I couldn’t help but notice the headlines on the paper opposite me the last week as I travelled the subway. If she hadn’t been reading the very article I would have been tempted to ask for a quick look – even in that is not the done thing in this country.

This photo, borrowed from another blog, shows the headline which translates to Cohabitees – get married! It is interesting that the original article in not available on DN, where it was published and there seems to be more talk about how DN don’t usually exhort to telling us what to do privately than the contents of the article.

Nonetheless, I didn’t get to read the original article but reacted anyway to the headlines…. My reaction is on two levels, one to do with the lack of equal status, the other to do with the journalist’s recommendation.

Now if this was a conservative country I would understand that cohabitation was not equal to marriage in the eyes of the law, but it is not. Cohabitation (samboende) has been around and socially accepted for over 40 years. I know couples in their 70s who comfortably lived together, before getting married. These days it is the norm and many NEVER bother to get married, despite not being protected by the law. Some 50% of Scandinavian children are supposedly born to unwed couples.

I see the difference between my friends here and those in Australia and Canada where pretty much anyone who has take the step to buy property and have children together is married. Even if they aren’t they have long been considered equal in the eyes of the law – so much so that the cohabbitee relationship can legally override a will.

The comparison has astounded me for years. A society that accepts cohabitation or common-law marriages but does not protect them legally VS societies where they are not as socially acceptable yet completely protected by the law. Explain that one!

The other thing that astounds me is the constant warnings to couples to get married and there are any number of Swedish articles out there saying the same thing. Isn’t it time that the law changed? Seems to me it’s well overdue!

Maria Crofts in her article in DN gives an example: woman moves into man’s home. They share the mortgage, interest payments and running costs yet if he dies the property is in his name and is left to his children, his parents or his siblings. She has no automatic right to it. If they separate the property is in his name and is his possession.

It’s a scary scenario – especially after 10, 20 or 40 years, especially if she has moved from another country to be with him. She’s suddenly out in the cold. Yet why do Maria Crofts and countless other journalists use their energy telling us to get married? Shouldn’t they be telling the government its time to change the law?

Examples of other articles (Swedish) just this year:
web.vigsel.nu
Dalarnas Tidning
Aftonbladet

More information about the legal implications of cohabitation: The Cohabitees Act