The online publication Nordic Labour Journal recently put focus on gender equality in public life under the headline "Gender equality in the Nordic region - vision or reality?"
The journal has looked at which positions of power women have manage to take within the public sector since 1970. Female representation
in governments, trade unions, employers organisations and other symbolically important positions has been analysed.
Nordic women have filled all but two of the positions of political power: no Nordic country has as yet had a female arch bishop
or a female commander-in-chief. But the women are hardly taking over power. Using their own power barometer model, the writers
state that female representation only scores 58 out of possible 100 points.
The gender segregated labour market is also addressed together with women's longstanding political campaigning for the right
to full-time work.
Motherhood vs career logic rules
In the research article "Motherhood vs career logic rules", Sigtona Halrynjo from the Work Research Institute in Oslo, highlights a paradox where vision and reality collide: Even
when a highly educated woman with a highly educated partner works more and shares family work more equally with her partner
than other women do, there is still some way to go before she can enjoy full gender equality in her career and in her share
of home and care responsibilities, she writes. In her dissertation "Mothers and fathers meet the rules of career logic" Sigtona
Halrynjo finds no diffence in the career building between men and women without children, but differences emerge as soon as
parenthood gets involved.
Family-friendly measures can be important to improve employees' work-life balance. But if these measures are being used systematically
more by women than men there's also the danger that they will contribute to the traditional work-life division between the
sexes, writes Sigtona Halrynjo, who also took part in a debate arranged by the Equality and Anti-discrimination ombud in Norway
the 8th of March. The point of departure for the debate was the British sociologist Catherine Hakims disputed claims that
the Nordic gender equality politics has proven to be counterproductive and prevents women from pursuing their careers.
