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Warning: Equality must no longer be confined to gender

Risk of political crisis if equality policy ignores diversity and only deals with gender. Nordic-American seminar in Washington called for a revision of equality concepts.

Mar 12, 2013

The Faroese MP and member of the Nordic Council, Bjørt Samuelsen, with Satu Haapanen from Finland and Michele Swers from Georgetown University during the debate on equality in Washington

The world risks a crisis of political leadership if the composition of future political decision-making layers does not reflect all groups in the population, say American equality and minority researchers. The American experts are backed up by the parliamentarians from the Nordic Council, who would like to see Nordic equality work become more in keeping with the times.

Equality in the future should also embrace disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity. This was the message from a number of Nordic MPs who took part on Monday in a Nordic-American seminar on equality in Washington in conjunction with the joint Nordic cultural festival Nordic Cool.

"The Nordic countries are at the forefront internationally, with regard to gender equality. On the other hand, we are lagging far behind USA in regard to equality work covering all groups in the population", said, amongst others, the Finnish MP, Slivia Modig,

Silvia Modig encouraged politicians in the Nordic countries to recognise the changes in the population in the Region:

"We must have a society where diversity is a strength; everyone must have the same chance and it is therefore important that, for example, the parliaments in the Nordic countries truly reflect the composition of the whole population. We cannot afford not to", said Silvia Modig.

The Finnish parliamentarian took part in the seminar in Washington with her Nordic colleagues, Satu Haapanen from Finland, Bjørt Samuelsen from the Faroe Islands and Truls Wickholm from Norway.

The American delegates were Michele L. Swers, Associate Professor at Georgetown University, Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians and Julie Ajinkya, Policy Analyst from the Center for American Progress. The latter warned against confining equality to gender and ignoring developments in the composition of the population:

"The USA and the rest of the world cannot afford not to involve equality, diversity and minorities in future policies and future society. We quite simply need to invest actively in those groups", said the American researcher.

At the seminar, the Norwegian parliamentarian, Truls Wickholm, highlighted Norwegian equality work which also covers the diversity aspect. Truls Wickholm called for strengthening Nordic co-operation on equality but warned against sceptical reactions:

"There is always someone who is afraid of change, when it comes to equality and protection of minority groups in society. But that should not prevent us from taking it further", said Truls Wickholm.

Contacts

Jesper F. Schou-Knudsen
Phone +45 33 96 03 55
Email jsk@norden.org

Jette Renneberg Elkjær
Cultural adviser, Den Danske Ambassade i Washington
e-mail: JETELK@UM.DK eller tel: +1 (202) 797-5377

Nordic Cool 2013

Nordic festival in Washington

The Nordic Council

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