One of the two projects that have been granted funding is Nordic Centre for Research on Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (Nordicore). Mari Teigen and Liza Reizel are managing the research group at the Norwegian Institute for Social Research in Oslo that has received NOK 21.8 million. One focal point is similarities and differences between the academic sector and the rest of the labour market.

‘One of the topics we are studying is how the interrelation between working life and family life leads to differing career patterns for women and men. Studies have shown that women do not leave the academic sector to a higher extent than men, as previously assumed, but that their career development is slower. Why is this?’ says Mari Teigen.

Several of the researchers in the project have previously studied the labour market in general. The project is grounded in their studies, which among other things show that Nordic countries stand out by displaying a more gender-segregated labour market than other countries as well as relatively long parental leaves, which are mainly taken by women. This affects their career opportunities.

Contribution to sustainable change

The researchers will also explore gender equality measures that have been implemented in academia, for example which ones have led to progress and which ones have not. Two of the project’s five key objectives are to involve research policy actors in the project to ensure that the results can contribute to sustainable change and to facilitate knowledge exchange between for example researchers, students, decision makers and gender equality practitioners.

‘The plan is to be able to say something about what the main barriers to gender equality in academia are, and whether they differ from those seen in the rest of the labour market. It will be interesting to learn more about the differences and similarities between the countries,’ says Mari Teigen.

Gabriele Griffin from Uppsala University in Sweden is in charge of the other research group, which has been granted NOK 20 million for the project titled Beyond the Gender Paradox: Women’s Careers in Technology-Driven Research and Innovation in and outside of Academe.. Two of the project’s focus areas are the healthcare sector and the gaming industry. The researchers believe the gendered structures in these fields have effects on the academic sector.

‘We are seeing increasing digitalisation in healthcare, which is a very female-dominated sector. It has been assumed that this development is leading to reduced job security, but we’re not so sure that is the case. What we do know, however, is that the technological development is changing the patters in the labour market and how gender inequality is expressed,’ says Gabriele Griffin.

Two of the project’s four pillars are e-health and digital humanities. The use of digital tools to improve people’s access to healthcare is of interest not least in the sparsely populated Nordic regions.

Humanities meets digitalisation

The gaming industry is another important field besides the female-dominated healthcare sector. The Nordic countries are at the forefront of game development, and even if it is a male-dominated sector, Nordic gaming companies have a larger share of female workers than their counterparts in other countries. Digital humanities, or humanities research in the intersection with digital technology, is of particular relevance for the gaming industry.

‘Similar to healthcare, humanities research is dominated by women, whereas technology is an area traditionally dominated by men. But healthcare and humanities are becoming increasingly intertwined with technology, which is changing the labour market. How are women’s career opportunities affected in this process?’ says Gabriele Griffin.

The other two pillars of the project are research and innovation in urban and rural areas, respectively. The research project includes, besides the researchers at Uppsala University, researchers from the University of Tampere in Finland and Bergen University and Vestlandsforskning in Norway.

The research projects are funded by Nordforsk, an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers, together with the Swedish research council Forte, the Academy of Finland, Rannís – the Icelandic Centre for Research and the Research Council of Norway. Gabriele Griffin and Mari Teigen presented their projects at the Gender Summit in Brussels 8–9 November 2016. The projects will start in January 2017.

How can the online violence and harassment be stopped? This is a hot topic in all Nordic countries. The widespread posting of threats and sexist remarks in online forums and comment fields is not least a democracy problem, as it risks silencing voices in the public space. But it is notably difficult to bust the perpetrators. One problem is that the legislation in the area is outdated. Another is that the research on how the online violence can be combated is limited. To tackle a few of these problems the Nordic Council of Ministers has commissioned NIKK start a project that will review the applicable legislations in the Nordic countries. The purpose of the project is to contribute to knowledge-based work against online hate speech, threats and other violations that are linked to gender.

‘My focus is on the national legislations, which I analyse from an intersectional gender perspective. I want to explore what situations are covered by the present laws and which ones are not,’ says Moa Bladini, senior lecturer in criminal law and analyst in the project.

