Précis

When the young women of the Norwegian Border Guard turn in after a long day patrolling along a stretch of their nation's northern border with Russia, chances are there will be men in the room. 

They're the fellow soldiers they've been working with, training with and sometimes ordering around in the field. Despite the seamless sleeping arrangements, the conflicting habits of males and females, it all seems to work. Harassment and sexual assault, already comparatively low in Norway's armed forces, is on the wane.

"It started because the mission is on the border so we do have to live in tents and small cabins. There is nothing special about it anymore so the tension between the sexes isn't there anymore." MAJ. MICHAEL ROZMARA - Chief of staff, Norwegian Border Guard.

Led by a formidable front-line of women, including Prime Minister Erna Solberg and her predominantly female cabinet which includes defence Minister Ine Eriksen, Norway is leading the charge to an inclusive, cohesive unisex defence force. They want the armed services to become as progressive and gender-blind as the top echelons of government.

"We would like to choose from the most motivated men and women, because we think that we cannot afford in a modern Armed Forces to not use the competencies that both genders have." INE ERIKSEN Norwegian Defence Minister

As technology and sophisticated communications strategies change the way military campaign are conducted, Norway has concluded that women inherently possess skills and qualities that are vital to the defence program. But in order for military leaders to bolster female numbers they need to ensure women feel safe among their male colleagues and that they have a clear path to succeed in the service.

Colonel Ingrid Gjerde is a one woman who's become a compelling role model. She rose to command all of Norway's forces in Afghanistan.

"Leadership is all about building healthy cultures, and to build healthy cultures you have to respect every single person, man and woman. And then there is a zero tolerance for harassment." COLONEL INGRID GJERDE - Military Academy and Officer Candidate School, Norway

Foreign Correspondent travels to the remote and breath-takingly beautiful Arctic corner of Norway to examine the gender experiment first hand.

"What's happening in this remote region is now being watched very closely around the country, because next year Norway is going to start a much bolder experiment. It's going to become the first NATO power to introduce mass conscription of women." ERIC CAMPBELL - reporter, Foreign Correspondent

Flora and fauna/Scenery

Music

00:00

CAMPBELL: High in the Arctic Circle, on the far north coast of Norway, is a region known as NATO's left flank. This seemingly peaceful area of rivers, forests and fjords has a nearly 200 kilometre frontier with Russia.

00:10

Helicopter over snowy landscape

Music

00:28

Patrolling this border is one of the toughest postings in Norway's army.

00:31

Soldiers at army base

Soldiers work through the endless sunlight of Arctic summer into the near total darkness of winter.

00:36

Helicopters over snowy landscape

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: "Yeah that's a real winter. Along the border my record is minus 54 and that's quite cold.

00:46

Rozmara i/v

I've been on exercises for over a week with not warmer than 30 so ah..."

CAMPBELL: "Minus 30?"

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: "Minus 30. So it's an interesting area".

00:56

Army Mess. Soldiers around table

01:08

Rozmara at table/Female soldiers at table

CAMPBELL: Major Michael Rozmara is chief of staff of the Norwegian Border Guard. Out of 500 soldiers, just 16 are women. But this tough, male dominated arena is now the centre of a radical gender experiment. The aim is to double the number of women in the military. 

DEFENCE MINISTER INE ERIKSEN SOREIDE: "We would like to choose from the most motivated men and women because we think that

01:12

Soreide

we cannot afford in a modern armed forces to not use the competencies that both genders have".

01:40

CAMPBELL: Norway's Defence Minister, Ine Eriksen Soreide is leading the charge.

01:47

Army base

At 38, she's a key mover and shaker in NATO. The new emphasis is on rapid reaction forces with armies specialising in computer technology, advanced weapon systems and on the ground intelligence.

01:52

Soldiers exit truck

She says Norway won't find the specialists it needs without recruiting far more women.

DEFENCE MINISTER INE ERIKSEN SOREIDE: "The threat, the complexity is so much different today than it was 10 to 15 years ago. That means that the demands, the needs,

02:07

Soreide. Super:
Ine Eriksen Soreide
Defence Minister, Norway

are so much different now that we need to recruit from the whole cohort and the competencies of the whole cohort".

