Magazine / Society / Women / Article | 31/03/2008

Women-friendly Nordic societies?

The nordic countries are regarded as being role-model countries when it comes to equal rights of men and women. What, however, does the situation really look like? Solveigh Bergmann gives an account of her long-time experiences of a women-reseacher.

In many ways, the five countries in the far north of Europe (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) are in the forefront of what can be counted as measurements of gender equality: women's political representation and labour market activity, childcare and family-friendly policies and fathers' rights and obligations as carers. Active labour market policies and generous welfare policies, combined with a long history of high numbers of women in political assemblies and governments, have developed positively during several decades, with the result that the Nordic countries mostly top international rankings on gender equality.

Photo: iStockphoto

Nordic women's entry into politics, education and working life since the 1970s and 1980s and the continued emphasis on gender equality in the public debate and policy-making is a result of a comprehensive equality project that has mobilised women and feminists and has received support from the state. Feminist academics coined the concept of "Nordic state feminism" to describe the close link between feminism and the (welfare) state. The concept was largely held to be synonymous with state interventionism aimed at the emancipation of women and the creation of "women-friendly" politics. This state feminism has been characterized by a close affiliation between feminism, the state, institutionalised politics and research.

Today, gender equality is a superior frame for the discourse of gender in the public debate in the Nordic countries and there is a broad political consensus about the significance of gender equality for societal wellbeing. During the past few decades, a political will has existed across Nordic societies to pursue gender equality through childcare and parental leave policies that encourage mothers to take up paid work. More recently, this "working mothers' policy" has been complemented by an emphasis on fathers' rights and duties in respect to child care and shared parenthood. Below, I will discuss Nordic family policies from a gender equality perspective. First, however, I wish to discuss some of the "shadows in the women-friendly paradise".

Shadows in the Paradise

Despite the achievements in embedding gender equality in public policies, the Nordic countries are characterized by gender equality paradoxes and policy inconsistencies. This can be seen e.g. in the distinct gendered division of labour in both the public and the private spheres. The Nordic countries have a highly segregated labour market, both horizontally and vertically. Women are more likely to work in the public sector (where leave arrangements are more generous and attitudes more family-friendly), men in the private sector (where pay on average is higher). The high occupational segregation, combined with persistent gender differences in salaries, often surprises outside observers. They assume that the commitment to gender equality would be reflected in greater labour market equality.

It is clearly shown by empirical data on the gender composition in a number of societal institutions and organizations that male dominance is a persistent and core principle governing the construction and constitution of gender relations in the modern Nordic societies. Men dominate in the core leadership positions in practically all the fields, perhaps with the exception of national politics. Male dominance is marked in business life, the church and the military, to a somewhat lesser extent so in academia and cultural life, and least so in politics.

During the last three decades a significant change in the gender composition has taken place in the political institutions. According to recent figures from the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) the Nordic countries continue to elect the highest number of women to their parliaments. Their regional average is currently 41.4 per cent. The Finnish and the Swedish parliaments can boast more than 40 percent women membership. In the governments the Nordic states today have an average of 47.5 per cent women. Two countries in the world, Finland and Norway, have surpassed the 50 per cent mark for women in ministerial positions.

Business life shows a strikingly different picture and there are few examples on active measures that have managed to alter the gender composition. There is, however, one important exception: In an effort to promote the representation of women in boardrooms, Norway has introduced legislation obliging publicly held companies to have a minimum of 40 per cent women on their governing boards by 2008.

What is particularly interesting is that while the Nordic countries have been willing to deal with the structural problems of women´s inequal position in the labour market, they have been much more hesitant and slow to deal with another structural problem: men's violence against women. This problem was earlier recognized by the state in liberal welfare states such as the UK or in conservative continental welfare states such as Germany. This attitude has largely changed, but it is still puzzling how difficult it has been to take up issues around men's violence on the political agenda.

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