NOTHING IS HAPPENING HERE OR WHAT?!?!?

Well, no news = good news? Not so sure in this case. The crazy conjuncture we are in is putting all the rules of the game upside-down...meaning no one no longer knows what to follow to have it right (or at least "OK", don't be too demanding here!!!). Equality of opportunities does not seem to be on the top of priority when so many companies are giving notices and the unemployment is increasing.
According to LT (05/03/2009), the number of women in leading position has increased from 22% to 33% and 47 to 47% in respectively chairperson and Board position in the public sector, when it is still going so slow in the private sector. No real figure is provided in the article, no real solution. AS usual, you see the problem, you can guess the effect but nothing is done to make any change in the situation. According to research done throughout my last year degree, it appears that women are often put into higher deciding position (i.e. chairperson, board member) when companies are doing bad, when the impact is already so high (read here the boat is close to sink ; ), that bringing a woman (or two) is not considered as increasing the risk already in which the company is in... Let's see what this financial crisis does for the still called "weak sex" and how companies are learning from it...

Sweden still keeping it slow to make it happen, still waiting and see what the rest of the world is doing... A good time for new measures it seems... Just jump and see how far you can swim : )

Long live Sweden (and its equal opportunities...)

I saw a couple of days ago a program on Swedish national TV where the minister of equality and one politician from Left party were discussing the issue that the female part of the population was not "used" rightly when it came to their competences. Everyone agrees (Yes everyone!) that Sweden is full with kompetent and experienced women eager to succeed and show what they can, but still they are underrepresented in leader-role and in boards.

Why is that? Well Norway has been instauring quota for increasing the female representation in Boards of listed companies. Wait a minute: the quota was set at.. 40%!!! Yes you read correctly! Crazy you may argue, well, after 2 years, they have almost reached it! Not without pain, but still!

But in Sweden, noooooo! cannot work like that. The debate was launched a while ago, but everyone rests on the traditional Swedish way of thining about equal opportunities. Meaning that no laws are actually sanctioning the requirement of females in boards.

During this program the politician for Left was actually in favour for this quota, in a mean for starting up a bit quicker the increase of female reprensentation on boards. But the response of the minister (a woman...) was that others things needed to be taken into account before even starting to think about such a drastic (?!) measure.

WHAT IS GOING ON? if you cannot see that no listed company is willing to lift a finger to get women on Boards, well oblige them a bit (with an expensive fine if not following the rule as Norway does) and then it may start the whole process . Maybe in a few years you can take away this rule! But no! the minister (right party) was not even willing to discuss this alternative. The most scary was that she could not advance any solution to change the situation!

Whare are we going then? Historically men have put themselves on boards and have pushed their male fellows to follow their footsteps. Sweden has been a pioneer in equal opportunity rights (even before the US, YesYes!) but now it seems that the mentalities are so slow to change and not really willing to do so either!

Well, feminist or not, one need to be blind (no offense!) not to see that no change wil arise if no action is taken. Living by thinking is not leading to change. You may think you are rich, well, continue to think!!! If you really want to change, you need (1) to WANT IT, and (2) to DO IT!

WAKU UP SWEDEN and show the meaning of equal opportunities is not only an empty political promise during the vote process.

This is NOT about feminism!!!

I received a mail commenting my blogs and among other comments that I was a feminist... Mmm! How should I take that? Good or bad? According to Wikipedia (whatever source it can be), feminism corresponds to "women's experience of inequality in relation to the experiences of racism, homophobia, classism and colonization".

My blog is essentially dealing with facts about the situation in primarily Sweden (living right in it!!!) and other countries. Then I add upon this my personal comments about how I perceive the situation and try to get some answers how to get a more equal opportunities world.

Two days ago, my neighbour (a man) let me go out of the elevator first (even though it was clear that he was closer to the door and "should" have gone out first). Such details I notice a lot here in Sweden. It is rare to have such cases (opened doors, stand up when coming in...) when it is more common (?) in France or the UK. My understanding is that the Swedes want so badly their equality in opportunities among genders that they do not want to be temptated to use by such "gentlemen' manners" for not being condemned by feminist supporters.

So give me / us a break. Feminist is a distorted word and should be used with a bit more caution! Do not talk about what you do not know! : )

Incredible 1%!

Just received a mail naming that the number of female managers had increased of 1% in Sweden from 26 to 27% . The change is from 23 to 24% for medium to large companies. Well, a little step is still a step forward! However the article (Wombri, 2008) reminds us that a few years ago the rate was of 34%.... In listed companies, the rate of females in Board increased from 12.4 to 13.5%...

What happened? Have females disappeared? Or is this that a great conjuncture push companies to "trust" males again at their top, when the current low conjuncture tend to bring back the ladies at the deciding organs?

The top of the hierarchy changes slower than the middle level. Therefore the increaseed number of women at this middle-management increasing all the time. Males placed at top position change less often role/position , which tends as well to stop female to access those level (what will happen with the generation 1940 retiring???) Will this support the career development opportunities of women, or will it maintain the current status quo, despite of the measures taken (especially in Sweden)?

