Theme: Nordic gender equality and division
Photo: Gorm Kallestad
Who wants to hire young women and men with two children?
March is when gender equality usually takes centre stage. This year, the NLJ’s gender equality barometer shows a setback for women's share of 24 power positions in the Nordic countries. But we also look at childbirth, artificial intelligence, the EU's platform directive, and Iceland's refugee policy.
Severe drop in childbirth rates across the Nordics
What will happen to the Nordic labour market when birth rates in all of the five Nordic countries have fallen to record-low levels? Can existing assisted fertilisation technology help increase the number of children? Or is the drop in foreign adoptions larger?
Danish expert: Support young people to get pregnant, not to freeze their eggs
Female employees in large American companies can have their eggs frozen and delay having children – as a workplace benefit. A leading Danish infertility expert recommends Nordic employers and governments take an opposite approach and support young people to have children while they are students or newly employed.
Midwife – a norm-breaking profession for Swedish men
The Swedish labour market is very gender segregated. But some go against the grain. Like the men choosing to become midwives.
"Structures maintain the gender-segregated Nordic labour market"
“Men are underrepresented across the entire welfare sector, including healthcare, social care and education. Research shows that the reasons primarily lie on an organisational and structural level and that efforts to get more men to choose jobs in the welfare sector therefore must also be targeted at an organisational and structural level.”
Paulina Brandberg – the Minister for Equality who wants to take a tough stance
What can the Nordics bring to inspire other countries to improve gender equality? Sweden’s Minister for Equality Paulina Brandberg has two rather surprising examples: High divorce numbers and changing tables in the gents.
2024 Equality barometer: Three significant women have disappeared from power
Two years ago, it looked like the 24 positions of power in the NLJ’s gender equality barometer were just a few years away from being equally divided between men and women. Women had reached 92 points, and at 100 they would be on par with men. But in 2023, women’s points fell to 72 and this year sees a further fall down to 65 points.
Major increase in applications: Iceland’s government seeks tighter immigration rules
There have been strong and frequent discussions about a change in the immigration system in Iceland in recent years. The reason is a huge increase in asylum applications which has proved very costly for the Icelandic state.
AI – a threat to Nordic democracy?
How will artificial intelligence influence democracy? That was the big question during the marking of Nordic Day in Oslo. Do not think the EU’s AI Act will solve all our problems, the warning went.
EU directive gives Nordic platform workers new hope
The EU platform work directive is in place at last. It should help platform workers in the Nordic EU countries who work for companies like Foodora and Wolt to secure decent working conditions. In Norway, this was solved at the start of this year through a change to the working environment act.
500 years of Nordic history
What could you do on Nordic Day on 23 March to feel a bit Nordic? One thing is to go and see the big exhibition Nordic Life at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm. Svenska Dagbladet calls it “perfect”.
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