Navigation

Newsletter

Subscribe to the latest news from the Nordic Labour Journal by e-mail. The newsletter is issued 9 times a year. Subscription is free of charge.

(Required)
You are here: Home i Articles i Portrait i Portrait 2013 i Anniken Huitfeldt: Minister of Labour with an eye for equality

Anniken Huitfeldt: Minister of Labour with an eye for equality

”More people can do some work” says Anniken Huitfeldt when I meet Norway’s new Minister of Labour just as we enter 2013. There are parliamentary elections in September. So where will she make her mark in the next six months; where does she want to make a difference as Minister of Labour in Jens Stoltenberg’s government?
Up one level

This folder has no visible items. To add content, press the add button, or paste content from another location.

Document Actions

1 minute interview

What book are you currently reading?

“Posthornet (the Post Horn) by Vigdis Hjorth, a great book. I got it for Christmas. I really love Vigdis Hjorth as an author and have read nearly everything she has published. Posthornet is partly about becoming politically engaged. I have also just read ‘Jeg nekter’ (I Refuse) by Per Petterson, a previous winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize. I also liked that a lot.

Which work tool do you appreciate the most in your office?

“The iPad. After I got that I hardly ever use a PC.”

What is your hidden talent?

“I remember song lyrics very well. I’m looking forward to a new musical at the National Theatre with songs from [the Norwegian band] deLillos. I know all the lyrics.” 

As a child, what did you want to become when you grew up?

“A teacher. I could very well imagine being one. I really enjoy welcoming pupils to my office. I think it’s particularly exciting to meet people between 16 and 21. That is when most people are being shaped into the human beings they will become. What you read, the music you listen to or theatre plays you watch at that age often have a deep impact. Later in life you often point to books you read at that age as the books which have had the greatest influence on you.” 

Johan Castberg (1862-1926)
  • MP for Arbeiderdemocratene (the Labour Democrats) during three periods between 1901 and 1926.
  • Norway’s first Minister of Social Affairs when the Ministry of Social Affairs was established in 1913.
  • Became known for the Castberger children’s legislation, which gave children born out of wedlock the rights to inherit and the right to their father’s name, equal to children born to married parents,
  • as well as the laws on sickness insurance (1909, 1915), factory supervision (1909), accident insurance for fishermen (1908) seafarers (1911), and the law on the protection of industry workers (1915).

 

Anniken Huitfeldt on the Norwegian model:

“For me it is about comprehensive cooperation between employees’ and employers’ organisations, it is about the fact that we have relatively high tax rates and little privatisation of welfare services; most people’s paths will cross either through school, in the elderly care sector or in hospital. It is basically about welfare and taxation levels and conditions in the working life, where there is a great degree of cooperation and small pay gaps.”

Facts about Anniken Huitfeldt
  1. Minister in Jens Stoltenberg’s government since 2008
  2. Minister of Labour from 21 September 2012, formerly Minister of Culture and Minster of Children and Equality
  3. Elected to the Norwegian parliament in 2005,  
  4. Deputy representative during 2001-2005 and 1993-1997 parliaments. 
  5. Researcher at research foundation FAFO, 2000-2005
  6. Leader of AUF (the Labour Party’s youth organisation) 1996-2000,
  7. Leader of the Labour Party’s women’s network from 2007. 

Anniken Huitfeldt graduated from the University of Oslo as a Master of Philosophy after studying history, political science and geography. She is the mother of three children aged seven, nine and eleven.

Newsletter

Receive Nordic Labour Journal's newsletter nine times a year. It's free.

(Required)
h
This is themeComment