Topdiplomatiet in the Nordic countries have fået a markedly better genderbalance - more and more women then the ambassadors, and the young are stærkt on vej forward. Recipes are bevidste strategies and specific targets for all positions.

The socio-political debate, the attention paid to gender equality issues and pressure from the women's movement are crucial to progress in gender equality. This is one of the key results from NIKK's research project on gender and power in politics and business.

By Kirsti Niskanen

NIKK was commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2008 to conduct a Nordic comparison of gender and power in politics and business. The project has identified and analyzed women's and men's representation in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and the autonomous territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. What have we discovered?

A first observation is that it is no longer evident that the Nordic countries come out on top with regard to gender development in parliamentary representation. In a global perspective, a post-conflict country such as Rwanda, with a female majority in parliament (56%), has overtaken all the Nordic countries (disregarding all other differences). Several countries in the Global South (South Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica), with over or just under 40% female participation in parliaments, are approaching the Nordic countries (Dahlerup 2009). The previous Nordic comparison, "Equal Democracies?" ("Likestilte demokratier?") was published ten years ago. At that time, the representation of women in the Nordic parliaments was between 25% and 43%, and the Nordic countries emerged as the region in the world with the greatest gender equality. Today, women constitute between 38% and 47% of the MPs in the Nordic countries' parliaments, but it is no longer self-evident that the Nordic countries are best in class. Other countries are catching up and challenging the Nordic image as the world's most equal region.

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Source: NIKK