What does the current situation look like when it comes to gender-related online violence in the Nordic region?
‘Threats and hate speech online is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a consequence of the rapid technological progress. The wheels in the legislative mills turn rather slowly and don’t respond quickly to sudden changes, like the ones we have seen in the area of online violence. Young women are particularly vulnerable, and some of the violations they experience fall outside the current legislative frameworks. I’m for example thinking of distribution of nude pictures without consent, which is a violation that remains unregulated in Swedish law.’

What have you found so far?
‘The Nordic legislations show many similarities, but there are also some differences. Dissemination of material that may violate a person’s integrity, such as nude photos spread without the person’s consent, is a criminal act in Norway and Finland. In Sweden, the two criminal offences defamation and insult clash with the country’s law of freedom of expression, which takes precedence. As a result, the police cannot always pursue a case. Instead, the victim’s only option is to file a lawsuit for damages. Finland looks at it differently and gives priority to the protection of a person’s honour over the freedom of expression. However, following criticism from the European Court of Human Rights, they have been forced to make some adjustments.’

How can NIKK’s project benefit other Nordic actors?
‘This is important knowledge that can help bring attention to legislative weaknesses in the Nordic countries, but also to best practice. If we for example see that Norway has found a good solution to something, the other countries can be made aware of it and learn from their example. It can also imply coordination gains.’

‘We need to get better at solving these crimes,’ says Norwegian prosecutor Rudolf Christoffersen.
He is one of the keynote speakers at The Nordic Region – a Single Market for Human Trafficking, a conference that will be held in Helsinki on Wednesday. The gender- and gender equality-themed event targets experts in for example social services, healthcare and law enforcement. Women and men suffer partly differing consequences of human trafficking. For example, women are more commonly exploited for sexual purposes, while men are forced to carry out crimes and provide free labour.

New forms of trafficking calls for new strategies

Rudolf Christoffersen has been involved in the work against human trafficking for many years. At present, he works for Eurojust, an EU agency for international cooperation against cross-border crime. From his office in Hague, he sees new forms of human trafficking emerging in Europe. It has for example become increasingly common that children are sexually exploited online, which implies new demands on prosecutors and the police. In just a few weeks, legal proceedings against a person in Norway accused of making children in the Philippines perform sexual acts and assaults on other children while he watched them over the internet are scheduled to begin. The man supposedly paid a poor family and instructed the children to carry out his wishes.
‘We have seen these types of cases in several Nordic countries, and they are difficult to solve,’ says Rudolf Christoffersen.
In many cases, the police do not even know in which country the violations have occurred, and it is often difficult to find out, he says.
‘The streaming traffic can go through countries that we traditionally don’t collaborate with, and that can make it hard to obtain the evidence we need.’

Another example of a new form of human trafficking that Rudolf Christoffersen points out is linked to the refugee crisis. Children fleeing their home countries are forced to engage in criminal activities such as drug smuggling and sex trade. Many of the victims are facing extremely vulnerable situations, and Christoffersen believes that the police and prosecutors have a lot to learn in that area.
‘We need to become better at dealing with victims who don’t want to collaborate with us. Their fear of reprisal keeps them from contacting us,’ he says.

Maybe their trust in law enforcement would increase if more crimes were solved, he speculates.
‘We need to become better at getting people convicted. Otherwise we risk signalling to the victims that we don’t care,’ he says.

Rudolf Christoffersen thinks that policy makers should be more active as well. He believes that the consequences for perpetrators are too mild and would like to see harsher punishments.
‘That is true for the entire Nordic region. The penalties are far too soft,’ he says.

International collaboration necessary

Effective management of the new forms of human trafficking requires international collaborations not only in the Nordic region but also all over Europe. Moreover, there is a need for expert competence in the legal sector, says Rudolf Christoffersen. As an example, he mentions the Norwegian introduction of expert teams. The teams are available in the five largest cities and consist of police officers and prosecutors specialising in combating human trafficking.
‘There are similar examples in other countries. We need to become better at sharing our methods and experiences so that we can learn from each other,’ says Rudolf Christoffersen.

