Power elite supports gender quota

This information is based on interviews with 1 725 power elites in connection with the leadership survey. The ones interviewed held central positions within politics, public administration and organisations, in industries, cultural life and research, in the judicial system, defence and church affairs. Statistics Norway has carried out this survey on behalf of the research project "Power and Democracy 1998-2003".

Positive to gender quota

A clear majority of the Norwegian power elite are positive to gender quotas while hiring, election to political positions and in selection of board members.

The support is especially positive when it comes to hiring, followed by quotas regarding political positions whereas the least support is given for company heads. More than four out of five women in the elite sample are supporting the three forms of quotas. Among men quotas regarding hiring are most popular whereas women rank politics as number one.

Conservatives and Labour Party

The sampled power elite who were willing to report which political party they voted for in 1997 preferred the Labour party or the Conservatives. The Labour Party received just as many votes among the leaders as they did from the population at large. Three political parties do, however, receive more support from the elite than from the rest of the population: the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Socialist Left Party. The difference is the largest for the Conservatives. The opposite is the case for the Progressive Party: Only a little more than one per cent of the leaders reported that they voted for this party in 1997, whereas 15 per cent of the entire population did.

Disagreement on defence

Norwegian power elite disagree on whether Norwegian troops should or should not participate in NATO actions that go beyond defending the alliance's members against attacks. Within the defence sector, which supports Norwegian participation in "the new NATO" (with 10 new member states) the most, there are still 15 per cent disagreeing.

Most females in politics and culture

The power elite in Norway is dominated by men, but looking at the dominance by sector the survey results show that politics has a high portion of females, 39 per cent. Closest is the cultural sector with 33 per cent.

The elite's socio-economic background is in general different from the population at large. 22 per cent of the elite has their background in the working class, 41 per cent from the middle class/upper middle class. For the population at large the portions are 58, 32 and 10 per cent respectively.

Used in the Norwegian Parliament's research project "Power and Democracy 1998-2003"

The results from the interview survey are also included in the new book about the research project: Norske makteliter (Norwegian power elite) . For more information, see the project's home pages or call the secretariat, telephone +47 22 85 62 23/22 85 51 93.

For information about the survey, see Statistics Norway's documentation report (dokumentasjonsrapport: 2001/42).