Yvonne Svanström (Department of Economic History, Stockholm University) describes the debates as being heavily gendered. Men tended to argue that this was a social, not criminal, matter, and that the bill intruded on self-determination, while the women argued that prostitution was incompatible with a social order embracing gender equity. They saw prostitution as patriarchal oppression, and therefore, not a free will choice, although there was less unanimity over what should be done. The uniqueness of the proposal was emphasised, all of which took place at an ideological level, with no appeal to empiricism, which was explicitly rejected.