Keynote Speech by Helen Clark on
The Effect of the Global Financial Crisis on Women
At the International Conference
Celebrating the Centenary of Women’s Right to Vote in Norway
Oslo, Norway

'Maybe women deserve men setting the agenda," a conservative female politician said Friday as emotions ran high over a study that showed men know more about politics than women, and that the gender gap was wider in Norway than in comparable countries such as Australia.

Norway created its first ever female-majority government Friday with a reshuffle caused by the resignation of the country's Oil Minister, the government said.

Norway now leads the globe in gender equality at board level, with a higher percentage of women at the uppermost echelons of its firms than any other country.

Norway boasts the highest proportion of women on boards anywhere in the world, up from 6% in 2001. By comparison, in the UK 11.5% of FTSE 100 directors were female in 2007 and the proportion among the US's Fortune 500 firms is 14.8%.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller says not enough progress has been made to increase the number of women involved in parliamentary decision-making since adult suffrage in 1944, arguing that the pace at which they are being integrated leaves much to be desired.

Sandrea Falconer, the minister with responsibility for gender affairs, in a statement in the Senate on Friday, said that women have broken the glass ceiling in politics but there is need for more to be involved in the process.

Women in politics should not allow themselves to be distracted by negative criticisms, St. Lucian Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Tessa Mangal says.

Female candidates, who make up less than 20 per cent of those vying for a seat in Wednesday's local government election, say they are hoping to making a difference.

THE Jamaica Women's Political Caucus (JWPC), through its Institute for Public Leadership (IPL) programme, has organised a training seminar for active and aspiring women in politics.

The Government is currently exploring the adoption of a quota system to increase women's level of representation in the Senate, to at least 30 per cent.

From t

Samoa's newly re-elected prime minister has raised the ire of Pacific feminists by claiming one female MP in his cabinet is "more than enough". Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi swore in his 13-members cabinet over the weekend after winning a comfortable majority in the March 4 election.