How gender power in society, research and politics is understood, interpreted and problematised depends upon your position and point of view. Therefore the Dane, the Swede and the Norwegian woman have different ways of looking at gender power. Additionally, each generation of women will have their own way of analysing power.

Norway and the other Scandinavian countries enjoy an international status as progressive countries in gender equality. But there is still much to do. The research project “Power and Democracy” has mapped out Norway’s power elite. 1725 Norwegian leaders have been interviewed in the study, and the numbers speak for themselves; we have a male power elite. Only 2 of 10 people included in the study’s sample were women. The military has the lowest proportion of female leaders – zero per cent.

Written by Professor Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen at the Centre for Feminist Research, University of Oslo. This article was written for the FAFO seminar; Tunisian-Norwegian research seminar on women and gender issues, February 16th 1998.