“There is more focus on what you are capable of, instead of your gender.”. When it comes to pay, the difference between gross average hourly earnings of male and female employees in Denmark, Iceland and Norway is only slightly below the EU average of 16%. Sweden comes out best with 12.3%, but still lags behind Luxembourg, Italy and Romania, which all manage a pay gap of 5% or less. “I think it will take quite a lot of time - another 50 years at least - until we get there - and that is only if we keep working at it.”, For Bolette Wrestroem, Denmark’s global image as a leader in gender equality “didn’t always match up” with the reality in the workplace (Credit: Bolette Wrestroem). Even Europe's most egalitarian countries struggle to put women on an even footing at work. However various international rankings all paint the same picture: there are surprisingly few women who reach managerial positions in the Nordics, particularly so in private enterprise. The most prominent use of the term is in relation to the disputed claim that increased gender differences in participation in STEM careers arise in countries that have more gender equality, based on a study in Psychological Science by Gijsbert Stoet and David C. Geary, which received substantial coverage in non-academic media outlets. “Men are definitely not trying to avoid women in top positions,” she argues, but “who they know best and who is sitting next to them” continues to play a role, as well as protecting their own reputations. Juggling a career with family life remains a challenge for some women in the Nordics, despite policies like subsidised childcare and flexible working hours encouraging couples to share parenting. “If I am a female and I look at the male team members around me becoming fathers and none of them take any parental leave, I will feel that I am an outlier when I get pregnant and I need my parental leave,” says Chief Operating Officer Morten Welo. Specifically in Norway, the evidence from studying quotas shows neutral or negative results, both for women’s advancement and company performance – the two areas we are told will most obviously benefit. Moreover, according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 from the World Economic Forum, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are the countries with the smallest gap between men and women. “Research suggests it is often a strategic decision not to apply for certain roles…Women do want (it), but they realise that they won’t get it.”, The employment rate for women in the Nordic region is 72%, compared to an average of 59% across developed western countries (Credit: Getty Images). This report calls for a closer look at the paradox in hopes that investigation will help shed new light on how to prevent IPV against women by illustrating how gender equality influences violence. Last year Iceland became the first country in the world to require companies with 25 or more workers to demonstrate that they pay men and women equally for the same work, with daily fines for firms that fail to do so. It is a paradox that many women working in the Nordics will recognise. In this study we compared physical and sexual IPVAW prevalence data in two countries exemplifying the Nordic paradox: Sweden (N = 1483) and Spain (N = 1447). When Bolette Wrestroem moved back to Denmark after spending most of her twenties overseas, she was excited to experience the “gender equality” for which the Nordic region is globally famous. According to AllBright’s report En spricka i glastaket which was published in October 2018, only 23 percent of the executives within Sweden’s largest, listed firms, are women. But others strongly believe that social conditioning is the major driver when it comes to women’s career choices and promotion opportunities, and stress that gender stereotypes persist. “Female founders are very keen to promote other female founders,” she argues. On a political level, all the Nordic governments are working to tackle the gender gap. Data was drawn from the European Union Agency for Fundamental … “We think that if more women create their own structures and companies, the overall structure will change into more empathic systems,” says Sundåker. Sweden was for example a pioneer when it came to open up early capitalism for women’s participation. Paradoxically, growing rape numbers have thus been used as proof of Swedish gender equality. Gender equality has predominantly been defined in relation to men and women having “equal rights, opportunities, responsibilities and access to resources” (Wall, 2014, p. 3). While Nordic societies are indeed role models when it comes to gender equality, this equality stretches back centuries before the modern welfare state and reflects traditional Nordic culture. The Swedish approach The overarching Swedish principle for gender equality is that everyone, regardless of gender, has the right to work and support themselves, to balance career and family life, and to live without the fear of abuse or violence. Reisel is research director at Institute for Social Research, and participates in the study together with Ida Drange, Charlotte Silander from Sweden and Maria Pietilä from Finland. Last year, researchers in the US and UK found that countries with an existing culture of gender equality have an even smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology and mathematics (STEM). “Even in Sweden there is something of an ‘old boys club’, she argues. The high prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in countries with high levels of gender equality has been defined as the “Nordic paradox”. The chief executive of Heba, a Stockholm rental company named-and-shamed for low male-female diversity, recently made headlines for admitting he hadn’t thought