02:26

Soldiers getting on boat

CAMPBELL: The army hopes it's found the answer to that way up in the Arctic. The county of Finnmark was only settled in the 19th century, when Norwegian pioneers came to farm near remote Russian villages. We've come here to see the program in action.

02:32

Campbell dons jacket

"It gets cold out there apparently". 

02:53

Travelling on boat to Finnmark

Music

02:56

CAMPBELL: In essence, everyone wears the same uniform and what's underneath doesn't matter. The only thing soldiers are judged on is performance. The only thing they're guaranteed is respect. That's what recruits like Malin Celius like about it.

MALIN CELIUS: "We don't focus on like

03:15

Celius on boat

female and male. We are just one team. Everyone does the same job so ah yeah it is what it is. It's not a problem at all".

CAMPBELL: "And you do all the same work?"

03:34

MALIN CELIUS: "Yeah we do the same work. There is no difference. It doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man, you do exactly the same thing".

03:44

Travelling on boat to Finnmark

CAMPBELL: Unlike the men, Malin is a volunteer. Norway has mass conscription for males over 18, though only the most motivated are chosen to serve. For many young males leaving school, a year in the army is a rite of passage. Malin applied to join and requested a post in the border patrol.

03:52

Celius on boat

MALIN CELIUS: "I wanted to come here".

CAMPBELL: "Yeah, why?"

MALIN CELIUS: "It's really beautiful, it's challenging and it's a great place to serve".

04:17

Travelling on boat to Finnmark

Music

04:26

CAMPBELL: There's no fortified border, just a river and a few land markers over an area rich in untapped minerals. As tensions rise between NATO and Russia over Ukraine, the job of keeping the peace here is as much about diplomacy as force. The army wants the best people doing it. 

04:32

Soldiers step onshore

In this battalion, gender simply isn't an issue. Men and women don't just train together and work together, some even sleep together. Since 2008, they've been bunking in the same rooms. 

04:55

Music

05:11

Dormitory. Soldiers rise

It's 6 am and Henriette Hummel is starting another demanding day. She shares this dorm with three young men and their smelly socks. But she prefers it to being segregated with other women. 

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Now we get to know each other faster and then we work better together. So it's a positive".

05:22

CAMPBELL: "Now a group of boys together can be pretty disgusting in hygiene and everything..."

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Yeah.

05:43

Hummel

I've seen everything [laughs]. No, they have their own way of doing things, boys".

05:50

Breakfast

CAMPBELL: Each morning begins with a bleary-eyed breakfast and wash-up. It's more like a group house than an army unit. 

06:01

Teeth brushing/dishwasher stacking

MALE SOLDIER: [packing the dishwasher] "Don't put the bowls so close together. They won't get clean then". 

CAMPBELL: And they've learned not to expect Henriette to clean up after them.

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "They understand

06:16

Hummel cleaning teeth

that I'm not their mother".

06:31

Soldiers training with sniffer dogs

CAMPBELL: She's part of the K-9 unit that patrols the border with sniffer dogs to stop unauthorized crossings.

06:34

Kjorstad coming out of toilet

Her roommate Peder Kjorstad says it's really not an issue to share with a girl.

PEDER KJORSTAD: "Well I think

06:43

Kjorstad cooking breakfast

it's okay. I don't really notice it that much any more. It's part of our daily routine now and she's one of the guys so..."

CAMPBELL: "So you don't become one of the girls then".

PEDER KJORSTAD: "Maybe sometimes..... she needs some company as well..." [laughs]

06:51

Soldiers around table

CAMPBELL: They're soon on duty. 

MALE SENIOR SOLDIER: "Okay, today you'll start taking the dogs out for a walk before training. After that we'll go to Pasvik".

07:14

Hummel with dog

Music

07:32

CAMPBELL: They spend several hours a day marching along the hills and river with their dogs. 

07:48

"What's his name?"

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Nemo".

CAMPBELL: "Nemo... Nemo... Finding Nemo".

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Yes like a fish".

CAMPBELL: "He's a good dog?"

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Yeah he's doing his job very well". 

