"GENDER MAINSTREAMING: COMPETITIVENESS AND GROWTH"

Conference 23-24 November 2000, OECD Paris

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN NORWAY

by Ms Karita Bekkemellem Orheim
Minister of Children and Family Affairs, NORWAY

Ladies and gentlemen

I am very pleased to be here and I would like to congratulate the organisers for this event and for bringing us all together.

Gender equality is a core dimension of democracy and human rights. Gender equality means all members of society are free to realise their full potential as human beings. This is a fundamental goal, and should not be reduced to a tool for reaching other objectives. But it is also important both for economic growth and social development. At this point I would like to stress the need for the OECD to integrate policies on gender equality in its analytical work in other areas.

I will give you a brief presentation of the two projects that were Norway’s contribution to the Nordic Mainstreaming project. I will go on to tell you about our current efforts to mainstream gender into the budget process. Finally, I will address the issue of gender balance in decision-making – in the private sector.

Norway’s contribution to the Nordic Mainstreaming project consisted of two separate projects. One project was based in the State employment agency. The means was an evaluation of existing measures for gender mainstreaming. The objective was to identify any need to adjust the strategy. To raise consciousness about gender equality was considered crucial, starting with the management level. Gender awareness was seen as a dimension of general management qualifications. The training programme for managers included training in gender sensitive leadership.

The second project aimed at incorporating the gender perspective in youth policy and was based in my own Ministry.
It included the following elements: raising gender issues in co-operation and contacts with the youth organisations; ensuring the equal visibility of girls and boys, in information activity; gender equality as a criteria for financial support, mobilising all the relevant actors, at all levels.

I think it is high time we take the challenge of tackling financial policy and budgets. Our budgets need to be gender proofed. I have started a process to ensure that the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs will be a model in this regard. In the budget proposition for next year gender equality is defined as a cross-cutting issue.

As a first step, three policy areas are being highlighted. These priorities are now reflected in the General Introduction that highlights the policy priorities of the Ministry.

As a result, Members of Parliament, and the general public may open the budget proposition and easily find out how gender equality is promoted as an integral part of youth policy, child care and consumer policy.

It is not my intention to limit the process to my own ministry. On the contrary, I will press for a decision in Government and have it adopted as a common approach for the national budget process. I believe this will be more easily accomplished once we have a model for how it can be done.

The way I see it, gender mainstreaming is a means to a better society for all; one that is more inclusive and more just. But it is our experience that more women in Parliament, in Government and in publicly appointed committees and boards of management have taken us important steps in the right direction.

The main reason why we have achieved a fairly good gender balance in these fields, is the use of quotas, based in the Gender Equality Act. All the major political parties have also adopted this as a guiding principle. This includes electoral lists and internal bodies of decision-making.

The use of quotas at first met with a lot of resistance, but has over the years come to be widely accepted. It is difficult to insist that quotas mean that less qualified women are appointed, once you know that personalities such as Gro Harlem Brundtland initially benefited from this practice.

The world of politics was attentive to the quota provision of the Gender Equality Act. We have NOT, however, seen a similar attitude on the part of the private sector. The number of women in the board-rooms in the private sector are few. The representation of women among top level management is unacceptably low.

Young women are more highly educated than men are. They take up paid work on par with men, but get less paid. They do not shy away from posts of responsibility in politics or in the public sector. A gender balance at all levels of companies is good for productivity, and improves the work environment. Do we accept that the boardrooms and decision-making in the fields of finances and economics are closed to women?

I have tried with soft measures, but the results are meagre. This is why I am preparing a Government proposition to expand the existing quota provision to include the private sector. The proposal will also include semi-public enterprises, which manage vital national resources such as oil, gas and electricity.

Not surprisingly, there is important resistance to the introduction of quotas in the private sector. As a first step, the quota provision will target the large enterprises, those that are noted at the stock exchange. The proposal may be presented for the Norwegian Parliament, Stortinget, as early as before the summer break 2001.

It is a reform that will help to realise the full potential of all members of society to contribute to economic growth and social development. Drawing upon our lessons from the political field, more women in the private boardrooms will facilitate gender mainstreaming of the private sector; enterprises, trade and investments, as well as the management of vital resources on behalf of the nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have shared with you some of my current thoughts, plans and experiences in terms of gender mainstreaming.
Thank you for your attention!