Norwegian Gender Privilege: A View from American academia

For the past three years, I have been privileged to be a Professor II at the University of Bergen in Norway. I am a medical anthropologist and Middle East gender theorist at Yale University, who has worked for the past twenty years on the reproductive health problem of infertility and the introduction of assisted reproductive technologies in the Muslim world. 

Each time I come to Norway, I am extremely impressed by the country’s gender dynamics. Compared to the other countries in which I have lived, worked, or traveled, Norway is by far the most gender progressive.  Women in Norway have a high degree of “gender privilege,” which is palpable on many levels and which surpasses the level of progress made in my own country.

First, Norway has an impressive group of women scholars, who are undertaking gender research—supported by government research grants—in countries around the globe.  Indeed, at the University of Bergen, I have had the great fortune to see Norwegian gender scholarship “in action,” as I have participated in mentoring a variety of young scholars on their research projects, ranging from the gender dynamics surrounding assisted reproductive technologies in Norway to the prevention of maternal-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.  Norwegian women academics are undertaking path-breaking research on multiple topics, including on improving the gender dynamics already existing in the country, and promoting gender equality in countries where it is largely absent.  This combination of research and feminist activism, most of it supported by Norwegian federal grants, should be applauded.

Proud of their careers

Second, gender privilege in Norway is manifested in women’s work lives.  Norwegian women work not only because of the high cost of living, but because work for women has become culturally normative.  Many Norwegian women are proud of their careers, and have attained high positions in government, the academy, and the business sector.  Nowadays, Norwegian women expect to obtain the kinds of higher education that will position them for meaningful future professions.  Norwegian women do not become “housewives” by choice or by societal expectation.  Instead, they are supported in their work through governmental mandates that have created generous maternity benefits and leaves, safe and affordable childcare, and reasonable working hours and conditions. Norwegian men have not only “adapted” to this situation, but seem to support this notion of dual incomes and dual careers, as partners, fathers, co-workers, and legislators.

Third, such relative gender equality has created a situation in which most Norwegian women can be confident and assertive, while also experiencing real pleasure in their work and in their daily lives.  Although I have been privy to conversations in which Norwegian women self-reflexively critique themselves for upholding a “superwoman” ideal, this right to be a working, parenting, athletic “superwoman” is not a right that most Norwegian women would be willing to give up, I would wager.  Amidst the “balancing act,” Norwegian women are still able to maintain flexible working schedules, relax with family and friends, enjoy the incredible beauty of their country, and relish long summer holidays, which seem akin to a religious “duty” in the country.  Indeed, the overall Norwegian quality of life seems so much higher than in the United States that we Americans really need to become more like the Norwegians.

Choosing the “mommy track”

Why? In America today, many professional men and women can only be described as “workaholics.”  We endure long hours in jobs that are becoming more and more “supersized” and engulfing. We are sedentary in our lifestyles, given that we have become glued to our computers. We take few vacation days, and certainly not month-long summer holidays.  Without free time, we rarely eat family meals together, and instead consume “fast” foods that are creating alarming levels of American obesity.  And, when women can no longer withstand the stress of over-sized jobs that wreak havoc on family life, they “drop out” of the workforce altogether, even when they are highly educated professionals.  Indeed, the career attrition of highly educated American women is rather shocking.  Women who are doctors, lawyers, professors, and businesswomen often feel forced to choose the “mommy track,” because “someone needs to raise the children.”

In my own life as an American professor and wife-mother, I see these sorts of pressures and gender compromises present all around me. In my daughter’s fourth-grade classroom, I was one of only two mothers who “still” worked, even though many of the “stay-at-home moms” held advanced graduate degrees.  At my current university, which is home to many amazing undergraduate and graduate women students, less than 20% of faculty are women, and only half of these women have seniority and job security.  The lack of academic career advancement for American women—and especially women in the sciences—has been described as a “leaky pipe,” in which women are squeezed out of an inhospitable career environment.

High-quality lifestyle

Most of the American academic women who have managed to advance in the system are working so hard in their teaching, research, administrative, and career mentoring capacities that prioritizing their own well-being, free time, leisure, and (heaven forbid) summer vacation is low on an otherwise long priority list.   If a summer does not produce the writing of a book or a series of articles, it is a summer that has been “wasted.” For American academic women, this can only lead to considerable guilt and anxiety.

At the end of the day (literally and figuratively), I can only recommend to the Norwegians that they work hard to retain their gender-privileged, high-quality lifestyle.  Indeed, I cannot wait to return to Norway next time. I know that I will be treated to a feast of great ideas, marvelous company, delicious foods, natural beauty, and, yes, some relaxation.  But most of all, I know that my time in Bergen will be spent with some incredible Norwegian women, whose gender privilege I truly admire.