“It is in the interests of society as a whole that women's values and women's sense of justice be integrated into political life.“
Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland 1986 when she announced the first “women’s Government”
9 women out of 19 Cabinet members. She set a new standard.
Women in power today: some key figures
Political participation
Parliament/Storting
The proportion of female representatives in the Storting rose sharply from the end of the 1960s to the end of the 1990s.
After elections 2005: Parliament 38 per cent women; 62 per cent men
Government
Members of Cabinet 10 men 9 women (47 per cent women 53 per cent men)
Including State secretaries and political advisers: 50-50
Municipal level
Municipal councils (2003-2007): 36 per cent women 64 per cent men
Mostly male mayors: 17 per cent women 83 per cent men
Only 73 of Norway's 434 mayors (chairmen of municipal councils) are women, 83 per cent of these posts are held by men.
The number of female mayors increased at almost every election in the 1990s, from 55 in 1991. Number of female deputy mayors was twice as high as the number of mayors.
County councils
42 per cent women 58 per cent men
County mayors: 12 men 6 women
Sami Parliament (established 1989)
2001: 82 per cent male representatives (32 men out of 39 members)
After the 2005 elections: 51 per cent women 49 per cent men!
The President is a woman, Aili Keskitalo
Management positions
State sector (ministries and public agencies): 34, 5 per cent women 65, 5 per cent men
Publicly appointed boards and committees: 44 per cent women 56 per cent men
Judiciary: Percentage of women varies from 27 to 32 depending on level (High Court 32 per cent)
The police: 11 per cent women 89 per cent men
The Church: 19 per cent women ministers, 3 of 12 bishops are women
Foreign Service
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 1430 employees, 52 per cent are women.
In senior positions, 24 per cent are women
15 out of 100 Foreign Service missions have a woman head of mission
Norwegians working for international organisations:
172 women 259 men
Among junior experts recruited to UN agencies in 2005, 35 women, 10 men
Academic life
The leaky pipeline:
64 per cent women among graduates
46 per cent women research fellows
16 per cent women professors
Private sector
Top management:
22 per cent women 78 per cent men
Middle management:
27 per cent women 73 per cent men
Board members limited public companies:
17 per cent women 83 per cent men
2 out of 3 women are in paid employment. But many work part-time
3 out of 5 students at universities and university colleges are women
Roughly as many women as men have higher education (whole population). But women and men's choice of studies follows traditional patterns.
It was not always like this! And it did not happen by itself.
History
The 1814 Constitution modelled on the French Revolution and Freedom, equality, brotherhood.
Women’s rights gradually recognised and achieved during the 1800s and 1900s.
1854: Same rights of inheritance for sons and daughters. Earlier, sons inherited twice as much as their sisters.
1974: daughters obtain the same right to take over the family farm as sons
Rights to education:
1882: Women are given the right to higher secondary education
1884: Access to University education
Women’s rights movement:
1884: The Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights is founded
1889: The National Women’s Suffrage Association is founded
Differences between a working women’s movement and a bourgeois women’s movement
Early demands and issues:
• Political rights
• The right to paid employment and to equal pay
• Reproductive health and rights
1913: All women gain the right to vote and to stand for election (limited rights as of 1901)
1921: First woman elected into Stortinget
1925: First woman elected mayor
1945: First woman member of Cabinet (consultative member for care of prisoners and refugees)
1948: First woman Minister in charge of a Ministry (Health and Social Affairs)
Rights in marriage:
1888: Married women retain majority and have the right to separate ownership
1915: Children’s rights safeguarded, whether their parents are married or not
1920: The phrase stating that”A women must obey her husband” removed from the Marriage Service.
1927: A new marriage act established a principle of equal economic and legal rights to husband and wife. Paid and unpaid work recognised as equal contributions in case of divorce.
1937: Mandatory allowance in cases of divorce
Reproductive health and rights:
• Family planning services
• safe and legal abortion
1913: Demand is voiced for decriminalisation of women after unlawful abortion
1924: First family planning and health centre for mothers established in Oslo –access to contraceptives
1936: The worker protection act provides 6+6 weeks maternity leave for working women
Further to working life
1939: High Court decides that marriage does not give cause for dismissal of a female employee
1959: Norway ratifies the ILO Convention no. 100 on equal pay, leading to the establishment of the Equal Pay Council
1961: Trade Unions and Employers federation conclude a framework agreement on equal pay for women and men. Differentiated tariffs for women and men are gradually abolished throughout the 1960s.