07:58

Campbell walks with Hummel and dog

CAMPBELL: For women like Henriette, joining the army isn't a lifetime career. As with the male conscripts, it's something different to do before university - rather like a gap year without the sex and drugs. 

08:09

Hummel with dog

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "I wanted to test myself as well so this was the place to go [laughs]. And I get to test myself, so yeah I'm at the right place".

CAMPBELL: "And how are you going? How's the test going?"

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "It's good. We have done a lot of different things so far. So I at least get to test myself the way I wanted tom, both physically and mentally".

08:24

Soldiers on patrol

CAMPBELL: This was the first battalion to introduce shared dorms. With so much work in the field, it just felt like a logical step.

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: [Chief of staff, Border Guard] "It started because of the mission on the border. We do have to live together because we are doing the mission in tents and small cabins.

08:52

Rozmara. Super:
Major Michael Rozmara
Chief of Staff, Border Guard

We do need to live together out there so why don't we start in here from the beginning?"

09:13

Soldiers on patrol

CAMPBELL: It soon became clear that the closer they lived, the less they were like hormonal teenagers. 

09:20

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: "There's nothing special about it any more, so the tension between the sexes is not there".

CAMPBELL: And it's becoming a template. 

09:29

Campbell to camera

"What's happening in this remote region is now being watched very closely around the country, because next year Norway is going to start a much bolder experiment. It's going to become the first NATO power to introduce mass conscription of women".

09:41

DEFENCE MINISTER INE ERIKSEN SOREIDE: "Both duties, obligations and rights should be equal for both sexes. I think it's a great advancement and I do think that we are seeing also over time

09:57

Soreide. Super:
Ine Eriksen Soreide
Defence Minister, Norway

a steady increase in the number of women wanting to join the military and we also, to my great joy, see that we also have more and more women in the armed forces who like to be there more and more".

10:08

Soldiers leave barracks

CAMPBELL: Norway has long been embarrassed by the male domination of its military. Fewer than one soldier in ten is a woman. That's in stark contrast to the rest of society, where generous parental policies have enabled women to enter all walks of life. 

10:22

Stills. Solberg

Music

10:40

CAMPBELL: Conservative Party Leader Erna Solberg is Norway's second female Prime Minister. Most of her ministers are women, from Finance to Defence.

10:41

Lode in advertisement. Super:
Military recruitment campaign

ADVERT: "Hi! My name is Ingunn Lode. I'm a second lieutenant in troop 5-1 at KNM Harald Haarfagre in Stavanger". 

10:52

CAMPBELL: New recruitment ads for the army don't focus on how you can fire guns and blow stuff up. Women talk about the skills they've learned to help their fellow soldiers.

11:00

ADVERT: "The most important thing that I've learnt though my education in the army is to stick together and work as a team. Check in on the tasks that you've delegated to make sure that the soldiers are taking care of each other - even when I'm not there". 

11:11

Remote observation post

11:30

Slaastad and Martinsen walk in fog to observation post

CAMPBELL: It takes a special determination to leave the bright lights of Oslo for a place like this. Sissel Slaastad and Ingunn Martinsen are stationed at a remote observation post on this wind-battered mountain.

11:34

Some of their friends thought they were mad joining the army but they were also impressed.

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "I think they thought I was very tough. It's not very, in my friend group it's not normal,

11:50

Slaastad and Martinsen

so they thought it was pretty cool though".

CAMPBELL: "Hm mm. What to learn to fire guns and..."

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "Yeah" [laughs]

CAMPBELL: "And how have you found it? Has it been tough?"

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "Yeah. It's been very tough but it's... you learned a lot".

12:04

Scenery

Music

12:19

Slaastad and Martinsen at work training conscripts

CAMPBELL: When the sun comes out, it's a very different picture. You can see why some teenagers are so keen to come here. Sissel and Ingunn who are now 20, are about to finish their service and go to university. But over the past year they've been promoted to running the post, meaning they give orders to the boys. Today, they're breaking in the latest batch of conscripts. 

12:31

SISSEL SLAASTAD: "There are two fishing boats by 390, so we'll walk down to the plateau. We continue down to the cattle grid and all the way to 390, back to 382 and include Lillesand on our way back up here".