We'll see...

About the Swedish Foreign minister

During the past week have been written several articles about the Swedish Foreign minister and his position about females and their roles in the world. The reason starting those articles was an observation from a Swedish female organization noticing that none of the Foreign minister statements since he started in this role was including the role of women in the diverse situations existing in the world. None concerning females role in peace, none about females role in after-war fights for equality rights... well nothing. This corresponds to either a lack of judgment, a misunderstanding, a simple oversight (well who is he working with then!!?!?!) or a deliberate stance on this matter.... I cannot get a good justification for this (neither did he!). During his trips to meet other countries' representatives he never met the female organizations (when there exist). This mean forgetting a whole active part of the world fighting for peace, democracy and equality of rights for all.

In a country like Sweden lauding equality of opportunities among genders, it sounds quite surprising to have the Swedish ambassador (not literally) having this miss in his meetings and representations. It reflects on the Swedish image not in line with the socio-economic and behavioral reality. Lots is left to do not only to maintain this image but also to change the mentality within.

Women in a women's world...

An interesting lunch discussion led us to the topic "women in a women's world". What differs from a leadership point of view between a men's and a women's dominated world?

Girls are taught (still!) that the group is the base of every thing and that decision should be done in group, no "real" leader is necessary, better have a consensus and everyone agreeing rather than fighting for the best place in the group.
Boys on the other side get this competitive approach, like "nice to play the game, better to win it" (if I may simplify it this way).

The discussion today started from discussion about own children and their education and lead to our own experience in different environments. My lady friend recall working in a hospital in a team exclusively made of women (except for a male substitute who was the little pet of the department). Women there were quite bitter and let their bitterness go to others through negative and impulsive actions and reactions, not leading really to improvement in either the social atmosphere nor the efficiency of the department. The long story made short made us thought about another experience in a male dominated world as the IT industry. Men have been there to set the rules from the beginning and keep this historical advantage to themselves when promotion are coming, sponsoring their male favorite rather than a female outsider.

Wait a minute here! This sounds SO CLICHÉ! Well, according to my little researches for my MBA dissertation, this is still the case and even though there ARE female going through this glass ceiling or through the net towards top management, it is still few of them and lots still are left on the sticky floor.

Males support each other on their way up. Females don't... Where did it stop working???? Madeline Albright said rightly "There's a special place in Hell for women not helping each other". Well, is this place so nice and attractive, that women still keep doing this to themselves and to each other?

A recent article published in a Swedish newspaper mentioned that more young women chose the IT studies recently (actually, not that much more, but a little bit better!). A reason? Well Sweden is clearly lacking of IT-experts. Not that we don't have any, but that we have too few. Why not starting to wonder if women are not the half part missing (Yes you read right!).

So time to wake up and not only read the fabulous stories of IT-ladies who have succeeded. BE ONE OF THEM! IN ANY INDUSTRY! Show to the world that women are to be part of the industry as they are part of the society! Mentalities have to be fought to get a clear understanding of what has to be changed. Some IT-companies go to the opposite, getting only ladies recruited lately to get a better balance between gender. Well, I may be unfair here, but isn't it discriminating the opposite sex?

Back to women in women's world. What a challenge!
... to be continued

Why female leadership?

Why not?!!! This was a quite interesting question I got during an interview today. Why did I chose the topic I chose for my MBA dissertation "Female leadership and and the Glass ceiling effect: An investigation into career opportunities for women within the IT industry in Sweden".

Well, what appear obvious for me might not be the same for others. So my answer was (and still is) as follow: I have been seeing and experiencing a transparent wall or ceiling, stopping women to access upper echelon in companies (not only in the IT but more notable in male-dominated industry like... IT or Construction). So the logic as well as the curiosity lead my choice. A little push came as well from a lecturer during my Business leadership course of my MBA which was so inspiring (a women) and the discussions she lead or support or completed during this 6-weeks journey were extremely intense and inspiring (already said that!), which has definitely played a great role in my topic choice.

Female leadership comes regularly back on newspaper front-page as soon as a woman is nominated at a CEO or other executive level (note as well that it is OFTEN when the company is in difficulties that the leading group/BoD decide to promote a woman for the role supreme!). So the interest is there already. Moreover being ambitious and aiming for the higher level in the leading roles of companies, i have always been interested in questioning why so few women at top-position. Well the past has put men in decisions-seats and they still have problem to leave them for the other gender.

My conclusions (briefly here) were that mentalities are difficult to change and even in Sweden promoting so much the equality of opportunities between genders it is noteworthy the difficulties women have to get to operative top-management positions (you may find them in education, HR, PR, but still (too) few in CEO and other operating roles having greater decision power on the hiring of future leaders (which may more logically be at the image of already in place leaders, i.e. men...).
I will publish more information from my investigation when I receive the conclusion from the Board of examiner concerning my dissertation (two days left!).