Archive

Medical evidence in sexual assault cases may increase the odds of conviction, but the police often fail to use the documentation gathered at sexual assault centres. What determines whether or not the police make use of the evidence available?

Raising small children without stress, good health and a sense of fairness in the marriage – this is the experience of spouses in the 1970s who shared the responsibility of staying at home with the children while working part-time. Sociologist Margunn Bjørnholt has interviewed these couples 30 years later.

In 1959, the Norwegian Parliament ended the practice of establishing lower wage scales for women than for men. “The Norwegian Employers’ Association used deliberate, cynical means to ensure that female-dominated jobs remained low paying. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) failed the cause of equal pay by accepting this,” says Professor Inger Bjørnhaug.

Most pregnant women whose foetus is proven to have a genetic abnormality choose to have an abortion, but reaching that decision is a painful, exhausting process for most of them. “The women’s doubt, pain and sorrow make abortion more moral – in the eyes of society as well as her own,” says Sølvi Marie Risøy, a researcher at the University of Bergen.

“I like to give someone a chance. So I have an au pair partly for idealistic reasons.” Norwegian families with au pairs do not agree that they may be exploiting poor women.

Ten years after UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was adopted by the UN Security Council, the issue of the role of women in war and conflict has achieved a prominent place on the international agenda. Researcher Torunn Tryggestad is concerned that the intense focus on sexual violence weakens the implementation of other crucial aspects of the resolution.

Post-apartheid South Africa: A white professor is accused of sexually harassing a non-white student and loses his job. His daughter is gang raped by a group of black men. Should the novel Disgrace be interpreted as J. M. Coetzee’s protest again the new South Africa, or is the Nobel Laureate saying something else about violence, desire and empathy?

Are gender research and natural science doomed to be on a collision course forever? Absolutely not, according to the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, where they specialize in gender research at the interface between nature and culture.

Interdisciplinarity – this is a topic that Jorunn Økland could happily talk about for hours. As the new director of the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo, she has recently had an unusual number of opportunities to do just that.

Rape camps, sexual torture and gang rape. In times of war some men become brutal assailants. Many people have asked why this is so. Psychologist Inger Skjelsbæk wants to ask the perpetrators themselves.

Women in academia publish 21 per cent less than their male colleagues, and this figure has been stable for nearly 20 years. A new master’s thesis takes a look behind the numbers.

Many large and small conflicts between Somali immigrants and the majority population could be resolved with the help of Somali resource persons. This is the view of Gaudencia Mutema, who compares the integration of Somali refugees in Norway and the USA.

The war in Afghanistan is a war to liberate women, supporters claimed. Eight years later the voices that spoke on behalf of Afghan women have fallen silent. “The women were used in a rhetoric of silence,” according to researcher Berit von der Lippe.

Our traditional view of manliness contributes to create a framework in which men can also be victims of sexual abuse, according to Torbjørn Herlof Andersen. The researcher has studied men who have been sexually abused and he shows how they cope with their painful experiences.

According to colleagues, she is one of the most important scholars on children and gender in the world. So how come she is proofreading texts for colleagues at the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo?

All the fuss about recruitment destroys young women’s interest in natural science, according to educational researcher Guðrún Jónsdóttir.

Getting married was not the only way for a woman to live her life, even in the 1800s. As art historian Jorunn Veiteberg shows in her new biography of the Norwegian sculptor Ambrosia Tønnesen, an alternative lifestyle was not necessarily filled with self-denial and loneliness.

Studies suggest that sexual harassment can cause female athletes to leave the field of sport. “This means that harassment may lead to big losses for sport,” says Professor Kari Fasting, Norway’s foremost expert on the subject.

Scandinavian parents have no doubt that the state is responsible for providing day care centres for children from the age of one. In much of Europe, though, day care for children is a private problem for parents, which they must solve with the least amount of trouble for their bosses and colleagues.

The better the gender balance, the more we benefit from the pool of researcher talent. This is the argument made by the independent research institutes for their own gender equality efforts. However, a new study shows that women are in short supply at the highest levels of research and in leadership positions within the sector.

In the public debate Norwegian schools are criticized for being feminized. But according to Professor Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen, it is not the schools that are poorly suited to boys – it is the girls who are better suited to the demands of modern working life.

The health services, police and judicial system in Russia tend not to understand that women need protection against violence within the home. But Russian crisis centres have become quite adept at manoeuvring within the system to help women who are victims of domestic violence, says political scientist Kirsti Stuvøy.

Eye, space and body – these are three key words that apply not only to the work of art historian Anne Wichstrøm on female artists from 1850 to 1900, but also to her own life.

The presumed vulnerability of women seeking an abortion limits the Norwegian debate on abortion – in both directions.

Norway and Sweden are held up as shining examples when gender equality in academia is discussed in a European context. But even in these countries, political efforts to achieve the objectives of gender balance must continue. Key challenges are rigid structures and the men who dominate academia, according to researchers who recently attended a European conference in Stockholm.

Artists such as David Bowie, Morrissey and Robbie Williams have changed our ideas about what a man is and should be, according to Stan Hawkins, who has written a book on the phenomenon of pop dandyism.

Violence inflicted by an intimate partner lasts longer if the couple has children together, and the violence continues after the relationship ends. In addition, children are harmed more by witnessing violence between their parents than previously thought.

When children are placed in state custody, their gender is not irrelevant. Society must be protected against the boys, while the girls must be protected against society and themselves.

Ulla-Britt Lilleaas has been appointed the new leader of the Center for Gender and Equality at the University of Agder. One of the things she wants to focus on is why the Agder region, in the south of Norway, frequently scores low on gender equality indexes.

In kindergarten the boys make lots of noise and play with Lego, but they also like to spend time playing with dolls. The girls, on the other hand, stick to doing "girls’ stuff". A new report concludes that Norwegian kindergartens are failing to promote gender equality.