about the advantages of having more women managers until his top executive team achieved gender balance. Read about our approach to external linking. We will show that this pattern He believes too much media focus is placed on the lack of women in CEO positions, since these account for such a small proportion of jobs overall, and suggests that more men fill these roles since “the personality traits and ambition to be important and famous is higher in men than women”. For Anneli Häyren, at the Centre for Gender Research in Uppsala, a key goal is simply to ensure that public discussions about gender equality continue, both in Nordic nations and on a global scale. Gender equality paradox: fewer women in developed nations go after STEM degrees The reason why reveals a near-universal difference in the academic strengths of each sex. However, sep… But the marketing strategist believes that unconscious biases can affect senior hiring decisions. “I definitely think Denmark is more open-minded than all the other places I have lived,” says the 28-year-old, now a community manager for a Copenhagen start-up. However, equality is a broader concept. High gender equality and high IPV? Meanwhile, many campaigners agree that grassroots efforts designed to empower women on an individual level remain essential. “But you can visualise a career path and take risks if you see others who have taken that path.”. Den svenska jämlikhetsdiskussionen kännetecknas av en märklig paradox. The 'paradox' of working in the world's most equal countries. Denmark’s global image, versus the reality, “didn’t always match up”. der equality, Finland is poised to close the STEM gender gap. Tengai, the world's first robot designed to carry out unbiased job interviews, is being tested by major Swedish recruitment firm TNG. The gender-equality paradox is a phrase applied to a variety of claims, generally around gender differences being larger in more gender equal or wealthier countries. The workplace works better because of the [gender] mix," Lennart Karlsson told the BBC shortly afterwards. A recent Finnish study gives fuel to the embattled thinker's standpoint, citing welfare state as one of the underlying reasons. Jordan Peterson cited the study to argue women naturally aren’t interested in technical fields. The “Gender Equality Paradox” hypothesis regards this non-intuitive finding as demonstrating the persistence of sex differences in even the most gender-equal of circumstances. However, while public authorities claim that Sweden is in the leading-edge regarding gender equality, the private sector has remained silent. more women than men currently hold management positions, report from the Nordic Council of Ministers, tested by major Swedish recruitment firm TNG, demonstrate that they pay men and women equally for the same work. The writers found “a troubling pattern” in businesses - “the higher up the hierarchy you look, the more men you will see”. Politik försvÃ¥rar kvinnors karriärer | 2016-02-26. It therefore comes as a surprise that Nordic countries, in one international ranking after another, are shown to have few women among top-managers and business owners. But as The Nordic Gender Effect at Work report points out, improvements at board level have not led to a jump in the number of women CEOs or managers. In Norway,  Equality Check, a community-based platform of employee reviews rating equality in companies (similar to the English-language Glassdoor platform), has become a popular tool for both applicants and HR professionals. It Just Got A 1,113-Word Correction. In Iceland and Sweden - which have the most generous policies - almost 30% of leave is taken by fathers, while in Norway the figure is just over 19%, and the proportion drops to 11% in Denmark and Finland, according to The Nordic Gender Effect at Work report. The Swedish gender equality discussion is characterized by a remarkable paradox. He argues that since Nordic countries have a generally high standard of living and strong welfare states, young women are free to pick careers based on their own interests, which he says are often more likely to include working in care-giving roles or with languages. The other six trips were part of my 12 Rules for Life tour, which […] STEM Gender Equality Paradox Study Gets Correction. Equality paradox in academia. The uniquely gender equal Nordic culture seems to have persisted throughout the Middle Ages to the modern era. Ingen slump att Sverige har färre kvinnliga chefer | 2016-03-04. “Big funds have also become a lot more aware of how they write job descriptions - what words you use and how do you conduct the interview processes,” adds Rikke Eckhoff Høvding at the Norwegian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (NVCA). “Girls and boys are different, and have different preferences on the whole,” he argues. In Sweden, gender equality is used to define the rela-tionship between women and men. There are, however, reasons to think that there may indeed be a real increase in sex crime. The Nordic Gender Equality Paradox | Download, Nordic countries have surprisingly few women at the top, The Baltic free-market model leads to more women at the top than the Nordic model, The American model leads to more women at the top, Large welfare states are (un)intentionally holding women back, Nordic countries have a long history of women in business, Nordic countries have unusually gender equal norms. Yet, paradoxically, Finland has one of the world’s largest gender gaps in college degrees in STEM fields, and Norway and Sweden, also leading in gender-equality rankings, are not far behind (fewer than 25% of STEM graduates are women). But the reasons women tend to pick these careers remain up for debate. “Quite a lot of people think we have discussed it enough and it is a dead debate.”