The regional stakeholder group in Dalarna decided to arrange a seminar in order to discuss gender issues within representatives from the high tech sector in Dalarna and disseminate our findings so far made in the Femina project.
The cluster Samarkand arranged a digital seminar together with the project team and hired a well -known lecturer Jesper Rundberg to speak about gender and power. Jesper Fundberg works at Malmö University and the police academy. The Swedish sports academy has also assigned him in their ambition to increase the gender equality within, and between the sports, women and men are exercises.
His main message and conclusion is that we need to stop regarding the women as the problem and increase the insight that men need to give up some of the power if a change is going to happen.
He is currently working with men in management groups. They need to think about how their culture in the company and how their business is perceived. Do the pictures in their commercials consist of men working and the women watching for instance? The key for the high tech sector to attract and retain women is to work with the men and change their culture. The men has the power and sets the culture within the company and sector.
This is not easy because this means that men need to let go of some of the power and will create many emotions and certainly a lot of resistant.
The invited representatives from the high tech sector and HR departments confirmed what Fundberg said and this is an issue that need to be addressed. The energy companies in Dalarna plan to start a process in their management teams during the autumn.
The Femina project did also attract interest. Some of the good practices presented during the meeting raised interest and some of the companies requested more information about the project.
The seminar attracted 42 participant representing stakeholders in the high-tech sector in Dalarna.
