Editing Gudrun Schyman

{{Short description|Swedish politician (born 1948)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name             = Gudrun Schyman
| image            = Gudrun Schyman pressbild.tiff
| imagesize        = 200px
| caption          = Gudrun Schyman in August 2014
| office           = [[Feminist Initiative (Sweden)|Leader of Feminist Initiative]]
| alongside        = [[Sissela Nordling Blanco]] (since 2011)
| term_start       = 6 March 2013
| term_end         = 28 october 2018
| office2          = [[Left Party (Sweden)|Leader of the Swedish Left Party]]
| term_start2      = 1993
| term_end2        = 2003
| predecessor2     = [[Lars Werner]]
| successor2       = [[Ulla Hoffmann]] (Interim)
| office3          = Member of the [[Riksdag]]
| term_start3      = 3 October 1988
| term_end3        = 5 September 1997
| term_start4      = 8 October 1997
| term_end4        = 2 October 2006<ref group=note>She represented the [[Left Party (Sweden)|Left Party]] until she left it in 2004; she then sat until 2006 as an [[independent politician]].</ref>
| constituency4    = [[Stockholm County (Riksdag constituency)|Stockholm County]]
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1948|6|9|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Täby]], Sweden
| birthname        = Gerd ''Gudrun'' Maria Schyman
| profession       = Politician
| party            = [[Climate Alliance (Sweden)|Climate Alliance]]
| otherparty       = [[Left Party (Sweden)|Left Party]] (until 2004)<br /> [[Feminist Initiative (Sweden)|Feminist Initiative]] (2005–2022)
| alma_mater       = [[Socialhögskolan i Stockholm]]
| website          = {{URL|schyman.se}}
}}

'''Gerd ''Gudrun'' Maria Schyman''' (born 9 June 1948) is a Swedish politician. She served as leader of the Swedish [[Left Party (Sweden)|Left Party]] from 1993 until January 2003. She remained a member of the Left Party until 2004, when she left to focus entirely on her feminist political work after a [[tax evasion]] scandal. She remained an [[independent (politician)|independent]] member of the [[Riksdag]] until 2006. She co-founded [[Feminist Initiative (Sweden)|Feminist Initiative]] in 2005 and was its co-spokesperson from 2005 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2019. She left the party in 2022.

==Leader of the Left Party==
In 1993, Schyman was elected leader of the Left Party. Schyman's greatest asset was her appeal to the voters, and her party more than doubled its number of MPs during her leadership. She gained popularity for her candor: for example, she was open about her struggle with [[alcoholism]] and supported an initiative to make [[Parliament of Sweden|the Riksdag]] an alcohol-free workplace.<ref>Therésia Erneborg, [http://www.dagen.se/dagen/article.aspx?id=147653 "Gudrun Schyman: Det är alkohol-industrins vinstintressen som styr,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001024026/http://www.dagen.se/dagen/article.aspx?id=147653 |date=2011-10-01 }} ''Dagen'' March 1, 2003, retrieved July 26, 2011 {{in lang|sv}}</ref> During her period as party president, the party adopted [[feminism]] as an ideological basis. In 2003, she was charged with and later found guilty of misleading the tax authorities by attempting to take illicit [[tax deduction]]s.<ref>Åsa Kroon and Mats Ekström, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110927050050/http://www.oru.se/PageFiles/16240/4_06.pdf Vulnerable woman, raging bull or mannish maniac?: Gender differences in the visualization of political scandals]'', Working Paper 4, 2006, [[Örebro University]]: "Gudrun Schyman &mdash; Leader of the Left Wing Party 1993 – 2003," pp. 7–8, "The Schyman scandal," pp. 9–14 (pdf)</ref> She was temporarily succeeded by [[Ulla Hoffmann]].

