Norway Ranks 2nd in Gender Equality, How Is It Different from Korea? 45% Female Lawmakers, 93% Paternity Leave Usage

Lecture by Anne Kari Hansen Ovind, Norwegian Ambassador, on the 23rd
"Women's Social Participation Plays a Greater Role in National Prosperity than Oil and Gas"
In 2003, Law Adopted Mandating Over 40% Female Representation on Public Corporation Boards

"Women's participation in the labor market contributes more to national economic prosperity than revenues from oil and gas."

Anne Kari Hansen Ovind, the Norwegian Ambassador to Korea, said this on the 23rd during a lecture titled "Diversity and Equal Opportunity: Norway's Experience" held at the Seoul Press Center. She emphasized that "efforts for gender equality must be made every day."

At the lecture hosted by the Korean Women Journalists Association, Ambassador Anne Kari Hansen Ovind revealed the secrets behind Norway, which is ranked as the world's second most gender-equal country.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In Norway, 75% of women aged 15 to 64 participate in the labor market, making it the European country with the highest female employment rate. The proportion of women with higher education surged from less than 10% in 1980 to 42% in 2022, surpassing that of men with higher education. Women make up 45% of the parliament members. Women’s wages have risen to 90% of men’s wages for regular employees.

Ambassador Anne Kari Hansen Ovind emphasized that Norway’s gender equality and women’s social participation were not achieved overnight but were gradually established through regulations such as quotas, incentives for participating companies, and social welfare systems supporting work-family balance.

She introduced parental leave as a representative social welfare system for promoting women’s economic participation. In Norway, parents are granted 49 weeks of paid parental leave, of which one-third, 15 weeks, is reserved for fathers and will be forfeited if not used. As of 2020, 93% of men who became fathers took parental leave.

Anne Kari Hansen Ovind said, "Norway’s parental leave system has continuously evolved since its introduction, undergoing long periods of trial and error to revise and change the system. Members of parliament and ministers actively use parental leave, sending political signals about the direction society wants to take."

Norway was also the first country in the world to adopt a law in 2003 mandating that women constitute at least 40% of public enterprise boards, and from 2024, this will be expanded to apply to private companies as well.

Ambassador Anne Kari Hansen Ovind stated, "(The board gender quota) was a pioneering system globally when introduced in 2003, and there was skepticism even in Norway. However, the then Minister of Trade and Industry (male), who proposed the system, emphasized that applying diversity to boards would become an asset for companies and benefit society as a whole." She added, "By 2008, all public enterprises had achieved the target, and since then many companies have adopted it, with ongoing expansion."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding gender equality in Korea, Anne Kari Hansen Ovind said, "Each country starts from a different point and progresses at different speeds. Changing culture, people’s perceptions, and attitudes takes a very long time. That is why regulations and incentives are necessary." She continued, "Change does not happen by itself. Investment in gender equality must be made every day and continuously. It is a fundamental human right and a matter for both men and women, not just women."

Anne Kari Hansen Ovind holds a master's degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, a master's degree in European Integration Economics from the European University in Belgium, and a master's degree in Maritime Law, Economics, and Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK. Most of her career has been in the field of security policy, serving as Director of the Polar and Arctic Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as part of Norway’s delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She also has extensive multinational experience in climate, marine issues, sustainable development, and natural resource management. Before her appointment to Korea, she served as ambassador in Canada for five years.

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