Hvordan kan statlige myndigheter bidra til endringer i mannsrollene

Including Men and Masculinities in Gender Policies

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Gentlemen! There is an ocean of difference between those of you who are helping your wife caring for the children, and those of you who take full responsibility.  Those of you who are the real master of the house!

Twenty years ago the first Commission on Men and Gender Equality was presented in Norway. The present Prime Minister, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, was that Commission’s leader and a true representative for his generation of men.

As one of the first profiled politicians, when his son was four months, he left work to stay at home for three months. His plan was to study language. The last day at work he bought a few Spanish language books. Prime Minster Stoltenberg thought he would have more than enough time also to study Spanish.

- Today he doesn’t speak a word of Spanish. 
- He did not even get the books out of their plastic wrapping…

He suddenly understood how much work it was to fulfill his new role as the master of the house. To make sure men are caring for their own children, and not just helping their wives, the present Prime Minister initiated, as a member of the Men’s Commission, a paternal leave exclusively for the fathers.

This year the father’s quota will be increased from six to ten weeks. Our next goal is to extend the quota exclusively for the fathers to fourteen weeks. Mothers and fathers can, however, share the rest of the paid parental leave year as they decide.

In the sixties and seventies we recognized great changes in the female roles. The last two decades we have seen the male roles changed – a lot! This has turned our views on both work and family life.

At four o’clock sharp in a meeting in the Ministry of Finance or in the management group in a Norwegian company,  a couple of men and maybe a women whisper “kindergarten” to the chair person, and then they leave the meeting. You might think four o’ clock is early, but you should know that lunchtime in Norway is only half an hour.

Even in the Cabinet those of us with children often ask the Prime Minister to put our matters on the top of the agenda so we can leave to pick up our kids from schools and kindergarten. And this holds for both women and men.

Recently, I submitted a White Paper on men, male roles and gender equality to Parliament. This Paper comes as a result of research and a political interest in bringing men in promoting gender equality. And not at least, this is due to a rising number of gender researchers and NGOs that during the late 80s and further on developed research and methods focusing on men. Many of these people are represented here on this conference.

1. The White Paper measures the development of men´s caretaking in the family over the last 20 years and we find a tremendous difference – on the positive side. 90 per cent of the fathers with right to the fathers quota enjoy those weeks.

2. Men do more domestic work, including caring for children. A majority of the men now say that they do cook for dinner, pick up children from childcare, taking legal and paid leave of absence from work when the child is sick.

Let me give you a few exact examples from a comparative study performed in 1988 on gender equality and domestic work, and a similar study from 2007.

a. In 1988 only 1-2 per cent of the fathers used their parental leave. In 2007 nine (9) out of ten (10) made use of paid leave exclusively for the father.

b. In the 80-ties (1988) 95 per cent of all men said that their wives was in charge of cooking. Today less than fifty percent say that their wife is has the responsibility. Most couples are sharing.

c. Young fathers do still work long weeks, 8 hours more than women.  But 20 years ago they worked 12 hours more than women. And a lot of more mothers now work full time.

In short, the modern Norwegian man defines himself not only through his professional achievements, but also as spouse and father.

To care for children, to be a good – and present – father has now become and imperative to most men. Today, being a good father, means you take your baby out for a walk in the stroller. Have any of you seen the change in the way these strollers look and are designed?

While the strollers three decades ago had rounded and feminine shapes, today’s strollers have a masculine and cool design, made for a walk both on Manhattan and in the Andes. 30 years ago we heard that if the mother would take part in labor force, the family would fell apart, the husband would suffer, and children become criminals or get emotional problems.

But in fact it is opposite.  Research referred to in the White Paper on gender equality in Norwegians’ families’ shows

1. Men who takes family responsibilities are more happy in their marriage – they simply enjoy a larger degree of quality of life,
 
2. Families who share domestic work face lesser divorces and break-ups. These families get more children. So gender equality builds family values.

3. And we find lesser domestic violence among couples living in gender equality relationships.

With other words: Also men will gain a lot from spending more of their life dealing with family tasks.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In the 1970ies, Norway had one of the lowest ratios of women’s employment in Europe. Today, we have one of the highest, if not the highest (74 per cent SSB, 2008).

Norwegian women are not only on top of the European statistics enjoying paid work: we are also among the top three giving birth and on breast feeding. This is our experience in Norway the past few decades. And it didn’t happen by accident. It didn’t happen because Norwegians are particularly fertile, either.

It happened because we – Norwegian business, government and society at large – wanted it to happen. And we took adequate decisions to make it happen. Through legislation and financial incentives the government guided business and the markets in the wanted direction. While companies on their part adapted and modernized to meet this new reality.

The greatest gains countries can achieve, economically as well as politically, come with
- empowering women,
- ensuring equal opportunity, health care,
- and increasing the ratio of women’s active participation in paid working life.
If so, men have to take more responsibility at home.

This is the modern Norwegian story. The story about women in the boardroom as a competitive edge. The story about women making money – and making babies – at the same time. And the story about caring fathers.

Today, according to the CIA fact book, Norway has a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita 20 per cent higher than that of the United States. And if you believe that this is because of oil, take a look at the comparable figures of other oil producing countries, like Russia, Venezuela or Angola.

The Prime Minister is also a National Economist. And this is he explains the economic performance like this: It is because we have a welfare system and sound family and gender policies. Sharing domestic work keeps a high proportion of women in work.

The challenge is to move further with the gender perspective in the welfare state, so that we develop this perspective in every sector and every area in society.

Although we see a trend towards what we can describe as male roles being more family oriented, men still suffers from old fashioned stereotypes of masculinity.

Men’s average life expectancy (78 years) is almost five years less than women (83 years) (SSB 2005).  Is this a natural cause?

More women than men are diagnosed with birthmark cancer in Norway. However, more men than women tend to die from it.  How can that be?

Simply enough: Men don’t see a medical doctor as frequently as women tend to do. They are less aware of their own health, and a macho male role does not go well with regular visits to a doctor.  And men have a lot more risk-orientated way of living.

Although Norway recently was named the most gender equal country in the world, I still think we have a way to go.

It is a paradox to me as the Minister of Equality, that Norway and the other Nordic welfare states, being on top of the statistics when it comes to gender equality, have the world’s most gender divided labor markets.

For decades we have worked for giving women – and men – the opportunity to choose from different educations and different jobs, breaking away from traditional gender stereotypes.

It is a fact that women now are in majority of the students in medical schools and law schools. However, we still face great challenges in order to encourage women to choose jobs in male dominated manual work, and men working in elderly and health care and education.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Last week my own 6 year old daughter reminded me that we still have quite a few miles to go. After she visited the Technical Museum, I asked her if she would be a scientist, and she answered Only boys can be scientists! There still are some stones to turn!

For a decade we have worked to have more men in childcare with some results – it can be done! In leading positions women who want to reach the top tend to talk about the glass walls.

In women dominated workplaces men often realize several glass ceilings. These are in fact excluding invisible mechanisms. In kindergarten and schools we therefore are building men’s network in order to keep them as employees. Boys and men’s capability to care and dealing with children in day care and schools must be emphasised as a matter of interest for society.

Modern societies need to utilize all human resources, with their personal qualities, education and skills, regardless of gender. Both women and men must be able to participate in working life, social life and family life. It is a matter of democracy, but also a matter of smart economy.

Let me add: It’s in the interest of the society to challenge the traditional masculine power, and empowering boys and young men to take part in domestic life as well as working life.

Thank you for arranging this very important conference!