12:56

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "I don't think they have any negative thoughts about us really, as long as we're doing our job correctly".

13:10

Campbell with Slaastad and Martinsen

CAMPBELL: "Well they have no choice do they?"

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "No". [laughs]

13:18

Music

13:21

Soldiers at observation post

CAMPBELL: Sharing quarters with the boys took a bit more getting used to.

INGUNN MARTINSEN: "It's okay but it's a little bit weird sometimes when you have to change clothes".

CAMPBELL: "But you are incredibly outnumbered by men,

13:23

Slaastad and Martinsen

particularly up here".

SISSEL SLAASTAD: "Yes, we are".

13:36

CAMPBELL: "So how is that?"

SISSEL SLAASTAD: "It's ah... it's okay but sometimes I miss my girls at home and I'm very happy to have Ingunn up here with me. So ah... when we're watching television or something it's Top Gear all the time".

Observation post

Music

14:05

CAMPBELL: There are strict rules about dorm sharing. No sex, no alcohol and no sharing bunks. The males have to watch their language and behaviour. If any young recruits form relationships, they're separated.

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: "It works. The incidents we have had - we haven't had that many -

14:09

Rozmara

but it has never been together with the people living in the same room. The real incidents often happen on off duty combined with alcohol".

14:32

Soreide

DEFENCE MINISTER INE ERIKSEN SOREIDE: "I would hasten to say that we also have issues with sexual harassment. I will not... not at all deny that. We do see positive development which I'm very happy to see, but we need to focus on these issues on a top level. It's not enough to do this on a lower level. I have to focus on it and military leaders in all levels have to. So we need to get rid of it".

14:51

Soldiers with kit and on to truck

CAMPBELL: "The key to Norway's success is that the army doesn't leave it to the girls to sort out problems. Unlike the British military tradition, there isn't a big gulf between officers and recruits.

15:15

Rozmara at table with recruits

Part of Major Rozmara's job is spotting problems before they start. 

15:33

MAJOR MICHAEL ROZMARA: [talking to young male recruits] "I've been in charge here for three years. The absolutely best soldier I've had was a girl. The worst I've had was also a girl. I think you get the whole range - also among the boys. There are plenty of boys in a completely rotten physical shape as well". 

15:38

[to Campbell] "Be there, talk to them, talk to your soldiers. I'm not above anyone. I'm a soldier with a mission.

15:57

Rozmara. Super:
Major Michael Rozmara
Chief of Staff, Border Guard

I've got my mission and my mission is to take care of my soldiers and together with them solve the mission and I have to be there with my soldiers, not above them".

16:07

Gjerde walks into building

CAMPBELL: That's now at the core of officer training. The new head of Norway's military academy and officer candidate school is Colonel Ingrid Gjerde, one of the country's most decorated soldiers.

COLONEL INGRID GJERDE: [Chief, Norway Military Academy] "Leadership is all about building healthy cultures

16:17

Gjerde i/v. Super:
Colonel Ingrid Gjerde
Chief, Norway Military Academy

and to build healthy cultures you have to respect every single person, men and women and then there is a zero tolerance for harassment - whether it's about gender or sex or other things".

16:36

Stills. Gjerde

Music

16:54

CAMPBELL: To advocates of equality, Ingrid Gjerde is the proof that gender shouldn't matter. She rose through the ranks to become commander of all Norwegian forces in Afghanistan. Some of her front line soldiers were women. They've been integrated into combat roles since 1985. 

16:56

Archival. Afghanistan war

COLONEL INGRID GJERDE: "We've had them on the frontline in Afghanistan and most other operations we've participated in during the last decades.

17:20

Gjerde i/v

As long as they have the standards as their colleagues, they are part of the unit and I really can't say that there was a woman or there was a man, they do the job they are given and it works well".

17:30

Soldiers on beach. Swimming in sea

CAMPBELL: It's striking just how relaxed the border guard has become about gender. Every Saturday, it continues its tradition of swimming in the icy Barents Sea. Clothing is optional.

17:46

And yes, the female recruits do this too, though understandably, not when a television crew is lurking. 