The conference on Wednesday may fill a void in that respect, he believes. Researchers and experts in various fields and from several countries will participate in the conference. For example, Lisa Green, county coordinator against human trafficking in Malmö, Sweden, will give a presentation on the city’s work to support refugee children. Maija Koskenoja, senior officer at the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman in Finland, will talk about the methods perpetrators use and the psychological consequences of human trafficking from a gender equality perspective. Prosecutor Jette Malberg and police officer Anders Morville will talk about the Danish investigation Operation Hvepsebo, which revealed a case where people were being exploited by being forced to carry out criminal acts.

The conference is arranged by the Finnish Non-Discrimination Ombudsman in cooperation with the Finnish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Finnish Non-Discrimination Ombudsman will open the event, and Minister of the Interior will also be there.

According to WHO, over 200 million women and girls in the world have had their genitals mutilated. The procedure is a violation of the basic human rights and the rights of children. Efforts to end the practice are underway in many parts of the world. The resistance offered by women, health workers and civil society organisations in countries where the practice is common has made a difference. Several countries, including Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, have adopted laws prohibiting the procedure. The possibility of eliminating the most harmful elements of traditional rites of passage is gaining increasing acceptance in many places.

Several initiatives have been taken at the international level. One example is the umbrella organisation IAC (The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children) formed in 1984 by women from a number of African countries. IAC works actively to end genital mutilation and is a consultative body to the UN. The organisation has adopted action plans that are supported by several other organisations, including UNICEF and WHO.

Scope unknown 

All Nordic countries have some sort of laws against the practice of genital mutilation. However, the number of court cases where a perpetrator has been convicted is very limited, and so is the knowledge about the scope of the problem.

– I’ve worked with Somalis in Finland since the 1990s and I have never heard of any parents mutilating their children’s genitals here. Since it’s illegal in Finland, some parents instead do it before they get here, says Saido Mohamed from the Finnish League for Human Rights.

The Finnish League for Human Rights is an expert NGO that has worked against genital mutilation for 15 years. The organisation’s work is based on respect for different cultures, with the addition that violence can never be accepted regardless of culture or tradition. There is a focus on preventive work by for example discussing the issue with Finns originating from cultures where genital mutilation is common. The target groups include Finns from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria and Kenya.

– We meet with religious leaders, visit youth activities, talk to organisations and attend women’s celebrations and other events. My colleague, who is from Ethiopia, and I meet people in their natural environments, she says.

An increasing number of young people seeking medical attention

According to Saido Mohamed, who was born in Somalia, the attitudes to female genital mutilation have changed over the years. In the 1990s, the issue was a taboo subject in Finland. Today it is discussed more openly and an increasing number of young people are seeking medical attention. She believes that the organisation’s outreach work has made a difference.

– The preventive work is very important when it comes to genital mutilation. It has to be carried out continuously, since there is a steady inflow of new migrants from the areas in question.

Jamila Said Musse has worked against genital mutilation for over 20 years both in Somalia and in Sweden. Recently, for example on behalf of the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland. She, too, thinks that the attitudes have changed in the right direction and that preventive work is of central importance.

– Sweden adopted its law against genital mutilation in 1982. But the law alone can’t put an end to the phenomenon. There’s also a need for education and prevention.

Mutilated genitals more common among older people

The exact extent of the genital mutilation problem in the Nordic region is hard to know. The existing studies on the topic rely on estimations that are merely based on the number of girls and women originating from countries where the practice is common. In an effort to produce more precise data, the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland has conducted a large interview study involving Finnish women from Somalia and Kurdistan. According to researcher Reija Klemetti, the purpose of the study was to explore the prevalence of the procedure, the health effects women experience and how the practice is connected to socioeconomic factors.

– An increasing number of genitally mutilated women are moving to Finland, but very little research has been done on the issue, such as on the health effects and treatments.

