Tuesday, January 14
Today our class had the opportunity to visit Statistics Norway, Norway’s national statistical institute. They collect, process, and publish official statistics about Norwegian society, covering areas such as population and demographics, education, health and social conditions, and more.
After stopping by their dining hall for a quick lunch (I had a bowl of vegetable stroganoff soup and some homemade bread that was to die for), we were fortunate enough to be able to sit in on four presentations by the SSB. They began by presenting gender equality in Norway from a statistical perspective and a LGBT in Quality-of-Life Survey by Hanna Stangebye Arnesen. We then learned about Norwegian migration history from Minja and statistics about the Sàmi Statistics and the challenges around it from Christian and finished things up with some questions.
While all of the presentations brought us new information, I thought it would be beneficial to discuss their points from their first, as it goes hand in hand with our course. They began by answering the main question- Why do we need gender statistics? Statistics Norway takes account of gender statistics for many reasons but highlighted some of their top reasons as to aid in making inequality visible, to guide policy and program development, to compare regional differences, to provide baselines to measure and monitor progress, and to report results of policies.
Next, Hanna told us about the characteristics of gender statistics; she explained how they can reflect the differences and inequalities faced by men and women in all aspects of day-to-day life. She broke it down into four components- the data are collected and presented by sex, the data is put into context, the data are considered on concepts that reflect diversity in aspects of life, and then the data is accounted for stereotypes and social/cultural factors that may include gender bias.
While these presentations covered a lot of valuable topics and taught us how the information is collected, our group felt that there wasn’t a lot of representation in the data from those who may not identify as male or female. When questioned about it, we believed that the system should be more in-depth and inclusive than it currently is, but did our best to keep an open mind going forward.
It’s important to keep in mind that while this data has been collected from the current Norweigan population, it’s constantly changing. Statistics Norway stated that while they’re aware of their shortcomings in these areas, they do their best to respond to them within their limits and that more ideas are being developed to account for the increasing diversity and inclusivity of the country.