The report describes the results of the survey – the changing, uneven and partially conflicting gender equality developments among men and women today. The survey “Gender Equality and Quality of Life” has a sample of 2,805 women and men, who answered a questionnaire with 350 questions and statements on gender equality in spring 2007. The response rate was 41 percent.
The task of the research team was to design a study of men and women on men’s attitudes to and understanding of gender equality in relationships, the family, working life and society. The study should also augment the knowledge base for a future parliamentary report on men, and it should update knowledge in relation to prior research, especially the survey “Men in Norway 1988” (MN88).
A selection of the main results from the study:
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Around 60 per cent of the men say that it is important to have a job that can be combined with having children and a family.
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A development is discernible in that the father is seen as a less stern figure in the lives of the children than earlier.
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Most employees in gender-segregated jobs would like better gender balance at work. This is true of three of four women in female-dominated occupations, and two of three men in male-dominated occupations.
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About 80 per cent of the men and 70 per cent of the women say equality in their homes is “very” or “rather” good.
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While 75 per cent of the women who think gender equality in the home is very good, are very pleased with life together with their partner, only 34 per cent of those who think equality in the home is “neither good nor poor” are very pleased.
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Among the fathers who had been home alone with their child during their parental leave, there is an increasing proportion who think this has resulted in better contact with the child later.
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Two out of three think that today’s equality work mostly benefits the successful ones in society.
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More men than women experience violence outside of the home, both as perpetrators and victims.
The study was financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Equality. The work was carried out by a project team composed in co-operation between the Nordic Gender Institute (NIKK) and the Work Research Institute (WRI). The team was led by Øystein Gullvåg Holter, NIKK, and included Helge Svare and Cathrine Egeland, WRI. The project commenced in the autumn of 2006, with data collection conducted by TNS Gallup during April-May 2007. The project team was supervised by a broad-based reference group.
The report was originally published in a larger Norwegian version, revised and shortened here.
