Norway an Experiment in Woman Power

By Michael S. Serrill

Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, 47, is considered one of Western Europe's bright young up-and-comers, a woman who is working hard to earn an international reputation. In one area of politics she has already made an indelible mark: she presides over a government that is run, in large part, by women. Brundtland's 18-member Cabinet includes eight women, which gives Norway a higher proportion of females in top government positions than any other nation in the world. Says Brita Westergaard, head of Norway's Equal Status Council: "We are not just changing Norway. When people realize that this is possible in the Cabinet of one country, they must realize it is possible everywhere."

Not surprisingly, the women in Norway's government are besieging traditional enclaves of male privilege. Minister of Church and Education Kirsti Kolle Grondahl recently said that she "would love to" appoint the first woman bishop in the state's Lutheran Church, whose male clerics, she says, still "persecute" their female colleagues. Inger Pedersen, chairwoman of parliament's Justice Committee, is drafting an amendment to the constitution, which now limits inheritance of the Norwegian throne to men, to include female royal heirs. The change would mean that Crown Prince Harald's daughter, Princess Martha Louise, who turned 15 last week, could eventually become the first Queen of Norway.

The Cabinet is also addressing broader issues of special interest to women. It is reviewing proposals for an expansion of day care. It has declared its intention to extend paid maternity leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks by 1990. And work weeks for both men and women will be shortened starting in January from 40 to 37 1/2 hours.

Since 1981 Brundtland's Labor Party has been in the forefront of the drive for equality. The party adopted a rule requiring that at least 40% of its candidates for public office be women. So when Brundtland was appointed Prime Minister for the second time last May, she had no trouble finding qualified women to fill Cabinet posts. In Norway's 157-seat Storting (parliament), 34% of the members are now women, and the Labor Party's own parliamentary ranks are 41% female. The Prime Minister has taken abuse for her feminist campaigning -- in the past, male politicians disparagingly referred to her as "Chatterbox" and "Mother" -- but today she still thinks the struggle was worth it. Says Brundtland: It was tough, but "it gave me enormous strength to know that I was leading a fight on behalf of all women." Being a woman, however, does not automatically confer success. Indeed, the Labor government's popular-approval rating recently sank to 32%, fueling speculation that its days are numbered. Brundtland has been criticized for proposing new social spending at a time when low prices for Norway's government-owned North Sea oil have reduced export earnings from almost $2.1 billion in 1985 to $1.2 billion this year. And she has put off some of her NATO allies by maintaining a cool distance from Washington. Last month she banned U.S. F-111 fighter- bombers from Norwegian airspace during allied military exercises.

Still, Brundtland has set in motion a far-reaching assault on male bastions that is unlikely to be reversed. Though women are still underrepresented among Norwegian business executives, for instance, 40% of the students in one Oslo school of business administration are women. With the Cabinet already influenced by women, the corporate boardroom cannot be far behind.

With reporting by Dag Christensen/Oslo