Indicators for gender equality in municipalities, 2005

At country, county and municipality level

Annually; in December

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Until 2008 the statistics was published as “the Equality Index for municipalities"  and from 2009-2010, “the Gender Equality index for Norwegian municipalities"(see under Production  for further information about the structure and method of the previous indices). As of 2012 a composite measure for gender equality will no longer be specified, but equality in the municipalities will be measured through a set of 12 indicators that are considered important and relavant to describe local gender equality. These are the same indicators as in the revisted index 2009-2010.

Equality between women and men can be illustrated in many ways and using different types of statistics. The indicators for gender equality in municipalities correspond to internationally used indicators of gender equality, but they are also adapted to Norwegian conditions. The indicators are based on available register statistics.The indicators provide measures of different aspects of gender equality. Some dimensions may be partially overlapping. The 12 indicators are placed in two groups along the following six dimensions.

1. Institutional and structural frameworks for local equality
1.1. Governmental facilitating of potential equality
Share of children aged 1-5 years in kindergarten
1.2. Structure of industry and educational patterns
Share of employees in gender-balanced industries (one-digit level) 
Ratio between men and women in the public sector
Ratio between men and women in the private sector 
Share of pupils in upper secondary school in a gender-balanced education programme

2. Men and women's local adaptations
2.1. Distribution of time, work/care
Ratio between the share of men and women in part-time employment
Share of fathers taking full statutory paternity leave or more (from parental leave in connection with childbirth)
Ratio between men and women’s share in the labour force
2.2. Distribution of individual resources/influence
Ratio between the share of men and women with higher education
Share of female managers
2.3. Distribution of political influence 
Share of women in the municipal council
2.4. Distribution of money
Ratio between men and women's average gross income

For each indicator, the municipalities are given a score from 0, which indicates maximum difference between the sexes, to 1, which indicates maximum equality.

For more information on the changes, see Notat 2009/65 (Norwegian only)

Users are government ministries, the mass media, researchers and municipalities.

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The observation unit is municipalities.

The indicators that are based on official statistics.

The various indicators gender equality in the municipalities are based on the following data sources:

1. Share of children aged 1-5 years in kindergarten. Source: KOSTRA. The figures are taken from table 12056 in StatBank.
2. Share of women in the municipal council. Source: Municipal and county council elections. Table 14 (in 2007)
3. Share of men and women with higher education, 16 years and over. Source: Education statistics, level of education. The figures for level of education are taken from table 06983 in StatBank. The number of persons aged 16 years and over is taken from the population statistics, table 03026 (as per 1 January in the year according to level of education).
4. Share of men and women in the labour force, 20-66 years. Source: Labour force survey (LFS), broken down by municipality using figures for the registered unemployed and preliminary figures from the register-based employment statistics.
5. Average annual gross income, men and women. Source: Tax statistics for persons. The figures are taken from table 03068 in StatBank.
6. Share of men and women in part-time employment. Source: Register-based employment statistics. Special order from the Division for labour market statistics.
7. Statutory paternity leave. Share of fathers taking full statutory paternity leave or more before the child is three years old. Source: FD-Trygd. Special order from the Division for social welfare statistics.
8. Gender-balanced structure in industry. Source: Register-based employment statistics. Figures for men and women distributed by industry in the municipalities are taken from table 07984 in StatBank.
9. Share of women in public administration. Source: Register-based employment statistics. Special order from the Division for labour market statistics.
10. Share of women in the private sector. Source: Register-based employment statistics. Special order from the Division for labour market statistics.
11. Share of female managers. Source: Register-based employment statistics. Special order from the Division for labour market statistics.
12. Degree of gender balance in choice of education programme in upper secondary school. Source: Education statistics, upper secondary education. Special treatment from the Division for education statistics.

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All indicators are ranked from 0 to 1. The value 0 indicates minimal equality, and the value 1 indicates maximum equality.

1. Kindergarten. Share of children aged 1-5 years in kindergarten (p) . We assume least equality where no children are in kindergarten (p = 0) and most equality if all children are in kindergarten (p = 1) . This indicator does not need scaling.
2. Municipal council. Share of women in municipal council (p) . Equality is lowest when the share is 0 or 1, and highest when the share is equal to 0.5. This indicator is scaled to:
   

   

3. Education . The ratio between the share of men and women with higher education:
   
   Equality is greatest if the two shares are equal, i.e.:  
   
   In order to ensure that the indicator is always between 0 and 1, it is scaled to:
   
4. Labour force . The ratio between the share of men and women in the labour force. The same scaling as in point 3
5. Income . The ratio between men and women's average gross income. The same scaling as in point 3.
6. Part time . The ratio between the share of economically active women working part time and the share of economically active men working part time. The same scaling as in point 3.
7. Paternity leave . Share of fathers in 2009 and 2010 taking full statutory paternity leave or more before the child is three years old (2009-2012 for those who became fathers in 2009, 2010-2013 for new fathers in 2008). Scaling is not required.
8. Industry . Degree of gender-balanced structure of industry. Let n _i be the number of economically active persons and p _i the share of women in industry i . Thus, the degree of gender balance for this industry is defined as:  
    
   
   The indicator is:
    
   k is the number of industries in the municipality.
9. Public administration . Share of women in the public sector. The same scaling as in point 2.
10. Private sector . Share of women in the private sector. The same scaling as in point 2.
11. Managerial occupations . Share of women in managerial occupations. The same scaling as in point 2.
12. Education programme . The degree to which pupils choose a gender-balanced education in upper secondary school. The degree of gender balance for an education programme is calculated based on figures for the whole of Norway. Otherwise, the same method is used as in point 8.

Compilation of the index 2009-2010

The revised index for 2009-2010 included the same indicators as in the current set of indicators. In weighing a aggregate index measure, all the indicators were given equal weight, with the exception of three indicators. The indicators industry division, public and private sector all have to do with the structure of industry in the municipality. To avoid these indicators having a too great impact on the overall index, they were weighted down. Their total weight is equal to the weight of each of the other indicators, and the industry division indicator were weighted twice as much as the sector indicators. With equal emphasis on the nine other indicators the index was calculated as follows:

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 New Source for labour indicators from 2015

Register-based employment statistics, which are used to calculate the proportion of men and women (20-66 years) who work part-time, the proportion of men and women (20-66 years) in the labour force, gender-balanced business structure, proportion of men and women (20 -66 years) in the private sector and the proportion of men and women (20-66 years) in the public sector is from 2015 based on a new data source. The main source until 2014 was NAV's Employee Register (Aa-register). In 2015, reporting to NAV to this registry was coordinated with reporting of payroll and personnel data to the Tax Administration and Statistics Norway (SSB). This common reporting system is called the a-scheme.

Using a new source for labour statistics implies a break for the indicator for men and women (20-66 years) who work part-time. Changes in what is reported from the employer, percentage of employment instead of working hours per week means that the figures before and after 2015 are not comparable.

As of 2017, also the indicator for the proportion of men and women in the workforce is calculated on the basis of register-based employment statistics (a-scheme) alone. This means a break from previous years. The proportion of women and men in the labour force is lower than previously. The reason for this is that before the Labour Force survey was used for weighing up the total number of employed persons in the register based statistics.