The questions in the study were included in a larger health questionnaire, and the responses show that genital mutilation is more common among women who are older and lack education. Married Finnish women from Somalia had higher rates of genital mutilation than their unmarried counterparts. Among Finnish-Kurdish women, the procedure was more common among those who described themselves as religious. The study also found that Finnish-Somali women with mutilated genitals were less likely to seek medical attention. The results of the study will inform the work against genital mutilation in Finland and help for example healthcare workers discuss the issue with affected women. Genital mutilation remains a sensitive issue that many professional groups are hesitant to address.

– We need to educate Finnish healthcare workers about the practice and how it can be prevented. It’s also important that teachers and other school workers become knowledgeable about the problem.

Swedish municipality found guilty of discrimination

It is of key importance that the issue of genital mutilation is dealt with in the right way. In 2010, Uppsala Municipality in Sweden was convicted of ethnic discrimination of a girl and her parents after a district nurse reported a possible case of genital mutilation to the social welfare board. The whole thing started when the girl and her father made a routine visit to the local child health centre. During the visit, the father said that the girl was going to travel abroad with her aunt in the summer to visit relatives. The nurse suspected that the girl would get genitally mutilated while abroad and filed a report to Uppsala’s social welfare board. The social welfare board in turn notified the police, who without prior warning picked up the girl from her school and took her to a hospital where she was given a gynaecological examination without her consent. The examination showed that the girl had not been genitally mutilated, which made the police close the case. The parents reported the municipality to the Swedish Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination, which took the case to the district court. The district court found that the municipality had acted solely based on the family’s ethnicity and therefore ordered it to pay SEK 60 000 in restitution to the family.

More resources for education needed

Both the Finnish League for Human Rights and Jamila Said Musse from Sweden are working to educate professional groups such as social workers, police officers and healthcare workers about genital mutilation. They say there is a great need for knowledge, but that it is difficult to provide all the support that is needed. According to Saido Mohamed, there is a great need for more resources, for both preventive measures and education. She thinks that Finnish policy makers should give more attention to the issue.

– Finland has had an action plan with an end date in 2016. When it expires, we don’t know what’s going to happen. But the issue needs to be given higher priority. Our organisation alone can’t be expected to do all the work that’s needed in Finland, says Saido Mohamed.

Jamila Said Musse has similar experiences.

– The authorities need to take this issue seriously, and it needs to be made clear who has the main responsibility. The policy makers also need to work on the issue globally, she says.

The ability for both parents to combine parenthood with participation in the labour market has long been a prioritised gender equality issue in the Nordic region. In a global perspective, the Nordic countries are pioneers in promoting parental leave for both parents. Policy interventions aimed to encourage men to take parental leave have been an important factor in this context.

Research shows that men’s share of the total parental leave taken by couples has increased in all Nordic countries since the turn of the millennium. But the change is slow and mothers continue to spend more time than fathers caring for their children. The most gender-equal use of the parental insurance is found in countries that stipulate that a certain portion of the total parental leave granted for a child can only be taken by the father.

A good example of this is Iceland, which in the year 2000 split the parental insurance into three parts. Of the total nine months of parental leave granted for a child, the reform reserved three months for each parent and allowed the parents to split the remaining three months any way they wish. The effect was dramatic. Before the reform, only 0.2−0.4 per cent of Icelandic fathers took parental leave. After the reform, the share climbed to 87 per cent.

Systems not for everybody

Researchers hold that the Nordic parental insurance systems are based on a heterosexual twoness norm. This can make it difficult for families with fewer or additional parents. For example, Finnish fathers can only take parental leave if they live with the child, making the system poorly suited for parents living apart. In Sweden, the rules are based on the assumption that the parents cooperate with each other, which can be problematic if they for example do not get along.

At present, there is only a limited amount of research on how the Nordic parental insurances work for people outside norm, such as rainbow families. The studies that do exist in the area deal mainly with general patterns.

