Denmark’s Woman-Run Cabinet Is Nordic Laggard in Gender Equality

Christian Wienberg
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s government remains far behind its Nordic peers in terms of gender balance, even as more women were given portfolios in the new cabinet than before.

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Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, the first woman to win a second term steering Denmark, this week presented a ministerial lineup with eight women and 15 men, a ratio of 35%. That compares with 30% in her departing cabinet.

That’s significantly less than in Finland, where more than half of ministers are female, or in Norway and Sweden, where the ratio is near to parity. Even Iceland, a nation of 370,000 people, has a larger share of women in government.

It also casts a shadow on Denmark’s status as a pioneer in gender equality in politics. In 1924, the country was the world’s first democracy to appoint a female minister. Yet it only ranked 32nd in this year’s Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum that featured all the other Nordic countries within the top five.

“While Denmark is advanced on gender equality compared to some countries, there’s not a strong tradition for prioritizing gender equality when it comes to the highest levels of power,” said Christina Fiig, an associate professor in European politics and gender at Aarhus University. “Denmark was a first mover on gender diversity but it has been surpassed by the other Nordic countries in terms of women’s political representation in the past 20 or 30 years.”

In last month’s general election, Danes voted a record number of women into parliament, and 44% of the assembly are now female. Back in 2010, 47% of ministers were women, a record high.

“I’m not entirely satisfied,” Frederiksen told reporters in response to a question about her cabinet’s gender balance. “It’s not good enough.”

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