Equality between men and women is in focus politically, in working life and in the media. There is a noticeable desire from the Swedish government to create a working environment with equal opportunities for men and women. The equality law in Sweden is an indication of that goal. During its existence, the equality law has gone through several changes. The purpose of the changes has been to improve the work with equality among employers. Due to the interest from politicians and the media it is interesting to see the observance of the law in the working life today.

This thesis consists of two parts. The first part presents the history of the equality law, the law and the legislation of today. It also presents different suggestions of how the employer can put the law into practice. The second part consists of two empirical studies. The first study describes and analyses the present proposals to establish better gender equality from a selected company, and the second study consists of six interviews carried out with employees at the selected company.

To establish the legislation of today, the traditional jurisprudential method has been used, which means studies of the law, the preparatory works, the doctrine and the legal usage within the subject field. The main focus is on the preparatory works leading to the legislation of today. The limit has been set to the 4-13 paragraphs in the equality law, consisting of the active measures imposing the employer not only to follow the rules according to the law, but also to take action to strive towards an equal workplace. The active measures have gone through changes over the years, which have toughened the regulations. Today, employers must also take into account the employees´ life outside the workplace, for instance making it easier to combine work with parenthood. After establishing the legislation of today, a legal analysis was conducted.

In order to find out what the legislation has led to, an empirical study carried out at a selected company is included in the thesis. In the empirical study, the existing equality plan at the company and interviews with six employees are being studied. The interviews were carried out with both men and women in different positions in order to receive a broader perspective. The two empirical studies have been presented and then put together in an empirical analysis.

In the final analysis, the legal and empirical analysis has been integrated. The result show that it is not only the law which decides how the workplace deals with equality.