Study visit to Norway
In June 2015, the representatives of partner organizations involved in the project ODA visited the Norwegian partner organization Reform – Resource center for men. Representatives of three enterprises who are testing the Flexible package of measures ODA, aimed at facilitating the reconciliation of work and family, took part in the visit as well. The visit aimed to exchange and share the knowledge, experiences and practices in the field of reconciling work and family in relation to fatherhood in Slovenia and Norway.
In Norway, we have presented the ODA project and the state of the reconciliation of work and family in Slovenia to different addressees. And we had many opportunities to learn about Norwegian perspective too. Dr. Sigtone Halrynjo (Institute for Social Research (ISF), Centre for Research on Gender Equality (CORE)) presented the results of the research on the careers of men and parental leave in the case of highly skilled jobs. She found out that paternity leave is in the highest share used by highly educated fathers, but not including fathers in the best-paid professions. Especially among those working on a career she has detected a pattern of “irreplaceable worker.” Mag. Synnøve Konglevoll from the Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) presented the union’s fight for workers’ rights in regard to various forms of parental leaves. Dr. Knut Oftung, who works at the Norwegian Ombudsman, presented the project Qualified – Discriminated that addresses discrimination in the workplace due to parenthood. We also visited Kantega IT company that actively seeks to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family for their employees, which has a positive effect in recruiting and retaining highly qualified personnel.
Our hosts – Center for men Reform – have their head office in Oslo, where they provide assistance to men in difficult life situations, and promote gender equality through the media and political work. They believe that men as well as women benefit from increased gender equality, and that men as well as women experience challenges based on their gender. During our visit we have outdrawn the frames of the international conference that will be organized in Ljubljana in June 2016. We are especially pleased that representatives of Reform will again be with us at this occasion.
