The Political Economy of Equality, Nordic seminar

Prague 15th June 2013Arni Hole

Director General Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion

Norway

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The Nordic Cooperation is one of the oldest regional cooperations in the world

• 11 Councils of Ministers from 5 countries and three self-goverened areas

• A Nordic Parlamentarian Council

• One of the NCMs is on gender equality; it has been with us for more than 30 years

• We have joined projects, programmes, research, bench-marking, lessons learned, coop towards the UN, etc.

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The Nordic Lessons: Norway

• In short:• To fullfill human rights is smart economy• Sustainability of the welfare society depends on full

participation of women and men in the labour force, everyone in a tax position

• Taxation principles and a facilititating State as a redistributor of income (to persons and municipalities)

• Strong trade unions and employers federations; bound in a ”Main Agreement” for tripartite cooperation since 1935

• Collective bargaining on wages; small differences in payment pr.hour

• Relatively small social differences

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Continued…

• A plethora of laws and regulations working together, to ensure personal freedom of choice; not to be interdepentedent within the family, whether spouse or child

• Women not squeezed between child care and elderly care; most care work is professionalized and transformed into paid jobs

• No means testing of loans for higher education

• Possiblities for both men and women to choose work and career; not beeing forced to choose ”either – or”

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Continued…

• Genereous investments in families; paid parental leave (incl fathers’ quota), full coverage of early child care to an affordable price, right to stay at home with pay when the cild is ill (10 days pr parent pr year up to the child is 12)

• After school provisions for children up to 12

• Sufficient support to single providers and programmes to enable them to work-life participation

• Family planning, reproductive health care

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Norwegian experiences, over the last 35 years

• Today: 79 % of women between 16 and 66 years of age, have gainful employment (59 % in the EU)

• Hardly any left in the informal economy, not even in agriculture; hardly any ”housewives”

• Appr.40% of the women work part-time,1/10 of this is involuntarely

• Only 14 % of the men choose part-time

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Continued…

• Part-time is an important right (Working Environment Law), and made an entrance to the labour market for many women 35 years back

• before full coverage of early child care institutions was a reality

• when paid parental leave was only 12 weeks and no father’s ”quota” like today

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Most important : The National Insurance Scheme

• The National Insurance Scheme, by law and by joint venture between State, employers, employees and self-employed (all parties paying taxes into a sustainable Insurance Fund, wisely investing for revenues and the future )

• Introduced in 1966 (before we struck oil !), covering most social issues, replacing several oldfashioned social benefits laws and introducing new welfare schemes

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Continued about the Insurance Scheme

• The National Insurance Scheme covers health insurance for all, sick leave, insurance unemployment benefits , disability benefits, old age care, minimum pensions for all (fixed and one earns pensionspoints on top –by working),paid parental leave after birth

• The State will pay the deficit. The tax amount to the Insurance Scheme is discussed every year by the social partners and in Parliament

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One excample of positive economic circles while building the

welfare…• Expanding the Early Child Care Sector has

created thousands of new jobs, all over Norway, the last 15 years: More persons in tax position, more women ”freed” to paid work and more taxes back to the common good. (And: Reasonably high fertility in an ageing Europe)

• Half of all the institutions are privately owned and operated (non-profit organizations mostly); the expansion gave a boost to job-creation and social innovation; many female entrepreneurs

• All early child care institutions recieve large subsidies if they comply with the Act and the standards set for quality

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Taxes: progressive taxing

• Deduction for parents with children below 12 years of age; ”investment in the future”

• Special deduction if having care for cronically ill children

• Personal deduction (everyone)in ordinary income; to even out the tax burden: if small income, less tax

• Spouses are taxed independently – as a main rule; it shall pay to work

• Single providers have more personal deduction

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Social trust and radical individualism

• Those two notions are not paradoxical, but at the very heart of the Norwegian model of political economy

• The facilitating State, enabling every person to make adequate choices, gives a high individual autonomy

• The many laws and welfare schemes have reduced, over the years, the interdependency within the family and empowered women

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Women’s rights are human rights

• To fullfill human rights is sustainable economy

• To enable youth and all grown persons to participate in society and the formal economy, increases democracy and the GNP;

• increases any nation’s competitive edge.• Talents are evenly divided among the

genders, we must employ all talents• We must harvest the return on

investments in higher education; on individual as well as societal levels

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Why legal affirmative actions ?

• Norway differs slightly from the other Nordic Countries (except Iceland) in using radical affirmative actions in several fields:– § 21 in the Gender Equality Act requiring 40 % of

each gender in all governmental appointed committees, councils, working groups etc (since 1988)

– Same requirement in the Municipal Act from 1993: All committees or task forces app. by the elected Municipal Council, shall have no less than 40 % of each gender

– The Father’s quota in the paid parental leave scheme , not transferable to the mother; since 1993, now 14 weeks

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Continued…

• Amendments to five different company laws in 2003, most wellknown are the Public Ltd Companies, listed on the Stock Exchange with a requirement of 40 % of each gender when electing board of governors (non-executives)

• Two more company types regulated in 2008 and 2009

• Positive duties for both private and public sectors to work for equality and report annually; since 2003 regarding Gender Equality (later also for other discrimination grounds)

• Instructions to do gender analyses of the State budgets (since 2005) and report annually to Parliament

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The need to reach equality in outputs, not only securing formal equal rights and equal chances

• The use of strong affirmative actions are debated, but effective; we do annual measuring trough indicators

• In some areas , like the pre-school college admissions and veterinary sciences, we are giving young men ”gender points”

• We have ’quotas’ for admissions to some studies: In datatechnology with 30 places for women at the Natural Sciences and Technical University, 15 places for women within ICT

• 2 extra points for women applying to BA studies in engieneering, agricultural sciences, maritime engineering and some others

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We can display equality in results…it changes images of genders and alter people’s behaviour and choices

• The Norwegian society profits from a better gender balance in all sectors, since we profit on all talents

• Gender balance ”in real life” decompose gender stereotypes

• The working environment in the enterprises and public institutions profit on gender balance

• The use of affirmative actions are not ”quick fixes” or applicable (or legal )in all sphere

• We have some ways to go for more women in executive top jobs (less than 20 %), women as chairmen of the boards of large, listed companies, ( 8 %), men in the care sector and kindergartens, women officers in the Military Services; we cannot use ”quota here….

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Fill the tool-box with legal and other measures

• The possibilities to find tools are infinite…..• Be sure to discuss the difference between equality in

chances and equality in oputputs… then define your tools

• You need many types of strong legislation, securing rights and family policies

• You need profound politicial will / a political economy; across parties

• And close consulting with the social partners• You need the issues of GE to be shared by both women

and men and youth• GE is integrated in all sectorial policies; the sector

”produces” GE, never let the equality policies appear as something for the ’special interested’ !

• Use media and ICT !