Norway Donates for Gender Equality
Norway - which was the first country to require gender quotas for executive boards of publicly traded companies - is giving Estonia 4 million euros to further the cause of gender equality and to fight violence related to gender.
That funding is part of a larger aid package to Estonia, which in the next three years will receive 45 million euros from the European economic area, including 24 million from Norway, to support environmentally friendly industries, public health and research, reported Postimees.
The Ministry of Social Affairs will split the 4 million euros for two programs - one to improve family and work life as it pertains to gender issues, and the other to fight domestic violence and human trafficking. Estonia will match the funding of both programs with another 300,000 euros from the national budget.
The call for Estonia to adopt the social welfware policies of its wealthier Nordic neighbors, including the establishment of gender quotas for job positions and minimizing of the gender pay gap, is a familiar one in Estonian public discourse.
In 2007, Estonian men earned 30.9 percent more than women, according to a 2010 study by the Social Affairs Ministry. The government's gender equality commissioner has said that the salary divide between men and women lacks a clear statistical explanation in 85 percent of cases.
Thursday, women in Parliament formed a support group that includes all 20 of Estonia's female MPs.
Ott Tammik