The Nordic countries are no longer the best in the world

By Kirsti Niskanen

NIKK was commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2008 to conduct a Nordic comparison of gender and power in politics and business. The project has identified and analyzed women's and men's representation in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and the autonomous territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. What have we discovered?

A first observation is that it is no longer evident that the Nordic countries come out on top with regard to gender development in parliamentary representation. In a global perspective, a post-conflict country such as Rwanda, with a female majority in parliament (56%), has overtaken all the Nordic countries (disregarding all other differences). Several countries in the Global South (South Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica), with over or just under 40% female participation in parliaments, are approaching the Nordic countries (Dahlerup 2009). The previous Nordic comparison, "Equal Democracies?" ("Likestilte demokratier?") was published ten years ago. At that time, the representation of women in the Nordic parliaments was between 25% and 43%, and the Nordic countries emerged as the region in the world with the greatest gender equality. Today, women constitute between 38% and 47% of the MPs in the Nordic countries' parliaments, but it is no longer self-evident that the Nordic countries are best in class. Other countries are catching up and challenging the Nordic image as the world's most equal region.

Another observation in this project is that gender issues have not been resolved in the Nordic countries. The municipal sector is an example. Political representation in all the countries is less equal in local government than at the national level. The proportion of women local councillors varies between 27% in Denmark and 42% in Sweden. A look at management levels in local government gives a clear picture of how gender equality is lagging behind. There is a strong male dominance. In Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden between 70% and 80% of the local councillors are men. Denmark is a special case, where the strong male predominance of mayors became even more marked after the municipal reform in 2006. Today there are almost no women (only 7%) at this political level in the Danish municipalities.

Diplomacy is a male dominated area, but there are some interesting changes underway. The proportion of female ambassadors (excl. ambassadors to international organizations) in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway has risen from very low levels (between 3% and 10% in the mid-1990s) to around 15% in Denmark and Iceland, and to almost 30% in Finland and Norway. The Swedish figures also point in the same direction: the proportion of women heads of embassies and ambassadors in international agencies has increased from 10% to over 30% since the mid-1990s. So the situation in the diplomatic service may be about to change. In Finland in the 2000s, women were over represented in the Foreign Ministry's training courses, and in Norway the gender balance among trainees been relatively steady in recent years.

The overall impression is, nevertheless, that the crucial difference lies between positions that are highly visible and characterised by transparency, such as parliamentary politics, and the less visible positions where gender issues are not monitored as intensively, or not at all.

Politics are helping business

Illustrationphoto: Colourbox

Another important - but hardly surprising - result of the project is the continued male dominance in business. The project has focused on listed and state-owned companies and their management structures, but has not studied other Nordic businesses. As far as possible, the researchers also compared changes over time. While progress has been made, there are large differences between the countries.

Today there are between 7% and 36% of women on the boards of listed companies, compared with 4-9% in the late 1990s. The figures are higher in the public corporations, because they are generally influenced by the equality laws' provisions on gender parity of at least 40% of each sex on the board and in senior management. There women now constitute between one quarter and just under half of the board members, against 20% to 30% ten years ago. It is clear that politics contribute to more equality in business.

It is best in Norway where, helped by five years of quotas, the proportion of women on the boards of listed companies has risen to 36%, from 9% in 2004. Second best is Sweden, where the so-called code on corporate governance led to a rise in the proportion of women in the listed companies' boards to 19% in 2008, from 4% in the late 1990s.

But the picture is less bright, even in Norway and Sweden, if you look at the entire management structure in listed companies. There is a shortage of women in CEO positions and in management teams. The conclusion is that although the gender debate started in the business world and it has been a hot mass media issue at times, and although state-owned corporations led the way, there is still a long way to go before we really start seeing results in the private sector. Gender equality measures in business are often - with the exception of ASA, the Norwegian quota - aimed at increasing the number of female applicants for management positions. It remains to be seen when the business community will begin to demand women managers, in the same way as the political world does today (Göransson 2009).

So far – but no further!

Parliamentary politics in the Nordic region is a gender equality success story, based on the assumption that a proportion of 40–60% from each gender constitutes balanced representation. The Nordic governments are also relatively gender-balanced, as is the proportion of women and men in parliamentary committees and most other parliamentary leadership positions. There are now female party leaders in every country - even in some of the major parties - and we have seen women ministers in the traditionally male-dominated posts such as defence, economic and business affairs, as well as foreign policy. State companies, and the Norwegian ASA companies, are the vanguard of increased gender equality in business.

