My activities and writings have attached a „feminist“ (considered despicable) sign to me despite always taking care to explain that my worldview is democratic which includes gender equality.
No doubt Estonia is patriarchal, but I have seen development over the years of my residence here. I’ll give some examples.
The year was 2000 and I had already volunteered couple years at the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT). One day I asked Julia Laffranque who lectured at the Tallinn branch of Tartu University’s Law School while also working at the Justice Ministry bringing Estonian laws into harmony with European Union’s whether she could assign a student to analyze Estonia’s legislation for gender discrimination aspects. About half year later I asked Julia about this request. She said that she had suggested this research to several students, but all were scared to address the issue. „Scared“ was the word that resonated.
About the same time I had applied to the Tallinn Rotary Club for membership, after having attended the meetings a while. I decided to take this step upon the recommendation of a friend in the US whose Rotary Club had involved me with several projects and he thought that my membership would be an asset to Rotary International. Indeed, his club had sponsored exchange students from Estonia at my recommendation and the club recruited me as a consultant for its medical assistance project in Estonia in 1993. As a result of these activities, I was given honorary Rotary membership and named a Paul Harris Fellow.
My application for membership was rejected by Tallinn Rotary Club. Then, Tallinn International Rotary Club was organized in 2004 and I was asked to join it. A Tallinn Rotary Club member officiated at the pinning ceremony and at the end of the ceremony I said to him that I had applied for membership to his club several years ago and was rejected. He replied „We don’t want women.“
Estonia became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004, which forced the parliament to pass a gender equality law. Political leadership did not want such a law, but without it the country could not be accepted into the Union and the law was passed virtually on the 11th hour.
Years passed. Chatting with a young woman at an event, I invited her to visit ENUT. She said that were she to associate with such an organization, she could not get a job in Estonia. That scare was still present.
Now we have reached a stage where the European Union plans to adopt a law establishing gender quotas in large business enterprises. Details are expected to be released by the Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier in April.
I addressed the topic of gender quotas in businesses at a seminar last year after learning about such a law in Norway and the background to its adoption. My presentation was titled „Gender balanced business“ and, subsequently, I submitted it to the business oriented newspaper Äripäev for publication. It was not published.
I’m including the article here:
Gender balanced business
Economic development is a part of history and one can say, in simplified terms, that technology is its integral component and a force for change. At one time it took several strong men to cut down a tree and to remove it. Today a machine under the controls of one man who does not need to flex a muscle can cut down a whole forest in a day (depending on the size of the forest, of course).
If a man can handle such a machine, why not a woman. No physical strength was needed, only skill in handling the equipment. It would be superfluous to point out the part of a person in charge of learning skills.
The point is that economic activity is no longer what it used to be years ago, not even 50 years ago. Regarding women’s and men’s roles in economic activity, a large break with traditions occurred after World War II.
During the war men were conscripted into military service, but industry needed workers – the war effort had to be supplied – and women were recruited into factories to do men’s jobs. That certainly was the situation in the United States and Great Britain. Nazi ideology, however, assigned child-bearing and hausfrau roles to women and workers in German industries were brought from occupied territories, often as forced labor.
After the war had ended, the women were told more-or-less, „Thank you ma’am. Now you can go back to housekeeping.“ But women had learned to operate the labor market and, furthermore, the experience had empowered them psychologically. Two significant events occurred after the war: rapid economic growth which concentrated on the manufacture of consumer products and the enrollment by young women in institutions of higher learning in unprecedented numbers. Considering these developments, the women’s movement in the 1970s is completely understandable: home appliances eliminated the need for physical labor and the resulting free time combined with developed brains looked for activity.
In Estonia stereotypes have begun to crumbled since the restoration of independence. If earlier the tradition was for girls to study a certain subject and the boys another (for example, girls learning to be hairdressers and boys, carpenters) in vocational schools, then today 35% of the students in the classes are of the opposite sex. Young women have also entered the field of Information Technology which earlier was men’s domain. Product demands by clients have brought about this change.