. But many experts argue that progress has flatlined, suggesting these countries are further from achieving equality than global observers might imagine. The region has a glowing reputation as the best place in the world when it comes to gender equality, thanks to welfare states that support working families and promote parental leave, and legal, political and cultural support for the goal of gender equality. The Nordic Gender Equality Paradox is a book by Sanandaji which argues that the Nordic nations, which are often ranked as being the most gender-equal in the world, have policies that hinder women from reaching the top. Stockholm-based recruiter Dani Nguyen agrees. “If this isn’t a KPI (key performance indicator) the business is held accountable for, it becomes a side hobby and side hobbies aren’t always invested in financially or time wise,” argues Nguyen. Häyren also rejects the idea that women in the Nordics are less ambitious than men. Gender Equality Paradox – 3 educational gender equality paradox is inspired by the expectancy value theory (Eccles, 1983; Wang & Degol, 2013). According to the Nordic Labour Journal Norway had no female CEO:s in its 60 largest firms, even though 8 years had passed since the quotas had been introduced. Madsen argues that most Nordic companies recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce and its importance when it comes to employer branding. Gender experts and campaigners are at odds over why the region continues to face these disparities. Canadian psychology professor and online guru Jordan Peterson has often referenced the "Scandinavian paradox", citing stark gender differences in "progressive" Nordic countries despite their commitment to equality. She says men in professions like preschool teaching or nursing usually find it easier to climb these career ladders than women entering “male-gendered” areas. It should be read by all those who wish to promote the cause of women. While Sweden, along with the other Nordic countries, tops the international index of gender equality, we perform abysmally in terms of female entrepreneurship and top managers. We are not claiming that Sweden does not value gender equality or that the implemented policies do not mitigate blatant forms of gender inequality observed elsewhere. However, there are still surprisingly few women in senior private sector roles. Past policy approaches to achieving gender equality in Western nations, including Australia, have been influenced by liberalism and civil rights, and have focused on addressing “visible gender discrimination”(link is external)in employment and the law. But she believes that raising awareness of the ongoing challenges in Sweden and the Nordics is essential, so that the region can pick up the pace of change and continue to inspire the world. On the basis of this theory, it is hypothesized that students use their own relative performance (e.g., knowledge of what subjects they are best at) as a … In Norway, a private equity firm criticised for a lack of female managers recently introduced a policy making it mandatory for all fathers to take at least two months’ parental leave, or risk losing their bonus, to help reduce unconscious bias. Här i de nordiska länderna är attityden till kvinnors arbete ovanligt positiv. We have had this discussion a lot in the last few years and everyone is asking ‘what we can do next?’.”, Rikke Eckhoff Hovding says inspiring role models of female leadership are still really important for making progress (Credit: Sigmund Sagberg Andersen). A recent study points out a so-called “gender-equality paradox”: there are more women in STEM in countries with lower gender equality. “To attract the best talent, we need better diversity.”. Just  28% of managers in Denmark are female, rising to 32% in Finland and Norway, and 36% in Sweden, according to a report by independent think tank The Cato Institute in 2018. Iceland is the highest-scoring Nordic country, with 40%. In countries such as Sweden, where around half or more of families’ income go to various forms of direct and indirect taxes, and where high taxes raise the prices of household services, these options are more limited for women. Debatt: Svenska välfärdsmodellen hindrar kvinnors karriärer | 2016-02-25. Si… A recent study points out a so-called “gender-equality paradox”: there are more women in STEM in countries with lower gender equality. In a new study with other researchers they compared data for Sweden and Spain, to make sure that data from the two countries measured the same things. “It is a paradox … nobody would have expected this to be the reality of our time,” says Professor Gijsbert Stoet, one of the report’s authors. While Nordic fathers do take more parental leave than anywhere else in the world, the gender split of parenting labour remains far from equal. They further expanded on the paradox as such: countries with more gender equality, like the U.S., Sweden and Norway tend to be richer, so women have the financial freedom to pursue their true interests, which lie in the humanities. “I don’t think it’s about choice, it’s about structures … to say it’s about choice is to ‘blame the victim’,” says Anneli Häyren at the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University. “We do have the idea of being gender equal…but we have a long way to go before we are gender equal,” argues Anneli Häyren, a researcher at the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University in Sweden. The Nordic Gender Equality Paradox by Nima Sanandaji assesses gender equality programs and plans in Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The report also flags two ongoing challenges; women are more likely to work part-time and they invest more hours in housework