The gender problem in these fields is about systematic, but more subtle, differences. There are women and men in different functions and positions. It is most common that men are over represented and women are under represented in policy areas such as defence, and economic and business affairs. The opposite applies to areas such as social affairs, culture, education and gender equality. An example can be taken from parliamentary committees. If you look at the gender composition of committees on the basis that women constitute 50% or more of the committee members, we see that social functions such as culture and education are almost always women's issues. On the other hand prestigious areas such as economic and business affairs are dominated by men. In addition, women are in the majority in committees in areas such as employment (Denmark and Sweden), the environment (Finland and Iceland), justice (Norway and Sweden) and foreign policy (Iceland and Norway).
Horizontal gender division of labour in business is difficult to chart. However, our preliminary results suggest that the higher proportion of women in senior positions is primarily found in financial and service companies, and in the health services. Previous research also shows that men are over represented and women are under represented in middle management during recruitment for CEO positions (Göransson 2009).

It is important to draw attention to this kind of horizontal division of labour. Some researchers argue that women's over representation in political social functions can be seen as an expression of their wishes (Dahlerup 2009 Wägnerud 1999). Others argue that there is no indication that women are not willing to take their place in the most prestigious positions in committee hierarchy (Holli-Saari 2009:41). In a large European comparison of 27 countries no statistical difference between men's and women's preferences in the selection of the committee was found. The highest ranked primary elections were the same for both sexes: international politics, economics and fiscal policy (Drew 2000:61). This area requires further research.

In any case, one has to ask whether there is gender balanced representation in areas where women are always closer to 40% and men are closer to the 60% limit. Shouldn't we be striving for at least a 50-50 representation of either sex, before we can consider there is gender balanced representation? And is half women half men the new limit? Could we imagine a situation where 70-80-90% of women are in senior positions, as it has always been for men, without attracting attention?

What promotes equality?

One of the project's main findings is that the socio-political debate, coverage of gender issues and pressure from the women's movement is crucial to progress in gender equality. The project results show that the laws (in Sweden recommendations) which, since the late 1980s, proposed gender balanced representation on public boards, committees and boards have been effective. Similarly, pressure from women's organizations and feminist debaters since the 1970s and 1980s, more or less forced the political parties to review their internal party democracy and nomination practices.

The parties play a key role in the development of political representation - and this applies not only to women but also representation according to ethnic, LGBT, age issues etc. - since the parties nominate the candidates that voters can vote for and place them on elective or non-elective seats on their lists.

Gentlemen's club provokes

Party quotas (quotas on parties' internal bodies) and candidate quotas have been introduced by the centre and leftwing parties in all countries, except Finland. (In Denmark the quotas were put into practice by two parties but abolished quickly.) Competition between the political parties and the gender debates resulting from these measures have, in their turn, forced the entire political spectrum to respond to and take an active position on representation issues.

Similar pressure from the women's movement has not taken place for election to the boards of private companies. Consideration for business autonomy and respect for personal independence has set the framework for the gender discussion (Teigen 2009).

In Sweden, the gender development we have seen in the private sector is the result of the performance codes presented in 2004, which stipulate that companies should aim for balanced representation on the boards. So far this has met with moderate success. The results of the recent shareholders meetings in the spring, where women's representation in the boards of Swedish listed companies rose to 22%, caused Secretary of State Christer Hallerby to exclaim: "It is extremely provocative for large groups in society when a little gentleman's club, like companies' Nominating Committees, refuse to be influenced in any way by the public debate". He continues: "Legislative quotas are, however, a considerable encroachment on the internal affairs of free enterprise and should be avoided. The business community should resolve this issue itself, but it is no use to do nothing if you are trying to keep politics and politicians out of it."

Are quotas the solution?

Quotas in various forms have proven to be an effective door opener for more even distribution of power. But is it a panacea? Research demonstrates quite clearly that this is not the case. Mari Teigen shows that the Norwegian ASA quotas were imposed by the then conservative government under special circumstances when the government's legitimacy in gender issues was somewhat eroded and when changes in business structure played an important role. When the problem of gender issues in business was under discussion and they were few good solutions, it was easy to lean up against the Norwegian quota tradition.

Political science quota research also shows that the statutory quotas are a blunt instrument that should be carefully designed and safeguarded by rules that control its effects.

Is the Nordic region good at gender equality? The gender and power project shows that it is possible for women today to reach top positions in Nordic society, more so in parliamentary politics than in other areas. The project has not examined other aspects of social representation, such as ethnic background, age, disability, etc. An intersectional perspective would give rise to other types of power studies.

Kirsti Niskanen is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies and Research Director at NIKK. 

 

 

The article was first published in NIKK magasin 3.2009 © NIKK