The Estonian Business School has been dominated by men due to its field of study. In order to obtain most recent data on its student population I contacted the School. The official apologized that such statistics are not compiled, but if I would call back in a few days, she would have them for me. When I made the return call, I was informed that the total population breaks down to 55% women and 45% men. On the undergraduate level it is 50% women and 50% men, but what surprised the officials themselves were the statistics on the Master and Doctorate levels: 64% of the students are women.
The above is significant. Why is gender balanced development – policy – positive, if not altogether necessary?
The reason is that our economy is part of an international one which requires each sector to be competitive in order to be successful. The enterprise that survives is innovative, transparent, and implements good practices. The inclusion of women at decision-making level makes it possible to achieve those qualities.
Norway passed a law in 2003 which requires corporations to appoint women to their boards of directors. The number depends on the size of the board’s membership. Thus, if a board has nine members, 40% has to be of the opposite sex. There was a lot of opposition to such legislation –harmful results to the economy were predicted and it was alleged that a sufficient number of qualified women does not exist – but the government was convinced that such legislation would strengthen the health of Norway’s economy.
The corporations were given three years to implement the directives from the date, 2004, when the law went into effect. By 2007, 37 per cent of the board members of the corporations listed on the Oslo stock exchange were women and the companies were successful.
There are plenty of enterprises run by women, but here I would like to cite one headed by the American Candace Fleming who has degrees in engineering, English language and business administration. She worked previously as a manager of a large firm and now runs her own software company. She is also the mother of two children. While nursing the second child, she drafted a business plan and hired two engineers for her company.
I don’t want to leave the impression that it is easy to have a family and run a business at the same time. Competition in the business world is intense and in order to survive, not to mention being profitable, many hours – often stolen from one’s private life - have to be devoted to business. Despite that, the general trend is to include women in top positions in business, because experience has shown that the result are greater returns to investment, growth in capitalization, and increase in sales.
Neither do I want to suggest that every woman is like Candace Fleming, although there are others like her. However, not every man is like Bill Gates, either, and that is my point. Women are not all alike nor are men all alike – differences are found within each sex.
P.S. Äripäev published on Feb.15 the above text in the following edited form:
P.S. Äripäev published on Feb.15 the above text in the following edited form:
Technology has been an integral part of economic activity and a force for change. At one time it took several strong men to cut down a tree and to remove it. Today a machine under the controls of one man who does not need to flex a muscle can cut down a whole forest in a day.
If a man can handle such a machine, why not a woman. No physical strength was needed, only skill in handling the equipment.
The point is that economic activity is no longer what it used to be years ago, not even 50 years ago. Regarding women’s and men’s roles in economic activity, a large break with traditions occurred after World War II.
During the war men were conscripted into military service, but industry needed workers – the war effort had to be supplied – and women were recruited into factories to do men’s jobs. After the war had ended, the women were told more-or-less, „Thank you ma’am. Now you can go back to housekeeping.“ But women had learned to operate on the labor market and, furthermore, the experience had empowered them psychologically. Two significant events occurred after the war: rapid economic growth which concentrated on the manufacture of consumer products and the enrollment by young women in institutions of higher learning in unprecedented numbers. Considering these developments, the women’s movement in the 1970s is completely understandable: home appliances eliminated the need for physical labor and the resulting free time combined with developed brains looked for activity.
Stereotypes have begun to crumble in Estonia since the restoration of independence. If earlier the tradition was for girls to study a certain subject and the boys another (for example, girls learning to be hairdressers and boys, carpenters) in vocational schools, then today 35% of the students in the classes are of the opposite sex. Young women have also entered the field of Information Technology which earlier was men’s domain. Product demands by clients have brought about this change.
The reason is that our economy is part of an international one which requires each sector to be competitive in order to be successful. The enterprise that survives is innovative, transparent, and implements good practices. The inclusion of women at decision-making level makes it possible to achieve those qualities.
Stereotyping obstructs economic development and successful enterprising. For those who doubt a woman’s capacity to head a business I would like to cite the American Candace Fleming who has degrees in engineering, English language and business administration. She worked previously as a manager of a large firm and now runs her own software company. She is also the mother of two children. I am not suggesting that every woman is like Candace Fleming, although there are others like her. I am saying, however, that not every man is like Bill Gates, either, and that is my point. Women are not all alike nor are men all alike – differences are found within each sex.
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