or caring for elderly relatives than men. Numerous global studies have concluded that there is a positive correlation between the presence of women in leadership roles and an organisation's performance. In February 2016, the book was published by Swedish thinktank Timbro. In the Nordics, why do women still lag behind men in pay, management and company ownership? PART 1: SCANDINAVIA Over the last few weeks, I have been in Oslo, twice; Helsinki, twice; Stockholm, twice; and Copenhagen, once. More companies are also experimenting with digital platforms designed to help tackle unconscious biases. The study is part of a larger Nordic research project on gender equality in academia, which is funded by Nordforsk. QUICK FACT 1 – NORDIC SOCIETIES HAVE A HISTORY OF GENDER EQUALITY Already during the time of the Vikings, Norse societies stood out by granting women more freedom and power than other parts of Europe. In politics, 46% of Swedish members of parliament are women, while the proportion in other Nordic countries is around 40%. Moreover, according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 from the World Economic Forum, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are the countries with the smallest gap between men and women. Countries with a better ranking in the Global Gender Gap Index have a smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as Stoet and Geary showed in their study titled The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Nordic welfare states are – unintentionally – holding women back. “It feels more equal than in the US, because people are more focused and consistent in talking about the topic...But I am not sure they are always held accountable in terms of upholding those ideals,” agrees Dani Nguyen, 31, an executive recruiter based in the Swedish capital who previously worked in Silicon Valley. science. But amid immersion in a culture that seemed to actively champion women’s rights, she couldn’t escape the fact that there were still “primarily white males sitting at the top” of many of the best-known companies. “You want to be a modern organisation and an attractive workplace by creating diversity - not only male and female but also different nationalities,” she says. She says that the start-up community in Scandinavia is already making strides in this area, through meet-ups, conferences and networking events targeting the gender gap. “The Nordic paradox posits a challenging research question that should not be ignored,” said co-investigator Juan Merlo, MD, PhD, Professor in the Unit for Social Epidemiology at the University of Lund in Malmo, Sweden. By analysing Swedish gender equality before and after the introduction of RUT, we probe whether these gender equality ideas correspond to those Sweden is desirous of exporting. Sweden was […] Setting conventional wisdom about the gender gap on its head, The Nordic Gender Equality Paradox is a lesson in market-oriented feminism. Only 1% of investments registered in the Nordic Tech List database last year went to companies headed solely by female founders, according to figures analysed by Swedish business news site DI Digital. Vi kan anse att chefspositioner inte är det viktigaste mÃ¥let för jämställdhet, men om vi hÃ¥ller fast vid att det är eftersträvansvärt mÃ¥ste vi erkänna svÃ¥righeter. Strong concerns about this disparity were raised last year in The Nordic Gender Effect at Work, a report from the Nordic Council of Ministers, an advisory body. Danish start-up community manager Bolette Wrestroem says quotas, while potentially a “good stepping-stone”, could also suggest that “women are only there because it is required and not because of their skills or capabilities”. "I thought competence was the main thing - competence and attitude - not sex, but I've changed my mind. In other words, in countries with more gender equality, like Norway and Sweden, fewer women choose to enter STEM fields than in countries like Algeria or Turkey. Underlying this notion is the belief that all people are of equal value, regardless In a new study with other researchers they compared data for Sweden and Spain, to make sure that data from the two countries measured the same things. Evidently, something in the Nordic welfare state is holding women back when compared to the more market based American model. “So we thought - ‘let’s turn this around’, and say it’s mandatory regardless of gender.”, He says the policy also sends “an important signal” that he hopes will encourage more young female graduates to consider the company. By contrast, high achievers in less stable economies might choose STEM careers based on the income and security they provide, even if they prefer other areas. аналитического центра ECEPR. But critics of fixed targets argue that the concept could devalue the way women hired under this regime are perceived in the workplace. “It is definitely a problem,” says Rikke Eckhoff Høvding, CEO of industry body The Norwegian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (NVCA). This jarring discordance between gender equality and sexual violence is known, blandly, as the Nordic Paradox, but the picture appears to be even worse than Gracia and Merlo first described. It’s hard to be what you can’t see,” argues Rikke Eckhoff Høvding. The Nordic gender equality paradox is not a new concept, and supported by numerous studies. “On some level it really hit the brakes,” she says of public discourse in recent years. Gender equality implies not only equal distribution between men and women in all domains of society. Philip Perry discussed topic in Sweden. This contributes to the pay gap (public sector jobs tend to pay less) and limits the pool of female talent available for top private sector roles. According to the Global Gender Gap