Read more and download the fact sheet in PDF here

According to Kitty Anderson, the decisions doctors make can never be anything more than guesses.
‘The ”right” sex is whatever sex corresponds to the child’s gender identity, and we can’t know anything about that until the child grows older,’ she says.
The way she sees it, almost all surgeries and other interventions performed on children with intersex variations are carried out for cosmetic reasons or to make the child fit the standard for what men and women are supposed to look like.
‘People should be able to decide what is done to their bodies. Since the surgeries are rarely necessary from a health perspective, they shouldn’t be done at such an early age,’ she says.

Only one hospital in the whole Nordic region, Oulu University Hospital in Finland, has clearly declared it will not perform surgeries on children with intersex variations for cosmetic or social reasons. Maarit Huuska from Seta – LGBTI Rights in Finland, believes the hospital’s resistance has been very important.
‘It shows there are alternatives. It has also sparked a discussion about what is ethically right.’
According to Maarit Huuska, not all medical experts in Finland are on the same page. The types of surgery that Oulu University Hospital refuses to perform are still available at the hospital in Helsinki. In May last year, however, new ethical guidelines for healthcare in Finland were presented, and they discourage doctors from performing surgery on children with intersex variations for cosmetic or social reasons.
‘We don’t know what the effects of it will be,’ says Maarit Huuska.

Selective abortion and silence important issues

The final decision on what medical procedures should be carried out on children with intersex variations is often made by the parents, yet the responsibility never lies with them, according to Ellie Nordfelt, intersex activist in Sweden. She says that the core of the problem is how doctors and other experts present the situation to the parents.
‘They are told that their child is not normal but that the doctors can fix it. It’s a shock to them,’ she says.
She also mentions selective abortions as an issue important to the intersex movement. In most cases when an intersex variation is discovered in a foetus, the pregnancy is terminated.
‘Some bodies are obviously undesirable. What does that do to those of us who actually end up being born? We really shouldn’t be born at all, and if we are born anyway we need to be surgically normalised as soon as possible,’ says Ellie Nordfelt.

Both Ellie Nordfelt and Kitty Anderson believe that intersex persons will not gain the right to healthcare based on informed consent without political intervention.
‘The surgeries will continue until we get a law that prohibits them. The medical experts will not implement the necessary changes on their own,’ says Kitty Anderson.

Her own story shows that society also has a past to deal with. Not long ago, children were often not told that they had an intersex variation. Kitty Anderson did not find out she was intersex until she was a teenager.
‘At that point, when I finally found out, I was feeling miserable. I totally lost faith in the adult world. I just couldn’t trust grown-ups anymore. I thought that everybody had lied to me,’ she says.
In today’s age she believes it is unusual that the information is kept from the child in that way.
‘Now we understand better that it causes problems. Children have the right to know things like that about themselves. It’s super important,’ she says.

Nordic countries not role models

The Nordic countries tend to see themselves as pioneers and role models when it comes to LGBIT issues, but that is a false self-image, according to Kitty Anderson.
‘If there is a role model, it’s Malta,’ she says.
That’s the only country in Europe that has outlawed surgeries on children with intersex variations for cosmetic or social reasons. No Nordic county is considering a similar law at present, but both Kitty Anderson and Ellie Nordfelt are noticing a growing interest in the situation of intersex persons at the political level. For example, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has been commissioned to investigate the health care that intersex persons receive in the country, and in Iceland, the Ministry of Welfare has appointed a queer council in which the intersex movement is represented.

Ellie Nordfelt believes that the increased visibility is important. She describes how the actual diagnosis system may isolate and alienate people.
‘We are divided into a bunch of different diagnoses and are told there are very few of us. That makes it hard for us to meet each other and talk about our experiences,’ she says.
‘In my dream society, there’s no need to diagnose and correct. Instead we celebrate differences and think of physical variations as something positive.

Each year, NIKK administers funding for measures and collaborations in the area of gender equality in the Nordic countries on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Gender Equality Fund was initiated by the Nordic gender equality ministers to stimulate Nordic cooperation within the framework of the priorities laid down in the joint programme.

