Feminist Men's Group Got 100 Million in Tax Money - Now Faces Harassment Scandal

STOCKHOLM - A Swedish feminist men's organisation that trains workplaces, schools and government agencies on sexual harassment is now facing harassment complaints of its own - and critics say the taxpayer money should stop.

The organisation, called MÄN (Swedish for "Men"), describes itself as feminist and "anti-racist" and says it works against men's violence and what it calls destructive masculinity norms. Over the past three years it has received more than 100 million kronor - roughly 9 million dollars - in public money.

According to the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, several women warned the board early this year about unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate behaviour by a man in a senior position. More than eight months passed before an external investigation was launched. In the meantime the man kept working, while women who felt uncomfortable around him were told to work from home.

As recently as this summer, the board expressed "continued confidence" in him. A female manager who backed the women was let go with immediate effect. The man has not been convicted of any crime and says there are claims he does not recognise.

Two major funders are now reacting. The Swedish Inheritance Fund, which has paid out more than 23 million kronor since 2022, has opened a review. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, which has handed over 32.5 million, has asked for a meeting. The Swedish Gender Equality Agency met MÄN as late as September and asked whether anything could affect its right to state grants. The answer, the agency says, was no.

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"A total fake project"

Swedish philosopher and author Alexander Bard, today a member of the Liberal party, told Samnytt the whole premise is upside down.

"It's as if Alexander Bard started an organisation called WOMEN, in capital letters. Just men telling women how women have to be. And then we get taxpayer money to run it. It's completely insane," he said.

"MÄN is a total fake project from start to finish. They shouldn't get one more krona of taxpayer money. It should be shut down. Men can speak for men. Women can speak for women."

Bard stressed that he does not know what the man at the centre of the affair has done. His criticism is aimed at the organisation itself. "It's not strange that this happens at a workplace like that. The premise is sick. Pathological."

"Captain Dress"

Sweden has a notorious precedent. Former regional police chief and head of the national police academy Göran Lindberg built a public reputation as a champion of gender equality inside the police and was nicknamed "Kapten Klänning" - "Captain Dress". In 2010 he was convicted of aggravated rape, procuring and assault, among other crimes, and the appeals court sentenced him to six years in prison.

There is no comparable verdict against the man in MÄN, and the accusations against him remain accusations.

Men's-issues debater Mikael Lundström borrows a term from Canadian professor Gad Saad, author of The Parasitic Mind, for men who loudly perform feminist values to win women's trust. "If you call yourself a feminist men's organisation and paint men as a problem and as violent, you will attract a certain type of man who at least says he supports those values," he told Samnytt.

Asked whether the loudest male feminist can sometimes be the man women have most reason to watch, Lundström answered: "Absolutely."

"What did the money go to?"

Lundström believes the board saw the warning signs and chose to sweep them under the rug. When reporters started asking questions, MÄN brought in a crisis PR consultant from the agency Prime to help draft the board's answers.

"The fact that you need a PR consultant - it has already gone too far," he said. "Put your cards on the table. List the mistakes you made and how you will fix them."

He says Swedish authorities were "enchanted" by the right gender-equality vocabulary without checking what was behind it - while support for male victims of domestic violence and for men struggling with suicide gets almost nothing.

"If you put over 100 million into an organisation that doesn't seem to exist to help men, and now turns out - at least below the surface - not to help women either, what did the money go to? It's a terribly bad priority."

Whether or not the man is guilty, Lundström says, "the organisation's handling has been terrible."