Report, the five Nordic countries are the best in the world in terms of providing equal opportunities for men and … But that is still three points behind the US, where 43% of managers are women, despite the US ranking just 51 in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap index. Vi har högst ställda mÃ¥l när det kommer till jämställdhet och en politik som mÃ¥lmedvetet arbetar för att fördela makten i samhället mer lika mellan könen. "The discussion climate is better, you have a better conversation and a better understanding for each other.". “Men are more active in family life...But women still feel split between work and home and being a good parent - even though we are not in the 1950s anymore,” reflects Anette Tvedergaard Madsen, 45, who has three children and holds a senior marketing role at one of Denmark’s largest banks. “It is a waterproof sign of how strong the patriarchy is,” she argues. “The most important step is creating an environment where people of different backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, feel empowered and supported to do their best,” she argues. Strong progress has been made in the public sector; in Sweden more women than men currently hold management positions in this sphere. This jarring discordance between gender equality and sexual violence is known, blandly, as the Nordic Paradox, but the picture appears to be even worse than Gracia and Merlo first described. The Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox (GEPP) is the finding that gender differences in personality are at their largest in the most gender equal countries. “One reason for this is that the business world is characterised by a wide range of leadership standards and traits that are typically (perhaps stereotypically) associated with men,” it concludes. Ingen kan göra allt, livet handlar om kompromisser, liksom politiken. It is a paradox that many women working in the Nordics will recognise. Nguyen says she has placed several women in high positions in Swedish head offices who ended up leaving because they felt they needed to adapt too much to be heard. Initiatives in Sweden include the recent launch of the Gender Equality Agency, designed to promote better coordination on the issue, and coding lessons for children, partly aimed at tackling early biases in terms of tech-based career choices. Meanwhile, women in the Nordics trail their male counterparts in attracting investment for new businesses. One of the trips to Stockholm was limited to press interviews and television (see here). Many who can afford help choose not to, because there is a degree of stigma attached to outsourcing household chores in Scandinavia. Previous known studies have not examined this relationship over time. Campaigners are proposing a wide range of solutions to move forward, including calls for individual company targets for senior managers or nationwide quotas. At first, she wasn’t disappointed. ”Kvotering Ã¥tervändsgränd för jämställdheten” | 2016-03-30. Even the region’s most high-profile influencer and businesswoman, Isabella Löwengrip, faced criticism when she hired a personal assistant after divorcing her husband. “The corporate environment has been built by white men and for white men.”, Denmark and Sweden recently scored top marks in a World Bank study of how much laws limit discrimination in employment and entrepreneurship (Credit: Getty Images). Why do women make up … It refers to parity in relations among all individuals and groups in society. The region has a glowing reputation as the best place in the world when it comes to gender equality… In Finland the figure creeps to 16.7%. “We cannot just hire females and minorities and expect them to figure it out.”. Genom politiska diktat sÃ¥som könskvotering försöker politiker lösa problem man tycker sig se. A Controversial Study Claimed To Explain Why Women Don’t Go Into Science And Tech. Public sector monopolies, high tax wedges and welfare state policies such as generous parental leave are limiting women’s opportunities on the marketplace, and encouraging them to work few hours. One common explanation is that women are more likely than men to choose public sector careers. “I would say no-one knows the answers, so we need to try different things, readjust and think of something new if it doesn’t work.”, Charlotte Sundåker and Linda Waxin launched thinktank Ownershift, which aims to broaden discussion around greater gender equality through ownership (Credit: Maddy Savage). “It is easier to get VC funding if you are male. “Role models are really important. Quotas for board members have already been introduced on a nationwide scale in Norway and Iceland. In Sweden, men still own roughly double what women own in terms of capital, land, real estate, forests and natural resources. Den nordiska paradoxen, med höga mÃ¥l för jämställdhet men ovanligt lÃ¥g andel kvinnliga chefer beror ytterst pÃ¥ vÃ¥ra politiska prioriteringar. She argues that men remain better paid due to a greater value being placed on management positions and in certain sectors, such as tech and science, which are “male-gendered”, in contrast to “female-gendered” jobs focused on caregiving. Two successful Swedish female entrepreneurs - Charlotte Sundåker and Linda Waxin - recently launched Ownershift, an independent think tank designed to expand discussions about gender equality to include ownership and risk-taking. Finland’s new Working Hours Act, due to come into force in 2020, will give the majority of full-time employees the right to decide when and where they work for at least half of their working hours, in a move designed to help boost flexibility. For example, if we look at the proportion of women in National Parliaments in 2019, Finland and Sweden are in the lead with 47% and 46%.