The list of this year’s approved projects has great breadth. The Danish Institute for Human Rights has gathered a number of Nordic ombudsman institutions to explore effective ways to end hate speech and sexism online. The network will arrange three expert seminars and develop concrete recommendations for what can be done to combat online hate speech.

Another fund project focuses on breaking perpetrators’ patterns of violence. The coordinators of this project will arrange a conference in Helsinki in order to facilitate sharing of knowledge and the establishment of a Nordic professional network that will focus on the perpetrator perspective.

Two other fund projects shed light on women in Nordic film. One of them will analyse the output of films from a gender perspective and arrange a feminist film festival. The other, coordinated by Stockholm University, will draw attention to the women in film history. In 2016, the Swedish Film Institute launched a website for the rewriting of film history from a feminist perspective. At present, the website focuses solely on Sweden. The aim of the project is to complement the site with Norwegian and Danish film history.

Anna Ulveson, gender equality expert at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, is leading the project, which gathers municipal representatives from Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Denmark. The intention is for the project to inspire others who want to work with gender mainstreaming as a method.‘Municipalities are well suited to work with gender equality in practice. We have a close relationship with the citizens through healthcare, schools, community youth centres and elderly care,’ says Ulveson.

What does gender mainstreaming really mean?
‘It means that you integrate a gender equality perspective into the daily work everywhere from the top decision-makers to the face-to-face interaction with citizens. Municipalities and county councils have an important role in this context since we’re involved in so many different types of citizen services.’

How does the gender mainstreaming work differ between different Nordic countries?
‘That’s what we want to find out in the project. We know that the method has been understood in more than one way, and there is still some uncertainty about how it can be done in practice. In Sweden we have worked with gender mainstreaming through the Program for Sustainable Gender Equality, and there are many success stories.’

Can you tell us about any of them?
‘Many organisations start out by analysing themselves with gender statistics. This can help them see problems they weren’t aware of. For example, Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg discovered that women who came to the hospital with a broken hip were given less pain relief than men. This realisation made them redesign their entire procedure for these types of cases. Today all patients with a hip fracture are given pain relief already in the ambulance and the care they receive has become both better and more efficient. There are more examples at jämställ.nu and in our film about sustainable gender equality.’

Concretely, what are you going to do in the project?
‘We will arrange three workshops in Malmö, Helsinki and Oslo. The purpose of them is to get together and discuss experiences from different municipalities. We think we’ve made some progress and now it’s important that we learn from each other to keep moving forward.’

What are some Nordic challenges?
‘The Nordic countries have many similarities in politics and overall living conditions for citizens. Knowledge about solutions to shared problems is valuable. Active sharing of experiences could speed up the gender mainstreaming process in the Nordic countries.’

This is an article about one of the projects granted funding through the Nordic Gender Equality Fund.

The review, published in Swedish and titled “Sexism på köpet – lagstiftning, praxis och förslag till åtgärder mot könsdiskriminerande reklam i Norden”, is presented by the Swedish Women’s Lobby and its Norwegian and Danish partner organisations in the so-called Ad Watch project, which started in 2013. In the project, the involved organisations have gathered information about present laws and how they are applied. According to Stéphanie Thögersen, programme coordinator at the Swedish Women’s Lobby, the issue of sexist advertising is of utmost importance. The growing advertising space in society implies a growing space also for sexist advertising, increasing the risk of ‘normalisation’ of the practice.

‘Hopefully, our report will lead to concrete measures, to improved legislation in the Nordic countries. The review includes recommendations for each country.’

What does the situation look like in the Nordic countries?
‘Denmark stands out. The advertising reported to authorities in Denmark is so sexist it wouldn’t see the light of day in Sweden. Unfortunately, Danish advertisers get away with a lot. Their consumer ombudsman is relatively lenient. For example, we had a case where a company ran the same ad campaign in Malmö (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark). While the company was forced to remove the advertisements in Sweden, they were deemed acceptable in Denmark.’

