Gender equality in the Nordic region – where are we?

“I want to become a sailor,” said the girl. She was around 16 and a student on one of the few school ships sailing along the Norwegian coast. 

Not that I, a lucky journalist onboard, could quite understand that dream there and then, because the Northern Norway evening was already dark, wet and cold.

The young girl did her night shift in the engine room. I went to sleep in my cabin. When we met again the morning after, she told me more. Life at sea had sounded scary at first, and being a sailor perhaps was not something for girls and at least not here? 

But her mother had urged her on and repeatedly told her: Why should girls not become sailors and make good money? 

“I enjoy the engine room. I had hardly done any mechanical stuff before, but I am learning,” the girl told me. 

She was one of very few girls onboard, but they were all well looked after on the school ship. 

“We are treated as gold,” she said.

When the Nordic Labour Journal started work on this gender equality issue, this story from nearly ten years ago popped into my head.

Because it is interesting to look at education from a gender equality perspective. This time we pose more questions and get many good answers in stories from Sweden and Finland.

There are now considerably more female than male university graduates, especially in the districts. This is the case across the Nordics and many women have secured a better life with higher employment and wage levels as a result. 

“Many countries have actively invested in women and encouraged them to ‘make your mark’ and ‘get an education’. This has had results,” says Lovisa Broström, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg. 

The Finnish researcher Harry Lunabba believes gender equality efforts are still needed in Finnish schools. He calls for an ambitious gender equality programme.

I still wonder whether the girl I met on that school ship chose a career at sea. I never found out, but I did want to find out whether men are still dominating at sea. And yes, men still dominate that sector, confirms Lene Dyring at the Norwegian Seafarers Union. 

In some marine occupations, there are close to no women at all. This does something to the workplace and the working environment. 

The Nordic project REDO Lookout, initiated by the Swedish Maritime Administration, focuses on creating good working environments for both women and men.

The project is funded by the Nordic Gender Equality Fund, one of several tools used by Nordic Information on Gender (NIKK) in their work on gender equality issues on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Gender equality has been on the Nordic agenda for more than 50 years, but remains as relevant as ever.

The project “Equal pay for equal work in the Nordic region” is being finalised right now. It aims to reduce pay gaps between women and men in the Nordics by promoting dialogue between the countries and the social partners. 

Because gender pay gaps remain despite having been a prioritised gender equality issue for a long time.

The Nordic Labour Journal’s gender equality barometer shows that the number of the 24 most important positions in the Nordic region held by women and men remains approximately the same as last year.

Iceland, which for the first time ever has a female prime minister and president, contributed strongly to that result. 

But do women in a considerable number of positions of power – like right now in Iceland – automatically mean society as a whole is equal?

Absolutely not, say researchers in Iceland we spoke to.

When basic rights are threatened, we in the Nordic region believe it is important to stand up for our values.

And that is precisely what women and men will do on 8 March this year. The main paroles for the march in Norway’s capital Oslo have been decided on long ago. 

They include well-known themes like equal pay and the fight against a gender-divided labour market, but there will also be calls for women’s right to protective equipment adapted to the female body. 

This tells me the Nordic Labour Journal around this time next year will still be writing about gender equality, and that it will remain an important topic. 

Happy reading!