"Noras søstre"

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be here and to attend this seminar on Nora’s sisters – on the situation of women in China today.

I congratulate the Human Rights Centre at Peking University on its tenth anniversary next month. And I appreciate the close cooperation we have enjoyed with the centre over the years, and today in organising this seminar.

There are more readers of Ibsen in China than in Norway, and we regard this as a great honour.

It also shows that Ibsen is a contemporary writer and dramatist even though he wrote his plays more than 100 years ago.  

 

Ibsen’s plays have challenged conventions for more than a century.

Today’s theme reflects the fact that we continue to be fascinated by the relationship between men and women, the family and society. The name Nora has become so much more than just a name, thanks to Ibsen and his play A Doll’s House.

Almost 90 years ago, the great Chinese writer Lu Xun (utt: lu sjun) gave a lecture on Nora here in Beijing. He had low expectations for Nora once she left her home. Without rights and economic security, her prospects were bleak. “The crucial thing for Nora is money,” said Lu, “money cannot buy freedom, but freedom can be sold for money.”

Now as then, social norms may pose serious obstacles for people seeking to quench their thirst for freedom, to realise their hopes and ambitions for their lives.

Ibsen highlighted the way women in particular were suppressed by the rigid gender roles defined by the conventions of marriage and society at large. A situation that is common to a great many countries and cultures today.

He raised fundamental questions about human relationships, social conditions and the dilemmas facing women and men alike.

In a letter to the King of Norway, Ibsen wrote that his most important task was to “awaken the people and inspire them to think about the bigger issues”.

Ibsen remains as subversive and relevant today as he was in his own time. The issues he wrote about are still the “bigger issues” throughout the world:
- individual freedom and security,
- abuse of power - political as well as physical and economic - in both society and in the family,
- corruption and freedom of expression.

But while the issues he writes about are big, Ibsen’s protagonists are ordinary people, not unlike Mariann Heyerdahl’s female terracotta warrior next to me and the male originals in Xi'an (utt: sjan).

Nora’s rebellion against a man who did not appreciate her as a human being, and against a society that gave women very little freedom, has acquired great symbolic value.

For 125 years, Nora’s famous statement that before all else she is a human being, has been a beacon for countless women all over the world.

So, where did Nora go?

She ventured out into the world, and her tenacity gave rise to a revolution. She demanded equal rights, the right to work, equal pay, reproductive rights, the right to be free of gender based violence, the right to own and inherit property, her rightful place at the decision-makers’ table.

Nora’s sisters have become Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister of Norway, Presidents of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Chile. They include Vice Premier Wu Yi of China, and the first female Minister of Finance of Norway, Kristin Halvorsen.

In 1995, women from all over the world came to Beijing for the Fourth World Conference on Women, and drew up an agenda for women’s empowerment. They adopted a plan of action that aimed at “removing all the obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making.”

And yet, more than a century since Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House, and a dozen years after the Beijing conference, Nora’s sisters have not come far enough.  

All over the world, women are still disadvantaged in almost all aspects of life. Almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are women. Girls are much less likely to get an education than boys. Women and children are increasingly the victims in war and conflict. They are also victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking.

Even today we witness grave set-backs with the reintroduction of repressive policies, such as when the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.

It could be said that Ministers of Economy all over the world are the ones who most need to read A Doll’s House. Because Nora is an advocate not only for women’s rights, but also for the contributions that women make to the societies they live in.  As Nora herself says, “Before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are.”

A society cannot reach its full potential unless every person is free and equal.

Let me share with you some of the experiences we have gained in Norway.

In the 1970s, Norway had one of the lowest ratios of women in the work force in Europe

Today, we have one of the highest, if not the highest.

This has had significant influence on the economic development of Norway. The participation of both men and women in the work force has clearly contributed to economic growth and a stable labour market.

But the increase in the number of women in employment did not come about by itself. It did not happen by accident.

It was the result of systematic policy changes aimed at empowering women and giving them more equal opportunities.

It was the result of greatly improved maternity leave and benefits.

Today, we are working hard to increase the numbers of kindergartens and day-care centres.

These policies allow women to choose; and they can choose to have both a family and a career.

So I would like to make the following assertions:

empowering women is a competitive advantage;

building kindergartens is a competitive advantage; and

improving women’s educational opportunities is a competitive advantage.

It is the countries that offer women the most equal opportunities that are most competitive and have the best economic performance .

It is the countries that manage to overcome existing cultural impediments to such policies  – be it in the North or in the South – that grow and prosper.

 

This is our experience. And hard figures support these conclusions.

We are working with many of you to improve conditions for women and children. Because a healthy, well educated population is every country’s most important asset.

Women who enter the workforce, whether in Norway or China, must have working conditions that protect them from harsh and unreasonable strain and exposure.

Labour law, and the rules on health, environment and security must be adapted to meet the special needs of women.

This can be done. Some of the first international regulations on working conditions mainly benefited women, for example in the European match factories, where they were dangerously exposed to white sulphur. This was a hundred years ago.

Progress was made because women dared to speak up. The right to speak up must, therefore, be protected.

Progress was made because women were informed about the dangers that faced them. So the right to information must be respected.

And progress was made because women became organised in unions. Thus the right to organise is key.

 

Ibsen raised a number of these issues in his dramas. He also criticised his compatriots for being self-complacent and unprincipled As a result he was not popular in certain circles. 

 

For example Nora was banned as topic of conversation at certain social gatherings of the German bourgeoisie. They feared she would turn the atmosphere sour.

 

Today we have a responsibility to try to find answers that are appropriate for our time, answers that will meet the aspirations and needs of our generation and of generations to come.

 

To do so, we need an open debate that has room for voices and opinions that we may not like, voices that may express truths we find uncomfortable. As Ibsen knew well, without truth there can be no change and no real freedom.

I am particularly happy to see so many non-governmental organisations present here today. They act as an important corrective to government, and are a vital channel for the multitude of voices that are an integral part of every society.

To conclude, I would like to ask how far can Nora go.

One of the key phrases in A Doll’s House is the “miracle of miracles”. What does this mean? Nora gives us one answer. She wants proof that her husband, Helmer, values and respects her as an equal, that he is worthy of her love and sacrifice.

For me the miracle of miracles is a society where no one is left behind – where everyone is included. This is a society based on true democracy, sustainable development and social justice. A society where everyone has the same opportunities to develop to their full potential, including those who need special assistance from the community to do so. A society based on respect, tolerance and diversity. A society free of discrimination on the basis of gender, social background, religion, ethnicity, colour, disability or sexual orientation.

This miracle of miracles is possible.  A crucial first step is to enable Nora’s sisters to take their rightful place as leaders in all areas of society.

I hope this seminar will be an opportunity for you to be as inspired by Ibsen’s genius as a playwright as Lu Xun and his contemporaries were almost a century ago.

It is a great pleasure to me to declare the “Nora’s sisters” seminar open.