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Willard's will

Not even Carl I. Hagen has become the object of his own hate organization. Valgerd Svarstad Haugland has probably asked for a lot of noise, but when the accounts are to be settled, it is the fiercest opponents, and not Valgerd himself, who should have the passport written down. For example, it may say "hostile to women".




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

As a top politician, you have to expect a lot of strange things when it comes to attention – on the one hand, uninhibited praise from people who like your politics, your style, your appearance, your vocabulary. On the other hand, derogatory remarks, harassment and even threats of violence and death from those who do not like you.

Former Labor leader Thorbjørn Jagland experienced being explained as an almost idiot, at least as an elephant in a porcelain shop, and thus he could barely turn around without anyone meaning to hear Chinese vases falling on the floor. At the same time, a bunch of souls started "People for Jagland", albeit a conditional success. SV's Inga Marte Thorkildsen was in turn designated as "intimacy tyrant", at the same time as a private person created a separate fan page about her on the internet. Carl I. Hagen has constantly complained about the harassment against himself and the FRP, but no one has ever started "Women against Carl Ivar", "Farmers against Carl Ivar" or "Immigrants against Carl Ivar".

It is an experience that is only Valgerd Svarstad Haugland forunt, when a women's volleyball team at Kampen in Oslo set up "Women against Valgerd" – with buttons, concert (!) And own – now closed – website on the internet. The tone of the review was that Valgerd was "misogynistic", and that women had to fight back.

"Women against Valgerd" was of course an unsavory action, completely independent of the political content. Hate campaigns against individuals, no matter how much you disagree with them, appeal only to our simplest instincts. The method is then also preferably used by top political leaders who will go to war against other countries: It is easier to hate Saddam than Iraq, so Bush talked about the war against Saddam. And if you manage to set up the stereotype "Valgerd" as an image of misogyny, you will not have to go into complicated debates about family and gender equality policy.

However, there is also reason to ask why exactly Valgerd Svarstad Haugland experienced what brown-edged FRPs or Christian moralist KrFs before her have left. Was Kåre Kristiansen more edible for feminists than Valgerd? Is Kjell Magne, for that matter? Shouldn't Per Sandberg get his campaign? Or Øystein Hedstrøm?

Of course they should not – they should receive objective criticism – but they differ from Valgerd on one important point: They are men. And the is precisely the core of the personal criticism that has been directed at Valgerd Svarstad Haugland in her eight years as party leader. She is no more clumsy than men, no more moralistic, no more cynical. But women in leadership positions need to work harder to gain respect. Men get it as a perk to the job. Also from a volleyball team at Kampen. And from all the others who joined "Women against Valgerd".

The outgoing KrF leader will probably be remembered as a party leader who did not win the respect of the people, the shop stewards or the members. That is why Kjell Magne had to be a prime ministerial candidate. That's why she got so much pepper. That is why she now has to resign, while the head of government remains in office. This does not mean that she deserved less respect. Only that the requirements were higher. And that some feminists let the misogyny out in the open.

Women against Valgerd were born around the same time as the cash benefit came into the world, and it can be understood that many were opposed to the reform – and thus also angry at Valgerd. Now it should be said that there is little evidence to refer to the reform as "misogynistic", as it actually gave parents an extra choice. Although the approach to the reform was not optimal, it does not differ in principle from e.g. extended maternity leave, which could also mean that more women are longer at home with their children. If it is a goal to keep the women at work as much as possible, you should remove the maternity leave and chase the women away from home immediately after the birth.

It must have been more confusing than the cash support for many of those who thought Valgerd was the dark man from hell that in the autumn of 1999, as Minister for Children and Families, she presented some of the most radical gender equality policy proposals put forward in Norway in many years.

One of them was to give educational institutions greater opportunities to engage in radical gender quotas, another statutory protection against sexual harassment. She was also the one who took the initiative for the process that is now underway, and which will ensure equal representation on the company boards. The most radical proposal, however, was an extension of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. Previously, women could only demand the same salary as men when they were in exactly the same positions. With Valgerd Svarstad Haugland's proposal, the right was extended to also apply across professional boundaries and collective agreements. Not a bad proposal from a "misogynistic" minister!

Although one can disagree with Svarstad Haugland and KrF in many policy areas, there has been a significant gap between the "threat" she has represented and the picture that has been drawn of her. The paradox is that it is precisely because Valgerd Svarstad Haugland is a woman – even a woman who challenged the Christian people themselves by trying to renew and popularize the Christian People's Party – she was so easy to "take".

The attempts to renew the party, and possibly the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated world, meant that she lacked the full backing from her own party and her own voters that was necessary to gain respect. The harsh personal attacks from opponents outside the party contributed to a further undermining of her authority. And when the difficult cases came – be it Valgerd's clear statement that she did not want the FRP's brown-edged voters for her party, or the handling of the Medhaug case – she was ready to be cut.

It is possible to remember Valgerd Svarstad Haugland's leadership effort in KrF as the attempt to send the women home to the kitchen counter, by introducing the cash support. But it is also possible to remember her as the Minister for Gender Equality who made progress in equal pay work. And as the party leader who took a fellow sister's warnings about sexual abuse seriously, even if it had to be at the expense of the internal calm in his own party.

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