Working Women the Secret of Norway's Prosperity

[dynasaw]

Not oil, but women are Norway's secret to prosperity:

"“Women,” says the union leader, Mie Opjordsmoen of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade, a mother of two. “Norwegian women work, pay taxes and have babies. That’s our secret.”

I am touring one of the world’s last functioning welfare states and finding preconceptions shattered one by one. Unions here peg their wage demands to the needs of the export industry. Employers lobby for longer parental leave for fathers. Parties win elections promising not to cut taxes.

And gender equality is treated as a competitive advantage: By law, 40 percent of Norwegian boardroom seats are filled with women. Two male cabinet members, Knut Storberget, the justice minister, and Audun Lysbakken, the minister of equality (yes, this position exists), recently took three and four months off, respectively, to look after their latest offspring. The cost of full-time toddler child care is capped at the equivalent of about two Big Macs a day thanks to state subsidies. . .One Norwegian lesson,” Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said from his modestly sized office one afternoon, “is that if you can raise female participation, it helps the economy, birth rates and the budget.”

Many Norwegian women work part time and for the public sector. Female chief executives and engineers remain nearly as rare as elsewhere in the West. But 75 percent of Norwegian women work outside the home, compared with 68 percent in the United States and 65 percent in the European Union."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/world/europe/29iht-letter29.html

Think the U.S. can take a tip from this instead of trying to send women back into the home, or pay them below minimal wage? We haven't learned that people, especially women, are a valuable resource.

[Yavin4]

1. Northern Europe Is Simply More Civilized Than We Are As A Nation

Maybe we will get there, but we probably won't because too many of us believe the bullshit memes pushed on us by our corporations through both political parties and the media.

In the end, if we want more immediate results, it will be easier for us to find a way to emigrate to Norway than to keep pounding our heads against the wall here.

[AverageJoe90]

4. Isn't that ironic, though?

150 years ago, Northern Europe outside of the U.K. & Ireland was mostly a complete backwater with little in the way of any positive things we take for granted today. Now, in 2011, they are amongst the most civilized and forward-thinking nations on Earth.

It just goes to show that there can be hope for any nation, no matter how backwards it might be at the moment.

[Yavin4]

5. I Think That Having Two World Wars On Your Continent Gives You Some Perspective

Sensely death and destruction makes you re-prioritize.

[AverageJoe90]

6. Good point, I guess.

In any case, hopefully it won't take terrorist nukes going off on our soil, or a civil war, or perhaps both, for us to get our acts together.

[Kaleko]

7. Come to Canada.

It's a little closer and underpopulated still. :)

[anthroman]

2. And STATE OWNED OIL RESERVES!

And Norway has like 10 million people. Very small. Germany is a better example, they actually keep every friggin SCREW in manufacturing made in GERMANY. *@#&$(@)(#*(@*)

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. excellent

[BlueIris]

8. Kick. nt

[riderinthestorm]

9. Women and socialism, Why am I not surprised??!! Huge K and R! nt

[Liquorice]

10. K&R We should have that 40% requirement in America too. nt

[Cleita]

11. I wish we had a law requiring half of our politicians and government employees

be women. Then our law making and governing bodies would be gender fair and truly representative of our population.

[Liquorice]

12. I agree! nt