This paper studies ministerial turnover in Scandinavia, focusing on group level differences of outcome for men and women in ministerial positions and attempting to explain why these might occur. It also attempts to test the applicability and validity of earlier works on the Scandinavian setting, more specifically that of portfolio salience and its presumed interaction with turnover depending on government type. The paper draws on databases compiled of governments and their ministers, primarily analysing them through a multinomial logit model. It reports no significant differences that may be observed regarding the survival rates or duration for Scandinavian ministers, albeit women in ministerial positions seem to outperform their male peers slightly – in contrary to theory expectations. The results of the paper also partly support earlier studies which conclude that portfolio salience protects important ministers from being fired or quitting in disgrace, at least so in countries where governments consist predominantly of coalitions, and suggests an alternative reading of earlier theories that could explain why portfolio salience seemingly does not also protect important ministers from switching posts or being reshuffled.