The gender equality debate in Denmark and the Nordic region has
gained a new high profile player in Nina Groes, who started her job as
Director of Kvinfo six months ago. She has just launched a new bold
strategy for the Danish Centre for Information on Gender, Equality and
Diversity.
“My ambition is to get gender equality onto all the major social
agendas, be it the labour market, education or growth. Denmark and the
Nordic region represent a small area globally, and we simply cannot
afford for individual men and women not to be able to realise their
full potential because of a lack of equality,” she says.
Liberate both sexes
Nina Groes is young, a mother of two and married to a government
minister. She has a business background, working with knowledge
dissemination as an entrepreneur. She brings a new approach to the work
with gender equality.
“Equality should not be a niche debate, it should be omnipresent and
focus on giving every person the chance to apply themselves no matter
their gender. Modern gender equality is about liberating both sexes. It
is not a zero-sum game where one sex wins at the expense of to the
other. More gender equality is a win for both sexes and for all of
society.
She sees plenty of areas where the lack of equality is an obstacle
both for the chance for individuals to shine and for social
development. Danish women are paid up to five percent less than their
male colleagues for the same work with the same education and
experience .
“That in itself is an unfair difference, but is also leads to
inequality in a range of other areas, for instance the fact that women
more often choose to work part-time, and the salary gap continues all
the way into old age when women pensioners are left with considerably
lower pensions than men.”
Entrepreneur with a gender agenda
Nina Groes also thinks it is unfair that Danish men get far less
parental leave compared to men in the other Nordic countries, and this
has deep and unfortunate social consequences.
“This is not only a problem for the individual father, who won’t get
to spend time with his small child. It also has an effect on the
couple’s relationship and the woman’s career opportunities.”
During her own time as an entrepreneur, she saw that only three
in ten entrepreneurs were women. She missed female role models,
and felt the debate among entrepreneurs was very masculine.
“You almost talk about the entrepreneur as a predator, and we need
to change that image. Entrepreneurship helps create opportunities for
the Nordic region, and it is important to get gender onto that agenda
too.”
Better dialogue with young people
She considers it an important task for Kvinfo to challenge gender
stereotypes with the aim to allow everyone to be who they are. And that
work begins with young people. With Nina Groes at the helm, Kvinfo has
presented a new strategy which aims to make the equality debate
relevant to young people. Kvinfo has opened a new school service.
“We want to improve our dialogue with young people. Our analysis
shows that many youths consider gender equality to be something their
grandmothers fought for, and something which they enjoy today. At the
same time many young girls are struggling to live up to perfect ideals,
and old fashioned stereotypes about male and female trades are very
much alive. To take an example; 25 percent of young people think men
are better managers than women.”
Widening the gender equality debate to include the entire country is
a new focus area for Kvinfo. The debate can easily become too elitist,
Nina Groes points out .
“Kvinfo will go out and talk to people even more. Gender equality is
viewed very differently in the city and in the countryside. It depends
on geography, age, social economy and ethnicity, and if you are a
white, highly educated middle class woman like me, spending most of
your time in the big city, there’s a great risk that you end up talking
about gender equality based on your own little world.”