In 2002, she made a controversial speech concerning men's oppression of women, in which she said "The discrimination and the violations appears in different shapes depending on where we find ourselves. But it's the same norm, the same structure, the same pattern, that is repeated both in the [[Taliban]]'s [[Afghanistan]] and here in Sweden".<ref name="Taliban">{{cite news | last = Sjölund | first = Jill | title = Jämo: Ni är ju som talibaner | newspaper = [[Aftonbladet]] | date = October 9, 2006 | url = http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/kvinna/story/0,2789,903144,00.html | language = sv | access-date = May 18, 2007 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061116200115/http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/kvinna/story/0,2789,903144,00.html | archive-date = November 16, 2006 }}</ref><ref name="TalibanText">[http://www.helgo.net/enar/politik/talibantalet.html Text of so-called "Taliban Speech" to 2002 Congress of the Left Party] {{in lang|sv}}</ref>

In October 2004, Schyman together with other MEPs of the Left Party proposed before the Riksdag, a national assessment of the cost of men's violence towards women; furthermore they demanded that the state fund [[women's shelters]].<ref>Gudrun Schyman ''et al''., [http://www.riksdagen.se/webbnav/?nid=410&doktyp=mot&rm=2004/05&bet=So616&dok_id=GS02So616 Motion 2004/05:So616 Ansvaret för mäns våld mot kvinnor], Sveriges Riksdag, October 5, 2004 {{in lang|sv}}</ref> The proposal attracted wide attention, with the media calling it a "man tax".<ref>[http://www.thelocal.se/468/20041005/ "Schyman in equality policy shock: tax men,"] ''The Local'' October 5, 2004, retrieved July 26, 2011.</ref>

==Founder of the Feminist Initiative==
Schyman left the Left Party in 2004, and in 2005 co-founded [[Feminist Initiative (Sweden)|Feminist Initiative]] (Fi), an organization which at its first congress decided to contest the coming parliamentary elections. [[Jane Fonda]] supported her in 2006, during the party's campaign prior to the [[2006 Swedish general election]]. Fi received only approximately 0.7% of the vote, well below the 4% threshold required for parliamentary representation. In the [[2009 European Parliament election in Sweden]], the party received 2.22% of the vote.<ref name=Europa>{{cite web |title=Val till Europaparlamentet - Röster |url=http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/slutresultat/rike/index.html |publisher=[[Election Authority (Sweden)]] |language=sv |date=June 11, 2009 |access-date=June 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100812001407/http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/slutresultat/rike/index.html |archive-date=August 12, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the summer leading up to the [[2010 Swedish general election]], Schyman burned 100,000 [[Swedish krona]] in a protest against unequal pay in Sweden. The stunt, staged by advertising collective [[Studio Total]], gave Fi widespread attention;<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10526907 | work=BBC News | title=Swedish feminists burn cash in wage equality protest | date=July 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=makthavare |url=https://makthavare.com/gudrun-schyman-branner-100000/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |language=sv-SE}}</ref> however, the party received only 0.4% of the vote in the election.<ref>{{cite web |title=Val till riksdagen - Röster|url=http://www.val.se/val/val2010/slutresultat/R/rike/index.html |publisher=Election Authority (Sweden)|language=sv|date=September 23, 2010 |access-date=July 26, 2011}}</ref>

The [[2014 European Parliament election in Sweden]] proved to be the party's most successful election so far; it attracted 5.3% of the national vote, with [[Soraya Post]] taking one seat as an [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]].<ref name="val.se">{{cite web|url=http://www.val.se/val/ep2014/valnatt/E/rike/index.html|title=Preliminary results of Swedish EU elections|access-date=2014-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528100311/http://www.val.se/val/ep2014/valnatt/E/rike/index.html|archive-date=2014-05-28|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the [[2014 Swedish general election]] Fi received 3.1% of the vote; despite still not meeting the 4.0% threshold for getting seats, it became the most popular party outside of the Riksdag.

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{commons category|Gudrun Schyman}}
{{Reflist}}

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{{Succession box|before=[[Lars Werner]]|title=[[Left Party (Sweden)|Leader of the Swedish Left Party]]|years=1993–2003|after=[[Ulla Hoffmann]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schyman, Gudrun}}
[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:21st-century Swedish women politicians]]
[[Category:Feminist Initiative (Sweden) politicians]]
[[Category:Leaders of political parties in Sweden]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag 1988–1991]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag 1991–1994]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag 1994–1998]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag 1998–2002]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006]]
[[Category:Members of the Riksdag from the Left Party (Sweden)]]
[[Category:People from Täby Municipality]]
[[Category:Swedish feminists]]
[[Category:Women members of the Riksdag]]