Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The fund's managers are also bound by a strict ethical code when choosing where
to invest. Companies (such as Wal-Mart) and countries (eg Myanmar) accused of hu-
man rights violations have been excluded from the fund as have mining and other
companies accused of severe environmental damage. Discussing the policy of so-
cially responsible investing, Gro Nystuen, a human rights lawyer who oversees the
ethics council that vets the investments, told the IHT that 'Norwegians feel bad about
having all this money. Our job is to make the Norwegian people feel less guilty.'
Accessible yet serious-minded,
Gender.no
(
www.gender.no
)
is easily the best resource on issues of gender
equality in Norway.
Women in Norway
According to the UN's Gender-Related Development Index in 2009, Norway is the best
place in the world to be a woman. In addition to the raft of beneficial social-welfare pro-
visions, Norway has a female labour force participation rate of nearly 80%, well above
the EU and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average;
around 80% of married women with children under the age of six work in paid employ-
ment, although more than half of these work part-time. In the 1993 election all three party
leaders were women, and, after the 2008 elections 39% of national MPs were women, the
eighth highest in the world. Norwegian women have an average life expectancy of 82.7
years, one of the highest in the world.
In 2004 the government legislated that 44.2% of board members of companies would
have to be women; this figure was officially reached in 2009 and Norway's female board
participation rate is now easily the highest in the world.
Education is compulsory (and has been since 1889!), with the public system heavily funded and private
schools actively discouraged. Education, including university studies, is free. In 2008, 61% of university
students were women, although 81% of professors were men.
Despite such positive statistics, there remain areas where Norwegian women are far
from equal with their male counterparts. Women's real annual incomes represent just 77%
(US$46,576) of those of their male counterparts (US$60,394), even though equal pay is
mandated by law under gender-equality legislation. Just three of Norway's publicly listed
countries have female CEOs. And domestic violence remains a serious problem; a 2005
