gratitude to Kajsa Ekis Ekman and the Swedish Women's Lobby for hosting
  29. Se vårt Almedalsseminarium om självidentifikation i efterhand. Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer.
  30. "Vilka står upp för kvinnors rättigheter?". Svenska Dagbladet. 18 May 2024.
  31. Vi oroas över S-kvinnors transexkluderande feminism
  32. Summanen, Edward (2024-03-08). "Var går gränsen för trakasserier i feminismens namn?". QX. Archived from the original on 2025-06-13. Vilken feminism välkomnas av Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer? Om feministiska föreningar som kränker och hånar transpersoner.
  33. Sharon Byrne, WoLF, USA, Report from the Commission on the Status of Women Beijing
  34. Äntligen har WDI släppt en video om CSW69 via Sharon Byrne från Women's Liberation Front (WoLF). Hon berättar att hon mötte SKOs generalsekreterare och ska ha pratat om "trans-lagen" och hur SKO hade "worked to kill it" och hur kul det är att träffa "TERFs in the wild".
  35. Lyssnade in på Kvartals intervju med Susannah Sjöberg, Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer och hörde ordet "safeguard" användas i en svensk kontext kopplat till transpersoner
  36. Snart är det bara män som kan vara kvinnor
  37. Vill du stötta kvinnorörelsen?
  38. Dianna Kenny (2024), Gender Ideology, Social Contagion, and the Making of a Transgender Generation, Appendix B
  39. 39.0 39.1 Women's Platform for Action International
  40. WoPAI Intervenes at Human Rights Council Session
  41. WoPAIs (och SKO-medlemmen Östersjöfreds) Tanja Olsson-Blandy backade upp Reem Alsalems presentation, om bl a art kön enbart får ses som biologiskt och från födseln, på FNs Human Rights Council.
  42. "UN reports calls on governments to prohibit 'gender transition' for children". The Catholic Herald. 2025.
  43. Av oklar anledning har WOPAIS hemsida tagit bort vem deras generalsekreterare är (samma som SKO har)
  44. Who we are
  45. "'Gender ideology' narratives: A threat to human rights". Association for Women's Rights in Development. 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 February 2023.
  46. "Medlemsorganisationer". SWL.
  47. The Supreme Court ruling: What does it mean for women?

External links[edit]

  • Archived versions of the mission statement "Why Wopai is needed" of SWL's international arm, explaining its goal to fight "the queer agenda," a "pro-gender movement" in academia and NGOs, and "non-legal and not agreed upon by the international community concepts of 'gender identity'": Internet Archive, Archive.ph
  • Archived versions of WoPAI's "Legal Notice", which lists their legal representatives and "responsible for editorial" content as Gertrud Åström, Anna Zobnina, Susannah Sjöberg: Internet Archive, Archive.ph.
  • Video published by WDI featuring SWL's/WoPAI's secretary-general Susannah Sjöberg with Sharon Byrne of the far-right anti-trans astroturf group Women's Liberation Front (closely associated with anti-abortion extremist, evangelical Christian hate group Focus on the Family). Byrne says they talked about how "her team at the Swedish Women's Lobby had worked to kill" the gender recognition act in Sweden, and how she loved meeting "TERFs in the wild." Archived screenshot (Sjöberg, left; Byrne, right): Bsky, Internet Archive, Archive.ph