Background
Gender equality development in Norway has been promoted through gender equality legislation; an equality oriented family policy, by integrating the gender equality perspective in policy development and by schemes to promote gender balance in education, politics, in public boards, councils and committees, in business boards and in a number of other decision-making boards. Although Norwegian society has changed significantly in the direction of increased gender equality over the past decades, knowledge of the importance of equality policy for these processes of change is limited.
Research questions
We examine support for gender equality policy and policy development and practice in the gender field in several ways. Firstly, we analyze the attitudes of Norwegian top managers to equality through analysis of the Norwegian leadership surveys. We examine top managers' attitudes to gender equality in a change perspective, across social sectors and across different goals of gender equality. Secondly, we examine how the debate on the "boy problem" in the education system is understood in an equality perspective. We are concerned about how this is debated and what kind of knowledge is central and made relevant. Thirdly, we analyze how Norwegian gender equality policy is "branded" foreign policy, and how gender equality policy in foreign policy appears to be the same and / or different from what has been the main lines of Norwegian gender equality policy within a national framework.