Major Swedish companies seek more women leaders

On 20 november 2012 ten CEOs from some of Sweden’s largest companies -  Ericsson, Scania, SEB, H&M, IKEA, pensions company SPP, Saab, SSAB, Sandvik and Volvo - launched the project ‘Battles of the numbers’.

Ten women from each company who hold key positions on various levels and in various company areas will spend the next year working as internal management consultants within their respective companies. They will use their experiences to carefully study what makes women like themselves reach executive and decision-making positions. They will look at how the leadership roles are constructed, the shape of incentives and reward systems, how women are held up as role models, career paths, structures for feedback and views of parental leave.    

The aim is to improve women’s chances to enter leadership positions. The one hundred women will meet at workshops four times in the coming year to exchange experiences. The results of their work, which is being carried out in cooperation with the group leaderships, will be presented during a conference in November 2013.

The initiative was taken by Sofia Falk, the founder of Wiminvest, Cissi Elwin, editor in chief for the monthly magazine Chef and Eva Swartz Grimaldi from Blanchi café and cycles.