Balancing gender

Did anyone on CAMAC or in Minister Sherry’s office bother to contact Arni Nole, Director General of Norway’s Ministry of Children and Equality, for first-hand advice before dismissing mandatory quota systems out of hand?

Compare Australia’s chauvinistic conservatism with the foresight of Karita Bekkemellem, Norway’s former Minister of Children and Equality, when she said in 2006:

Europe faces the challenges of an increasing elderly population together with falling birth-rates. In such a picture, it is important to make use of all the human resources in a country, and not just half of it, to keep the economy going.

The problem is not that Europe does not possess qualified women; the problem is that their qualifications are ignored. In other words; women do not get the opportunities they are qualified for! What a waste!!

In Norway we traditionally score high on Gender Representation. So why then regulate this policy area by a new law?

Because we realized, that the wanted development in Norway did not go fast enough! We do not have the patience to wait another 100 years!”

Unfortunately Australian women will have to wait another 100 years unless the Rudd Government grasps the double-bind dilemma for women in leadership, sees the role for mandatory quotas in defusing gender schemas that infect the business environment and actually starts to take seriously its obligations under Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.