What do the Nordic legislations against sexist advertising look like?
‘All Nordic countries have laws in place except Sweden. In Iceland, sexist advertising is regulated under the gender equality act. In the other countries it is considered a consumer legislation issue, which means that the respective consumer ombudsmen are in charge of monitoring compliance. However, we have found that these agencies are not giving much priority to the problem. The follow-up of violations works best in Iceland, where the responsibility lies with the Centre for Gender Equality – a government agency with a lot of competence in the area. The law imposes a fine on companies that do not voluntarily remove advertisements after being instructed to do so. So far, no company has been fined, but the law seems to have a deterring effect.’

If Sweden doesn’t have a law, what happens when somebody reports sexist advertising?
‘Sweden has the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman, which is a self-regulatory organisation founded by the industry. That’s who you contact if you spot sexist advertising, but then not much happens. The Ombudsman does not impose a penalty, like a fine, or ask companies to remove their advertisements. In practice, this means that businesses caught engaging in sexist advertising can safely continue their practices.’

What can the Nordic countries learn from each other in this area?
‘We conclude that there is a need for not only laws against sexist advertising but also effective monitoring and public engagement. In Sweden there is a strong public interest in reporting sexist advertising, yet the country needs legislation in order for the submitted reports to lead to tangible consequences. Norway, Finland and Denmark have laws, but the problem in these countries is that few people are familiar with the legislation and report violations. This means there’s a need for information campaigns. What’s most important is that politicians and policymakers start giving higher priority to the issue so that everybody will understand that sexist advertising is not compatible with a gender-equal society.

Iceland can become the first country in the world to get a certified standard for measuring and developing equal pay. A company practicing equal pay for equal work can have this certified and made visible. The aim is to create a system which secures men and women equal pay for equal work, and equal working conditions for jobs of a similar nature. The measure is also designed to reduce discrimination in general.

Shauna Olney, Chief of the Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch of the ILOI, is excited about seing the result.

“The Icelandic tripartite Equal Pay Standard is an innovative solution which we would like to promote,” she says. She heads the dialogue Women at Work which will run until the ILO’s centenary in 2019.

What do you want to achieve by then?
“That is when the action starts. This is the time for reflection and debate. We will establish a high level commission in 2017. The debate about women in work will then become part of the major Future debate and perhaps sit at its very core.”

The commission will be working independently from the ILO. It has not yet been decided whether the commission’s work will result in a new declaration.

“We have not had a declaration as part of the ILO’s constitution since the 1944 Philadelphia declaration.”

The constitution was signed in 1919 as part of the post WW1 peace process. In 1946 the ILO became the UN’s first special organisation for labour market issues. Its aim is decent work for all.

“If we now can achieve a declaration about the future of work in 2019, gender equality must play an important part,” says Shauna Olney.

Equal pay in the Nordic region

“Gender equality is a question of justice and morals and of economy and growth. The Nordic countries would not have been able to achieve the growth they have seen without the high participation of women in working life. Nor would they have been able to build the same universal welfare rights or achieve the same level of gender equality between all citizens in all of the countries without the participation of women,” said Lisbeth Pedersen, head of research at the Danish National Centre for Social Science, SFI,as she addressed the seminar on the future of work on 6 September.

The Nordic countries are way ahead when it comes to gender equality, and according to the OECD they have a remarkably high proportion of women in the labour market. While many countries have a great potential for growth if more women were included into the labour market, the Nordic countries have already enjoyed the benefits from this.

The ILO has carried out a major survey together with Gallup taking in 178 countries. It shows that the employment gap between women and men has only shrunk by 0.6 percent over the past 20 years, despite the fact that far more women have got an education.

“This is quite a shocking result,” thinks Shauna Olney.

Steady wage gap

Yet although there are many women in the labour market in the Nordic countries, the study shows a permanent structural inequality

“In Denmark we have had a steady pay gap since the early 1970s, from back when we began talking about gender equality,” says Lisbeth Pedersen.

