Professor of Sociology / Founding President of the Norwegian Women’s Lobby / Former President of the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights
Margunn Bjørnholt is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen.
A sociologist and economist, she has a broad background as an academic, a civil servant, a consultant and a leader in the NGO sector. She has formerly worked at the Regional Development Fund, the National Institute of Technology, the Work Research Institute and the University of Oslo. As a civil servant and consultant she worked to promote women’s entrepreneurship and leadership.
Since entering academia in the 1990s, the focus of her research has changed from financial institutions, management, and working life, to gender equality, migration, and violence. Her doctoral dissertation Modern Men focused on men and their role in the promotion of gender equality. In 2015 she was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to establish a research program on the gendered dimensions of violence at NKVTS, and she has led several research projects on intimate partner violence, sexual violence, violence against women migrants and refugees, and violence and abuse in indigenous Sámi and immigrant communities. In 2023 she received the Rights Prize for her research on intimate partner violence.
She is a former President of the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights (NKF) and a board member of NKF’s international parent organization, the International Alliance of Women (IAW). She has served as a national expert on gender equality to the European Commission and as a member of the Norwegian delegation to the 59th and 60th sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She was the founding President of the Norwegian Women’s Lobby from 2014 to 2016.