By Samantha Tan
KUALA LUMPUR: Norway, ranked second in the world for gender equality, has – for several decades – been developing policies and measures to empower women.
Norwegian ambassador to Malaysia, Gunn Jorid Roset, said it was vital to empower women, as females make up almost 50 per cent of the global population and they should be encouraged to play a role in shaping the future.
“We cannot achieve sustainable development without women’s participation. Our Prime Minister (Erna Solberg) was on the high-level panel appointed by the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” she told Bernama International News Service in an interview, here, recently.
The interview was held in conjunction with the International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8, to recognise women’s achievements and contributions to social and economic development.
Roset said Norway’s Prime Minister had also brought issues related to SDGs – such as sustainable cities and communities, quality education, and gender equality – in various meetings.
“Since one of the goals (of SDGs) is specifically on gender equality, you cannot achieve the goals if one of them is not met. We are working to share our experiences in Norway as the country is placed second in the global ranking of gender equality,” she added.
Roset said women played an important part in the economic success of Norway and have strong role models in the public sector, including its Prime Minister, Foreign Minister (Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide), Finance Minister (Siv Jensen), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Toril Marie Øie), and the Major General and Chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Tonje Skinnarland).
The ambassador pointed out that a quota mechanism to encourage female representatives in politics was one of the ways used in Norway to achieve gender equality and balanced participation in the government.
She also said that this could be an example for Malaysia, especially to fulfill Pakatan Harapan’s promises to ensure women make up at least 30 per cent of the country’s policymakers.
There are currently nine women representatives in the Malaysian cabinet, of which five are ministers and four are deputy ministers.
Roset said as a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1995, Malaysia can start to ensure women and girls speak their minds, and that their voices continue to be heard.
Nevertheless, Roset said there are challenges that still need to be addressed in Norway including encouraging women’s participation in the private sector, and taboo issues like domestic violence.
“There is still taboo (on domestic violence) and difficulties for women to report and bring out (information on) unhealthy relationships. So, this is one of the issues we have to work on.
“On private sector, many women reported about informal recruitment processes based on network, and lack of transparency in the recruitment process. That is also one of the challenges… our government had challenged the private sector to be more transparent on the recruitment process,” she explained. – Bernama
