Archive

The old measures cannot take us all the way. The key to economic gender equality is the father, claims economist Hilde Bojer.

Getting pregnant can be dangerous, if you are poor and live in a country where women are little valued. In Somalia and Sierra Leone, every seventh woman dies during pregnancy. Berit Austveg, specialist in community medicine, has written a book about what she calls the world’s greatest social injustice: maternal mortality.

In a work/life study, for the Fostering Caring Masculinities project (FOCUS), researchers from five European countries have confirmed that each country wants to see more men taking parental leave to spend time caring for their children.

Girls from ethnic minorities, in Norway, have a below average participation rate in organised sports. Åse Strandbu has studied those who do take part.

Equal pay for equal work has been a demand for several decades. The differences, however, are still great. Why?

Elin Havelin Rekdal was looking for a topic to write her masters thesis on. She noticed a book exhibited in Sunndalsøra Library, in the western part of Norway: “What is a woman?” by Toril Moi. Does anyone really have the answer to that question, Rekdal wondered. She is now doing her doctorate on Toril Moi and her books.

Female production and modern housework is a central part of modernisation and the welfare state. Gro Hagemann is researching how historical and political changes have formed the role of the housewife through the 20th century.

The authorities want to get the victims of trafficking to talk. However, silence is a protection for many of the women, in their attempt to start a new life. Give them information and legal aid so they can make their own, qualified decisions is the advice from a group of Norwegian and Serbian researchers who have interviewed the victims of trafficking in Serbia.

When everything feels unstable, having control over your own body and your food intake becomes a way of taking charge. If you don’t eat then that’s at least one thing you’re in control over. Besides, you become slim; and slim means happy. Karen Klovning and Siri Hoftun have interviewed eight girls who have had anorexia.

To the support services self-injuring women often seem inscrutable and helpless. The women’s own insights into and comprehension of self-harm are not asked for. In Norway Anita Moe has interviewed a group of women and their experiences of self-injury. For this work she won the prize for outstanding contribution to women’s studies and gender research 2005 at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Kristin Skjørten has investigated how two Norwegian newspapers cover murder and other violence against women, in cases where the perpetrator has a close relationship to the woman. Some cases are widely reported and trigger debates on topics such as honour. Other cases received limited coverage under the headline, family tragedy.

In Norway sperm donation is legal, but egg donation is not – despite today’s technology and medical techniques that make it possible. What is it about motherhood that makes the donation of eggs a viable solution that is not used? Kristin Spilker’s doctoral project explores this and the issues that arise from it.

Anne Sæbø left Norway for the USA ten years ago. Now she is back as a guest researcher. Here she reflects over the similarities and differences, and how American ways gradually affect Norwegian traditions; Christmas decorations, for example.

In Manndalen, a village in the county of Troms in the north of Norway, Laestadianism is a strong influence in the community. How does this affect those in the community who do not belong to this religious movement? Why is home baptism still practised , while Christmas trees – which were previously rejected – are now on their way in to every living room? Lisa Vangen has conducted fieldwork and interviews in the village.

Oil and gas has become the mantra for the future in Norway, not only connected to the Snøhvit (literally, Snow White) project at Hammerfest, in the far north of Norway, but in the whole of the county of Finnmark. Anthropologist Britt Kramvig fears that as a consequence the other untapped resources of the region, like its many educated women, are being forgotten.

In Norway, the local council, the county parliament and the national parliament are all a long way from achieving a gender balance among their elected representatives. But now, it has been achieved in the Sámi parliament. In the autumn elections of 2005 the ratio of women in the Sámi parliament increased from 18 to 51 per cent. And for the first time a woman, Aili Keskitalo, has been chosen as the Sámi Parliament president. What happened?

Anti-gay remarks come up in elite sports at regular intervals. Kjetil Rekdal, the manager of elite division football team Vålerenga, has said, among other things: “I am homophobic”. Why are male dominated sports environments often homophobic? Heidi Eng and Ulla-Britt Lilleaas have, in their respective research projects, attempted to find some answers.

Political committees in Norwegian local authorities should have a representation of at least 40 per cent of each sex. In practice, however, it does not work like this. The law on quotas often has to yield to arguments that it constitutes a threat to local democracy. Ingrid Guldvik has written her doctoral thesis on quotas and gender justice.

We are approaching a general election in Norway. How equal will the gender balance in the new Storting (the Norwegian national parliament) be? Today, with women occupying 37 per cent of seats in the Storting, Norway has a poorer gender balance in its parliament than both Sweden and Rwanda!

In Norway few girls choose an education in computing. In Malaysia, on the other hand, an education in computing is popular with girls. There, computing is considered a suitable career for women. Sociologist Vivian Anette Lagesen has investigated the differences between the two countries in her recently completed doctoral thesis in Interdisciplinary Culture Studies.

The Nordic countries are in a unique position in the fight against mens’ violence against women. However, challenges remain that the Nordic countries have not addressed, says Liz Kelly.

– The first women’s movement in Norway was interested primarily in the rights of middle class women - with the right to an upper secondary education and to study at university. However, many of these middle class women were assisted by their servants, says professor emeritus Sølvi Sogner. She is now writing a servants’ history.

The Daddytrack is an expression masculinities researcher Øystein Gullvåg Holter has borrowed from the Americans. In the USA, yes to daddytrack means no to career. Holter wants the Nordic countries and Europe to develop an alternative daddytrack that does not force men into choosing between work and family.

In Turkey women working in news and in newspaper editing are few and far between. However, how much better is the situation in Norway? Huriye Toker has compared the gender balance in the two Turkish newspapers Hürriyet and Akşam with Norwegian VG and Dagsavisen. She discovered a surprising number of similarities.

What are the lives of Russian women settled in northern Norway like? Stereotypes about Russian women as prostitutes or old-fashioned housewives abound in local communities in the north of Norway, explains researcher Jana Sverdljuk.

Many women in Turkey want to use Islam to free themselves from traditional life-patterns. They think that Islam supports women getting an education, working and being politically active, at the same time as it emphasises women’s central role in the Muslim family.

It is usually the ex-politician Kåre Willoch who speaks about public safety. And then he concentrates on society's vulnerability for accidents, catastrophes and terror - and how to avoid such misery. Kristin S. Scharffscher has a master degree in resilience management from the University College of Stavanger. She uses the theories from this programme to find out how to reduce the risk for rape and sexual abuse in refugee camps.

Women in both Norway and Turkey handle a gender-divided labor market and have the mein responsibility at home. But while Norwegian women can expect support from their partners and the state, Turkish women depend on help from their relatives and mainly their mothers.

Heidi Holt Zachariassen is a sociologist and researcher at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Communication (SIK) in Stavanger. This autumn she travelled around in the Adamaoua district in Cameroon, and interviewed girls about HIV and AIDS. - The age for the sexual debut is young there, she says. Girls down to 10-12 years of age are sexually active.