"Well this is ridiculously cold swimming weather

18:16

Campbell to camera

but the astounding thing is that this is the height of summer up here. They continue doing this right through the Arctic winter when temperatures drop as low as minus 35. This is one of the most hard core training grounds for young recruits - men and women. 

18:26

Soldiers dress

Not every part of the military is so keen to embrace gender neutrality. Norway's navy, for example, won't allow dorm sharing.

18:43

SAS recruitment advertisement

Music

18:56

DEFENCE MINISTER INE ERIKSEN SOREIDE: "Well I think that when you introduce something new, there will always be reservations some places. I think that what we are seeing now for instance in our special forces, who have now established their own female troop for a better recruitment to the armed.... the special forces as well.

19:02

Soreide. Super:
Ine Eriksen Soreide
Defence Minister, Norway

It's a very good example of an environment where you, five to ten years ago, would probably not see this at all. So things are developing and they're developing in the right direction".

CAMPBELL: "So you're not going to

19:23

force the navy to force men and women to share bunks together on ships".

DEFENCE MINISTER: "No we won't and we won't order any units to have so. They need to figure out themselves what is the best way to include both genders, and now that we're introducing the general conscript, they will all have to step up to the plate and say, what can we do to best make this work?"

19:34

Apslund i/v

ALICE ASPLUND: Yes, I do recommend for women to join the army. You learn a great deal, it's a very exciting time, you make a lot of friends and the army gives you a lot of possibilities.

19:55

Campbell walks with Apslund

CAMPBELL: Alice Asplund, now 26, spent a year in the army when she was 23. She loved it until one day almost ruined everything.

ALICE ASPLUND: It was during field training in Bodø

20:06

Asplund i/v

in September 2011. I was forced to swim naked in front of 30 fellow soldiers and four officers.

CAMPBELL: How did you feel about that?

ALICE ASPLUND: I got really scared and sad. I didn't think they were allowed to force someone to do that. It was a violation of my intimate sphere and it left its mark on me.

20:27

CAMPBELL: But if you are serving together in the army, don't you all have to do the same thing?

21:04

ALICE ASPLUND: Yes, we have to do the same things, but some of the guys were reluctant to go swimming as well. There should be equality, but that is not what this is about. It's about being pushed over your intimate limits. If we'd been ordered to go swimming with our underwear on, that would've been just fine. But the fact that we had to swim naked, go into the water and wash our private parts and armpits in front of others... That was... far out, to say the least.

21:08

Soldiers at briefing

CAMPBELL: The latest intake to the border battalion shows how far the army still has to go. Most of the new platoons are all male. Out of 270 fresh recruits, only five are women. It will be a long battle to double the number of female soldiers. The tasks are rarely glamorous or well paid or easy.

21:47

Hummel with dog

Henriette has been on duty for 14 hours and there's still work to be done.

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "We are going to meet up with two guys from a patrol and then we're going to walk along the border and check if everything is all right and that nobody has crossed the border".

CAMPBELL: "It's a long day. You've been up since six, it's now eight o'clock at night".

HENRIETTE HUMMEL: "Yeah. It's long days in the summer. So yeah we just have to keep up with it, but it's fun so it's worth it"

22:17

Hummel on patrol with dog

CAMPBELL: Some critics might dismiss all this as European political correctness, putting ideology ahead of military reality, but the Defence Minister Ine Soreide, from the

22:59

Soreide i/v

ruling Conservative Party, disagrees strongly.

23:11

INE SOREIDE: "No I don't think so at all. I think this is important for our society. I think that when you look at a country like Norway, a lot of people, a lot of other countries think that our wealth mainly stem from oil and gas resources.

23:14

City shots

But it doesn't. It stems from the fact that we have equal opportunities in the workforce, we have most of our women integrated fully in the workforce and that is what contributes to our wealth alongside the oil and gas and natural resources.

23:27

In countries where you don't include women in the workforce, you will have huge problems with actually extracting all the opportunities and getting welfare and wealth".

23:42

Female soldier shots

Music

23:50

Reporter - Eric Campbell

Camera - David Martin

Ron Foley

Sound - George Davis

Editor - Nicholas Brenner

Research - Gunn Evy Auestad

Producer - Suzanne Smith

Executive Producer - Steve Taylor

24:09