Indicators for gender equality in municipalities, 2012

Municipalities in Oslo, Akershus, northern Norway and Sør-Trøndelag are generally shown to have a high score for the majority of Statistics Norway’s gender equality indicators for 2012, while Southern, Western and South-Eastern Norway generally score lower. This pattern of regional equality has remained stable for as long as Statistics Norway has measured regional equality.

More fathers taking full paternity leave

The indicator for fathers’ use of paternity leave measures the proportion of men who have taken out full paternity leave or more of the parental benefit period before the child is three years old. In 2009, the father's quota was extended from six to ten weeks. In 2012, we can therefore examine paternity leave among fathers after the extension.

On the national level and in all counties, we see an increase in this indicator since 2008, and the change is particularly evident between 2011 and 2012. Although the figures for municipalities, especially those with few inhabitants, will be uncertain, we see an increase in the share of fathers with full paternity leave or more of the parental benefit period in nearly three out of four of the municipalities between 2011and 2012.

More managers are women

We also see an increase in the indicator that measures the gender distribution among managers. The score has risen steadily since 2008. As regards the father's quota, this applies to all counties and three out of four of the municipalities. Among the counties, Oslo and Finnmark have the highest scores. Among the 20 municipalities with the highest score on this indicator, 11 are found in Nordland, Troms or Finnmark, while half of the 20 municipalities that score the lowest are in the counties Møre og Romsdal, Rogaland Vest-Agder or Aust-Agder.

Women's educational level increasingly higher than men's

The indicator that measures the ratio between men and women's educational attainment has been reduced every year since 2008, and it continues to decline in 2012. This is an equality challenge for all municipalities in Norway, but particularly for the municipalities in Nordland, Troms and Finnmark. Thirteen out of the 20 municipalities with the lowest score on the education indicator are located in these three counties. The level of education is most even in Oslo and Akershus and in the big cities. However, also here the gap in women's educational level relative to men's is increasing.

Women’s part time work – an ongoing gender equality challenge

In view of the increasing gap between men's and women's education, in favour of women, one might expect that the scores for the indicators part-time work and income would increase due to more full-time employment and higher incomes for women. The indicator for part-time work, however, is the one that shows the largest gap between men and women, and thus has the lowest score level among the indicators of gender equality measured by Statistics Norway. On a national level, the proportion of part-time work among women is 34.5 per cent, while the proportion of men in part-time work is 13.1. In 46 of the municipalities, the proportion of women in part-time work is more than 50 per cent. Twenty of these are located in the counties Møre og Romsdal, Rogaland, Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder.

Gender equality in the largest municipalities

Many of the larger municipalities have high scores on several of the gender equality indicators in relation to the region in which they are located. This particularly applies to the indicators measuring differences in education, part-time work, gender balance among leaders and in the public and private sectors, as well as the proportion of men and women employed in gender-balanced industries. This reflects a more diverse labour market in the larger municipalities, attracting people with higher education. However, several of the large cities score lower than the national average when it comes to day care and fathers’ use of paternity and parental leave.

In 2012, Oslo, Tromsø and Trondheim were the cities that generally had the highest scores on the indicators, while Sandnes and Skien were among those with the lowest scores on the indicators when comparing the larger municipalities.