After 1945 and the conclusion of WW II,
Discriminatory laws and regulations are gradually abolished, giving women and men formally equal rights:
- Same teaching and curriculum for girls and boys (1959). 1971, a policy for promoting gender equality in schools.
- Gender-neutral wages (1961 onw.)
- access for women to public offices, including to the clergy (1956, 1952)
- citizenship rights (1950) disregarding nationality of spouse
- rights to retain your maiden name (1964)
- economic rights for unmarried mothers (1966)
The second wave feminist movement starting in the late 1960s.
The main issues set the agenda for the 1970s and 1980s (partly still on-going):
- Sexual liberation and reproductive choice (access to contraceptives)
- Right to paid employment and economic independence
- 6 hours working day
- Day care for all children
- Fighting pornography and prostitution
- Combating violence against women
Culminating in 1978:
Abortion Act: Reproductive rights and sexual integrity are essential for equal opportunities in all other spheres.
Gender Equality Act: non-discrimination, but particularly promoting women
- encompassing all social sectors (working life, education, organisations)
- obliging public authorities to promote gender equality in all social sectors
- Enforcement by the Equal Status Ombud.
A national machinery for the advancement of women and gender equality; Ministry Dept., Ombud, Equal Status Council
Drivers for change:
Strong coalitions between the women’s NGOs, women in academia, and women in political parties and in the state administration. Including strong and influential individual women, such as Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Karin Stoltenberg.
Discovery of oil and development of the welfare state – at one time creating employment opportunities and offering services necessary to free women’s time for work outside the home
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg July 2006:
“We became prosperous because we developed the welfare state. The greatest gains countries can achieve, economically as well politically, come with empowering women, ensuring equal opportunity, health care, and increasing the ratio of women’s active participation in working life.
Empowering women is a competitive advantage.
Building kindergartens is a competitive advantage.
Improving women’s educational opportunity is a competitive advantage.
Those countries are most competitive and yield the best economic performance which offer women the most equal opportunity.
And those countries who manage to overcome existing cultural impediments to such policies - be it in the North or in the South, - are going to grow and prosper.
This is our experience. And hard figures support my conclusions.”
The UN Women’s Decade 1975-1985, Nairobi Forward-looking strategies and Beijing Platform for action: set the agenda
Active State policies for gender equality
Action plans for gender equality 1980-1984 and 1985-1989:
- education, including higher education
- employment and economic independence
- political participation
- family policy
- mobilising all ministries and policy areas for gender equality
- what about the men?
Family policy/harmonising work and family
- Child care
- Paid and unpaid parental leave
- Flexible working hours
- Part-time work (a sex-segregated
labour market)
- A father’s quota in the parental rights scheme
Fertility:
Approx. 1, 8 children per woman
EU average fertility rate is 1, 5
More than 50 per cent of children are born out of wedlock.
A combination of targeted measures and a mainstreaming strategy
- Quotas for women (Gender equality act para 21)
- Electoral campaigns before municipal elections
- Ear-marked positions for women in academic positions
- Campaigns and incentives to promote non-traditional career choices
- gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting
An active but more fragmented civil society movement:
The crisis centre movement
- family violence
- rape
- incest
Professional women’s organisations
Women workers’ movement/unions
Women’s branches of political parties
Women’s international solidarity organisations (FOKUS)
Women and gender research centres becoming more academic
The main achievement since 2000:
legislation on gender representation in state owned and public limited companies- minimum 40-60 distribution of either sex
Remaining challenges:
re-distribution of power and care, inequalities in representation and distribution of resources
o ownership
o pay and income. 2 out of 3 women are employed, but there are gender disparities in working time and income
o sex-segregation horizontal and vertical
o representation of women and men; in the economy, in care – paid and unpaid
- Tackling gender based violence, including FGM, forced marriages, sexual harassment
- Tackling multiple discrimination and inter-sectionality. Norway has become a more pluralistic society
- Reorganising the national machinery; the Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombud (2006)