Gender and Power in the Nordic Countries – with focus on politics and business. Kirsti Niskanen (ed.) [Book]
The endeavour to achieve a gender balance in access to societal power is a cornerstone of the Nordic concept of democracy and gender equality policy. A key tool in gender equality work is knowledge of the distribution of women and men within various sectors of society, employment, and social positions of power. In the research project “Gender and Power in the Nordic Countries”, an interdisciplinary Nordic research team mapped out and analyzed the representation of women and men in politics and business in the Nordic countries during the last 15 years. In this report, Kirsti Niskanen compiles comparative figures on the representation of women and men in decision-making positions in politics and business, and analyzes and interprets the data that was collected in the project from a Nordic and comparative perspective. In the two articles that follow, Drude Dahlerup and Mari Teigen discuss explanations for the existing gender distribution, as well as the measures taken in the various Nordic countries to distribute social power and influence more evenly between the genders. The report also includes a summary of the results from all the studies in the project. The report is a source of information for political decision makers, researchers, students, and others who have an interest in Nordic equality policy. The project “Gender and Power in the Nordic Countries” (2008-2009) was carried out on behalf of the Nordic Ministers for Gender Equality and cofinanced by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Gender Institute (NIKK).