The education level among women has steadily increased, but it has not had an impact on the pay gap.

Why is this? Is it because of education or work experience?No, the researcher says.
“But it does have something to do with a segregated labour market, the fact that women and men have different jobs and that there is different pay for similar jobs. There has been almost no changes to the segregated labour market over time. Men still work in what is considered to be typical male jobs and the other way around.

“The difference is that when studies have looked at five different educations which are popular with both genders, it turns out that there are more men working in the private sector, and this goes for all kinds of educations. The tendency is also that differences have been growing rather than shrinking.”

Her conclusion is therefore that if we are to overcome inequality in the labour market, both the private and public sectors must be made equally attractive for both genders.

“The fact that this is not already the case could have something to do with culture, or that there are better welfare benefits included in the collective agreements where women dominate. It could also be that the wage system structures were negotiated during the 60s and that the wage structure has been pretty stable since then.”

The partners’ responsibility

The development in the labour market could mean that wages are pushed down, especially in jobs where you do not need a higher education. The need for highly educated labour will rise.

“This means that in order to include everyone in the labour market you have to concentrate on education for all levels. We need a more flexible labour market with equal conditions in the private and public sectors, and there is also a need to reduce the pay gap for work of a similar nature.

“In the Nordic region the social partners are responsible for negotiating wages and working conditions. So we need to ask them to do something about it. If this is something we need to do in the future, it is something we need to do today,” said  Lisbeth Pedersen.

Iceland is an inspiration

The ILO’s Shauna Olney also underlined the need to create a comprehensive agreement on the changes.

“The tripartite cooperation then becomes important. That is why the Icelandic initiative is so interesting, because it has been developed through tripartite cooperation. We have already talked with UN Women about how to implement the ILO convention about equal pay. When it comes to different countries it is not natural to say that we here have a model which is ready for implementation.“

The tripartite agreement on equal pay is based on the same model as the ISO certifications, and can be translated into other languages. The work is nearing its final phase. This autumn the parties will present the work which covers the terminology for a definition of work of a similar character, the terms for management systems and appendixes with a guide for job classifications and a guide for wage analysis.

“This is important as a process and can perhaps inspire others. It is important to have good models,” says the ILO’s  Shauna Olney.

What do you consider to be the greatest challenge to gender equality right now?
“How to challenge the stereotypes: That women are the ones who should stay at home, that women’s work is of less worth. Here too the Nordic model is so important, for instance when it comes to getting men to take parental leave.”

The debate about the future of work

The parties in Finland have decided that this year’s collective negotiations will be the last of their kind. From next year wage negotiations will happen on a local level. It is difficult to say what that will mean for the development of equal pay.

Markus Äimälä, Director Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, is focusing on protecting jobs.

“It is important for our industry to make sure that businesses remain competitive. If technology changes, businesses must change fast. For this you need flexible legislation, we need basic rights but on top of that we need to be able to negotiate on a local level as much as possible.

“In Finland we have a tradition of collective agreements covering all trades. But employers feel that this does not offer sufficient flexibility. Therefore we do not want this any longer. We are now moving to trade-specific negotiations like Sweden has had for many years. This is not enough. We need to be able to agree on working hours and conditions on a local level.”

Katarina Murto from the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees STTK, underlines that Finland is also in a difficult economic situation.

“Finland has been in a recession for many years now, and we still have a problem with how to solve the question of employment. We have signed the Competition Act. This is an historic agreement because we have for the first time signed an agreement to reduce the rights of workers. We now hope this means employers will have the courage to hire more people and increase investments.

“As for collective agreements, the trade union movement wants as much as possible to be settled through collective agreements and regulations, even though the trend is going in the opposite direction with much negotiation on a workplace level.

“I believe an important question on a Nordic and international level is to work for gender equality in the labour market. Gender equality, anti discrimination and human rights are important issues. Of course we can have a minimum legislation, but I think that if we want to raise these issues, we need to make sure they work in all workplaces.”

This article was originally published at Arbeidsliv i Norden.