The Political Economy of Equality,
Nordic seminar
Prague 15th June 2013
Arni Hole
Director General
Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion
Norway
The Nordic Cooperation is one of the
oldest regional cooperations in the
world
• 11 Councils of Ministers from 5 countries and three
self-goverened areas
• A Nordic Parlamentarian Council
• One of the NCMs is on gender equality; it has been
with us for more than 30 years
• We have joined projects, programmes, research,
bench-marking, lessons learned, coop towards the
UN, etc.
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The Nordic Lessons: Norway
• In short:
• To fullfill human rights is smart economy
• Sustainability of the welfare society depends on full
participation of women and men in the labour
force, everyone in a tax position
• Taxation principles and a facilititating State as a
redistributor of income (to persons and
municipalities)
• Strong trade unions and employers federations;
bound in a ”Main Agreement” for tripartite
cooperation since 1935
• Collective bargaining on wages; small differences in
payment pr.hour
• Relatively small social differences
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Continued…
• A plethora of laws and regulations working
together, to ensure personal freedom of choice; not
to be interdepentedent within the family, whether
spouse or child
• Women not squeezed between child care and
elderly care; most care work is professionalized
and transformed into paid jobs
• No means testing of loans for higher education
• Possiblities for both men and women to choose
work and career; not beeing forced to choose
”either – or”
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Continued…
• Genereous investments in families; paid parental
leave (incl fathers’ quota), full coverage of early
child care to an affordable price, right to stay at
home with pay when the cild is ill (10 days pr
parent pr year up to the child is 12)
• After school provisions for children up to 12
• Sufficient support to single providers and
programmes to enable them to work-life
participation
• Family planning, reproductive health care
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Norwegian experiences, over the last
35 years
• Today: 79 % of women between 16
and 66 years of age, have gainful
employment (59 % in the EU)
• Hardly any left in the informal
economy, not even in agriculture;
hardly any ”housewives”
• Appr.40% of the women work parttime,1/10 of this is involuntarely
• Only 14 % of the men choose parttime
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Continued…
• Part-time is an important right
(Working Environment Law), and
made an entrance to the labour
market for many women 35 years
back
• before full coverage of early child care
institutions was a reality
• when paid parental leave was only 12
weeks and no father’s ”quota” like
today
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Most important : The National
Insurance Scheme
• The National Insurance Scheme, by law and
by joint venture between State, employers,
employees and self-employed (all parties
paying taxes into a sustainable Insurance
Fund, wisely investing for revenues and the
future )
• Introduced in 1966 (before we struck oil !),
covering most social issues, replacing several
oldfashioned social benefits laws and
introducing new welfare schemes
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Continued about the Insurance Scheme
• The National Insurance Scheme
covers health insurance for all, sick
leave, insurance unemployment
benefits , disability benefits, old age
care, minimum pensions for all (fixed
and one earns pensionspoints on top –
by working),paid parental leave after
birth
• The State will pay the deficit. The tax
amount to the Insurance Scheme is
discussed every year by the social
partners and in Parliament
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One excample of positive
economic circles while building the
welfare…
• Expanding the Early Child Care Sector has
created thousands of new jobs, all over Norway,
the last 15 years: More persons in tax position,
more women ”freed” to paid work and more
taxes back to the common good. (And:
Reasonably high fertility in an ageing Europe)
• Half of all the institutions are privately owned
and operated (non-profit organizations mostly);
the expansion gave a boost to job-creation and
social innovation; many female entrepreneurs
• All early child care institutions recieve large
subsidies if they comply with the Act and the
standards set for quality
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Taxes: progressive taxing
• Deduction for parents with children
below 12 years of age; ”investment in
the future”
• Special deduction if having care for
cronically ill children
• Personal deduction (everyone)in
ordinary income; to even out the tax
burden: if small income, less tax
• Spouses are taxed independently – as
a main rule; it shall pay to work
• Single providers have more personal
deduction
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Social trust and radical individualism
• Those two notions are not paradoxical, but
at the very heart of the Norwegian model of
political economy
• The facilitating State, enabling every person
to make adequate choices, gives a high
individual autonomy
• The many laws and welfare schemes
have reduced, over the years, the
interdependency within the family and
empowered women
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Women’s rights are human rights
• To fullfill human rights is sustainable
economy
• To enable youth and all grown persons to
participate in society and the formal
economy, increases democracy and the
GNP;
• increases any nation’s competitive edge.
• Talents are evenly divided among the
genders, we must employ all talents
• We must harvest the return on
investments in higher education; on
individual as well as societal levels
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Why legal affirmative actions ?
• Norway differs slightly from the other Nordic
Countries (except Iceland) in using radical
affirmative actions in several fields:
– § 21 in the Gender Equality Act requiring 40 %
of each gender in all governmental appointed
committees, councils, working groups etc (since
1988)
– Same requirement in the Municipal Act from
1993: All committees or task forces app. by the
elected Municipal Council, shall have no less
than 40 % of each gender
– The Father’s quota in the paid parental leave
scheme , not transferable to the mother; since
1993, now 14 weeks
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Continued…
• Amendments to five different company laws in
2003, most wellknown are the Public Ltd
Companies, listed on the Stock Exchange with a
requirement of 40 % of each gender when electing
board of governors (non-executives)
• Two more company types regulated in 2008 and
2009
• Positive duties for both private and public sectors
to work for equality and report annually; since
2003 regarding Gender Equality (later also for
other discrimination grounds)
• Instructions to do gender analyses of the State
budgets (since 2005) and report annually to
Parliament
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The need to reach equality in outputs,
not only securing formal equal rights
and equal chances
• The use of strong affirmative actions are debated,
but effective; we do annual measuring trough
indicators
• In some areas , like the pre-school college
admissions and veterinary sciences, we are giving
young men ”gender points”
• We have ’quotas’ for admissions to some studies:
In datatechnology with 30 places for women at the
Natural Sciences and Technical University, 15
places for women within ICT
• 2 extra points for women applying to BA studies in
engieneering, agricultural sciences, maritime
engineering and some others
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We can display equality in results…it
changes images of genders and alter
people’s behaviour and choices
• The Norwegian society profits from a better gender
balance in all sectors, since we profit on all talents
• Gender balance ”in real life” decompose gender
stereotypes
• The working environment in the enterprises and
public institutions profit on gender balance
• The use of affirmative actions are not ”quick fixes”
or applicable (or legal )in all sphere
• We have some ways to go for more women in
executive top jobs (less than 20 %), women as
chairmen of the boards of large, listed companies, (
8 %), men in the care sector and kindergartens,
women officers in the Military Services; we cannot
use ”quota here….
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Fill the tool-box with legal and other
measures
• The possibilities to find tools are infinite…..
• Be sure to discuss the difference between equality
in chances and equality in oputputs… then define
your tools
• You need many types of strong legislation, securing
rights and family policies
• You need profound politicial will / a political
economy; across parties
• And close consulting with the social partners
• You need the issues of GE to be shared by both
women and men and youth
• GE is integrated in all sectorial policies; the sector
”produces” GE, never let the equality policies
appear as something for the ’special interested’ !
• Use media and ICT !
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