“What was written about Hannah Ryggen in the eighties and nineties does not reflect the quality of her art and her significance during her own time,” according to art historian Marit Paasche.
“Norwegian women are perhaps not as modern and liberated today as we like to think,” says researcher Camilla Mørk Røstvik. She has examined how women – and some men – describe their experiences with menstruation in the twentieth century.
How have the limits for what is considered acceptable sexuality been drawn and negotiated through history? This is the question we need to ask in order to understand not only the past, but also our present, according to Tone Hellesund.
Opinion
The quality of research designed to solve our time’s social challenges is strengthened when the gender dimension is included, writes John-Arne Røttingen, director of The Research Council of Norway.
Machines and technology increasingly fill more and more human functions. According to researchers, society’s gender roles affect the development of robots and artificial intelligence, but technology may also shape ideas about gender.
How are Hungarian, Polish and Swedish gender scholars responding to criticism and campaigns to discredit their work? Not only do they emphasize the intrinsic value of gender studies – they also use humour to counter the anti-gender campaigns.
Podcast
Academic freedom is threatened by authoritarian right-wing populism in countries in Europe and Latin America. Listen to a podcast discussing why this matters to women's rights.
The legacy from colonialism characterises Norwegian academia. Now, Norwegian researchers want to examine their own disciplines and include non-western perspectives in the academic institutions’ scholarly production.
The way in which we understand violence against women has changed, according to researcher Linda Sjåfjell. It used to be perceived as a gender equality problem, whereas today we explain it in more individual terms.
A new working group will document the extent of sexual harassment in Norwegian academia. Now Sweden is encouraging Norway to follow its lead and set aside money for research in this area.
Editorial
In Hungary, the authorities are planning to close down and ban gender studies. This attack on gender research must be seen in connection with right-wing populism’s anti-feminist values, writes Linda Marie Rustad.
On 8 August, a proposal to legalise elective abortion was debated and rejected in Argentina’s highest legislative body. Despite the decision, Argentina has shown itself as a democracy with room for female voices, according to researcher Camila Gianella.
In the 1950s, the first successful gender reassignment treatment was carried out. Since then, major developments have taken place within medicine and law, but also when it comes to our perceptions of gender, according to historian Sigrid Sandal.
Women’s bodies are different from men’s. We need more knowledge to better understand women’s health, says medical doctor and Professor Johanne Sundby. She finds support in a new report on the same topic.
Lisa M. B. Sølvberg has interviewed ten Norwegian upper class men about body, nutrition and physical activity. According to her, leaders’ views on physical exercise may affect whom they choose to employ.
Xenophobia, double standards and guilt are central themes in the poetry collections that Kristina Leganger Iversen has studied. The fact that the works have received mixed reviews from the critics has been an important prerequisite for the project.
When Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist classic The Second Sex was published in Norway in 1970, both sexuality and existentialism were downplayed. “She was made popular,” says Ida Hove Solberg, who has examined the Norwegian translations of de Beauvoir’s work.
In Nicaragua, the authorities want more women to give birth in hospital. The aim for better figures overshadow the quality of the health care service to poor women, according to Birgit Kvernflaten.
To participate in the labour market and to have a family are things most people take for granted. Women with functional disabilities are deprived of many opportunities. The explanation may be both functional ability and gender, according to researcher.
More and more young girls seek help for mental problems. “Generally, girls take things more seriously than boys. This applies to school, friends and family,” says researcher Anders Bakken.
Can education meet girls’ challenges in developing countries? Not on its own, according to researchers behind a new report. They call for more goal-oriented measures to combat inequality.
More boys than girls begin school a year late and more girls than boys begin a year early. But researchers are not certain whether maturity is the explanation.
In 1967, Norwegian women were finally allowed to decide for themselves when to get pregnant. The contraceptive pill has had enormous significance for women’s emancipation, but researchers doubt whether it would have been approved today.
White men dominate leader positions in the Norwegian petroleum industry. If you’re a woman and want to climb the career ladder, you need to keep your mouth shut when there’s talk of gender and equality, according to researchers.
The #metoo campaign has shown that sexual harassment in the workplace is a large-scale societal problem. Now, researchers want to change focus from spicy stories to constructive debate on sexuality and power.
Women are more or less absent in the management of outfield and nature conservation areas. Gender equality has been neglected within Norwegian nature management, according to researcher.
Norway met criticism in the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for its lack of efforts on matters of gender equality. There is now a hope that the critique may contribute to the implementation of important measures.
Podcast
Ever wondered what it takes to achieve a gender balanced and diverse staff? In academia, the most knowledge-intensive sector in society, the answers are hard to find. In this podcast, the experts discuss barriers and offer solutions.
Congolese girl soldiers are labelled violent and sexual, also by international media and aid organisations. This hampers the girls’ reintegration, according to researcher Milfrid Tonheim.
