Gender and politics debate rekindled

The political parties ought to have the decency to nominate an equal number of female and male candidates for elections.

If a party only manages to find five female candidates, it should nominate no more than five male candidates.

This view was expressed by former Tórshavn mayor Annika Olsen at a panel discussion about women in politics on Saturday.

Olsen, an experienced politician who has been a minister, an MP and a mayor, believes that gender quotas at the nomination stage is the best way to get more female representation in politics and thus achieve more equal representation in politics.

 >> SEE ALSO Women at the helm in Vestmanna

Political scientist Sámal Matras Kristiansen disagrees and asks why gender representation should be given precedence over e.g. geographical representation.

”From a political perspective, a woman from e.g. Suðuroy and a woman from Tórshavn are likely to be more different than two men from Tórshavn,” he argues.

“Simply focusing on gender and ignoring other variables such as geography and age does not solve the overall problem of inequality in politics.”

Read the Faroese versions of this article here and here.

More Faroese News in English.