Norwegian Association of University Women Professional Women and Equality: a Scandinavian Perspectiv

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Norwegian Association of University
WomenProfessional Women and Equalitya
Scandinavian PerspectiveBergen, 4-5 June 2004

• Friday, June 4, 1400-1600
• The Effect of Equality Laws on Women with Higher
  Education Issues
• 20 min input to panel discussion
• Ragnhild Sohlberg, Ph.D.

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Norwegian Laws and some consequences (1)

• Women and men must have the same rights,
  obligations, and opportunities in all essential
  areas of life.
• Marriage Act. 1991.
• Relatively liberal welfare policies.
• Two revolutions
• Late 1960s-1970s Large number of women into the
  paid labor force
• Early 1980s Young women poured into tertiary
  education.

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Some consequences (2)

• Among the highest female labor force
  participation rates in OECD.
• Today women constitute 60 of university students
• Majority of mothers makes use of the maternity
  leave (up to one year or more)
• Majority of fathers takes four weeks (or more)
  paternity leave
• Probability of getting a third child if already
  has two is higher the more education the mother
  has (unique in the world?)

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So -- what is the problem?

• Where are the women?
• Changing demographic patterns
• Educational choice of women
• Women in industrial research http//europa.eu.int/
  comm/research/wir
• Insufficient recruitment to science and
  technology
• Under-representation of women (not so much in
  Scandinavia)
• Industry does not fully realize the business case
  of having and utilizing a diverse pool of talents
• Lack of reliable, comparable data (incl. time
  series)
• Some unintended consequences
• Other issues

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• NorwayPaid employment
• (Annual avg., 2002)

Kilde Stat.Årbok, tabell 243
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Women's Power and Influence

• Business and industry,
• mainly indirectly
• politics, authorities
• Economic
• market-/purchasing power
• Educational and occupational
• choice of youth
• mothers, kindergarten,
• schools, advisors

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Live Births Norway 1935-2003
71
22
-25
Source SSB, Historisk Statistikk
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Changing workforce
Age
Experience and well educated

• 2000

?
Education boom
Changing career patterns?
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Norway Full-time high school science teachers
(2002)
Over 50 yrs of age 1.10.98 52 1.10.02 62
2002 n 2903 62 1800! ?Replacement
needs!
Kilde AAD
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• Norsk Hydro ASA
• Individually salaried (1.Jan .2001, Norway only)

Unless specific actions are taken, these will
block advancement for younger professionals
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• Large age cohorts retiring.
• Few young men and women select ST!!
• (2000)

ST science and technology
Source "Key data on education in Europe", EU
(Aftenposten 9 feb. 2003)
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Women graduates in tertiary education (2000)
Source WIR-report
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(No Transcript)
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• Female researchers in industrial research

Source EUROSTAT 1999. Norway NIFU, 2000
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Some unintended consequences

• Significant change for men and women
• Dual careers (careers in conflict)
• Time squeeze (dual work)
• Problem balancing work/family/leisure/community
  participation
• The family as an institution had changed
• What happens to the children?

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Other issues

• Male (older generation) norms
• Not all women are mothers of small children --
  and never for 40 years!
• The "three o'clock" problem ...or "four o'clock"?
• Fathers are also parents -- and husbands, and
  sons
• Everyone, even singles, need "personal time"

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• What can be done?
• Examples of policies and practices

• Gender mainstreaming "Visioning", etc
• Sex-disaggregated statistics, data
• Monitoring, evaluating, auditing
• Gender impact assessments
• Gender balance in decision-making
• Role models, visibility, mentoring
• Family-friendly policies, incl. lifecycle career
  planning and development, career breaks,
  flexibility and part-time work

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• ... and...

• Commitment from the top
• Expertise, training, awareness raising
• Incentives and reporting mechanisms
• Retention and promotion reviews,exit surveys
• Assessing improvements in organizational culture
• Appropriate resources (investment)
• Infrastructure (child care, eldercare, etc.)
• Cooperation Men and women
• Measure more than pure numbers

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Thank you for your attention!