Insights to Norway by Marit Hoel at the Conference in Brussels

EWMD International invited Marit Hoel to speak about the Change in Norway. In Brussels she gave a lively presentation on June 20th at the 25th  International EWMD Conference. EWMD members had celebrated women in business and politics who had been visible the last 25 years and shaped believes and became role models.

Marit Hoel made clear: The whole movement of change in Norway started from the male conservative Minister for Trade and Industry Mr. Ansgar Gabrielsen in 2002, who is the father of four children. It was his idea and he announced it to the press and started the discussion not alone in his party. Finally law was passed in 2003 with the blessing of the socialist parties, but his own party opposed it.

Of course people offended this idea, but most of them men in business. Any threat from outside a system to change is not welcomed. This is one of the simplest rules in system theory and of course so system likes to be changed. It is threatening. Another rule is that systems hardly change from within and this is true for many other companies and initiatives. (Anti-Smoking-law, safety-belt in cars, pollution Co2, waste-management)

Mr Gabrielsen pointed out in an interview with the Guardian in 2005, "I could not see why, after 25 years of having an equal ratio of women and men in universities and with having so many educated women with experience, there were so few of them on boards. "To me, the law was not about getting equality between the sexes, it was about the fact that diversity is a value in itself, that it creates wealth," he said. "From my time in the business world, I saw how board members were picked: they come from the same small circle of people. They go hunting and fishing together, they're friends."

There was no way out anymore and companies had to follow if they would not like to be dissolved due to disregard of regulations.  

Go Nordic – “Thanks to the Norwegian Government's courage and success, others are following their lead. The Swedish Government is proposing that companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange that do not have 40 per cent of women on their main boards by 2010 should be fined until they do, and the Spanish Parliament has passed legislation calling for 40 per cent board participation by 2015.” Read this very interesting Australian Article on ABC.Net, as Australia failed to take legal actions and did not move the ratio as planned. 

From a change perspective this reminds very much to the EU-Law for “Non-Smoking”. It worked out and what surprised most is the strictness in Italy and the huge discussion and regulation specialties in Germany. But it worked and people like it and smokers accept it.

Somehow it is much more difficult with “Gender-issues” as this is not only a behaviour but a belief in yourself as a men and a women. It is much deeper and more frightening. And due to that Margit Hoel knows: "In general, quotas backed by legislation seem to be one of the most significant ways of effecting change. "The gender balance strategies of companies alone through flexible working and mentoring and so on seem to have very limited success." Read the long interview on BBC News By Stephanie Holmes

Article by Claudia Schmitz, EWMD

find long version find under Event

Marit Hoel, Director of the Corporate Diversity Council in Norway
http://www.corporatediversity.no/news.html

Ansgar Gabrielsen * Erklärung in Verbindung mit der Anhörung des Rechtsausschusses in Germany (german) . Hintergrund meines Vorschlags zur gesetzlichen Regulierung einer besseren Gleichstellung der Geschlechter in den Führungsgremien ... (Datei zum downloaden –gem) http://www.bundestag.de/Ausschuesse/a06/anhoerungen/Archiv/3...