By mourning women as martyrs in Iran, they become recognised as political players, says Gilda Seddighi. She has studied Facebook pages dedicated to dead or incarcerated Iranians.
We ask the researcher
We ask Abdi Gele, Research Director at the National Expertise Center for Migration and Minority Health (NAKMI).
Subconscious attitudes towards women and men affect design. According to researcher Nina Lysbakken, designers need to be aware of their own power to shape ideas about gender.
While the number of Swedes supporting the sex purchase ban is rising, more people also feel positive towards a ban on selling sex. Thus, the goal of transferring stigma from seller to buyer is still not achieved.
“The fat body carries a secret that has to be revealed at all costs; it is a living symptom that something has ‘gone wrong’,” says Camilla Bruun Eriksen. She has studied the representation of fat bodies in popular culture.
Lack of communication hampers the prevention of female genital mutilation, according to anthropologist Rachel Issa Djesa. She has observed encounters between Norwegian authorities, health personnel and Somali women in Norway.
The social and moral responsibility for the children lies primarily with the mother, particularly at celebrations and festive seasons, according to Kristine Warhuus Smeby.
A new study shows that the gender gap in management increases after couples have their first child.
According to Norwegian researchers, the nursing breast has a safe place within the cafe scene, but they warn against increasing puritanism and less rights for the mother.
Female drug dealers are a minority. According to sociologist Heidi Grundetjern, they gain self-confidence by succeeding in a cutthroat business, but they do not challenge the male dominance.
Norwegian musicians make careers from experimenting with queer gender identities. According to musicologist Agnete Eilertsen, pop music shows that the gender norms are changing although there is still a shortage of queer musicians.
People with Sami background who experience domestic violence seek help from the authorities less often than other Norwegians. A new report has looked at what may be done.
Young Norwegian Muslims are more liberal than their parents’ generation when it comes to equality and homosexuality, but both groups find support for their view in Islam, according to Levi Geir Eidhamar’s study.
Oversimplified perceptions of gender roles in war and conflict reproduce gender stereotypes and existing inequalities, according to researcher Maria Eriksson Baaz.
The history of divorce reveals hidden stories of love, domestic violence and societal ideals for a healthy marriage.
When Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen interviewed three generations of Norwegian women and men, she discovered how the emotional perception of gender has developed over time.
While western couples get their longed-for child, Indian surrogate mothers are left with a feeling of having sacrificed more than they have gained. Surrogacy can never become a win-win situation, according to anthropologist Kristin Engh Førde.
Boys and girls perform differently at school, but researchers are uncertain whether this has to do with how they mature.
When gender equality is portrayed as a uniquely Western value, immigrant Muslim women choose to embrace religion as a result, according to new research.
Being a journalist in war zones and armed conflicts is becoming increasingly dangerous. Most of the journalists killed in the field are men, but the concern is about the security of their female colleagues.
Men still hire men at the highest levels of society. According to researcher Siri Terjesen, gender quotas in the boardroom are the key to counteracting this culture of bias.
Young women who have experienced violence may be difficult to detect. In online reader’s queries, they try to put what is going on in their relationship into words.
Boating with grandad may affect one’s choice of education just as much as gender does, according to researcher Marianne Løken. She is critical to the gender stereotypical recruitment campaigns to the hard sciences.
Straddling the legs around a cello was considered immoral; sitting by the piano was more becoming for a lady. Thus, women became important for the development of piano composition and play.
A survey of rape convictions in Norway reveals systematic discrimination of men with minority background and of women.
In Norway, children under the age of sixteen can now change their legal gender. Anniken Sørlie investigates how the legislation affects the way children and youth perceive their own identity.
The debate concerning reproductive technology in Norway challenges the limits for what is considered natural pregnancy.
Training programmes focusing on fatherhood may make fathers in prison more law-abiding, according to Gunnar Vold Hansen.
Although women play a central role in the fishing industry in many parts of the world, their contribution has not been sufficiently recognised. Now, the gender perspective on fishing is finally asserting itself.
“The gender positions in Egyptian society are changing,” says Monika Lindbekk. According to her, clear-cut antagonism between Islamism and feminism is now being challenged by legal changes.
The introduction of electricity in India and Afghanistan may save lives and reduce the oppression of women. But the picture is far from black and white.
They demonstrated in order to secure their children’s future in Norway, but the protest was used against them as mothers. “Who is allowed to be politically active and how is a much more gendered issue than we’d like to think,” says Synnøve Bendixsen.
Futurism practically cleared the way for feminism, according to Madeleine Gedde Metz.
Cecilia Brækhus is just one of several Norwegian female athletes who has contributed to putting women’s boxing on the map, both in Norway and internationally, according to researcher Anne Tjønndal.