After heading the Swedish Association for Communication Agencies (Sveriges Reklamförbund) for some years and soon starting the prestigious job as head of the Swedish Film Institute, Anna Serner has got a good insight into life as a female leader in Sweden. During a short visit to Zambia she held a lecture on female leadership in Sweden and the picture she paints of a country famous for its gender equality is rather gloomy
- Only 18 percent of the board members in stock market companies in Sweden are women. There is an unconsciousness about gender inequality that still is a part of the structures of the Swedish society.
She started the evening by showing a new Swedish movie, “A thousand times stronger”. The movie is about a young Swedish student who starts in a Swedish school after living abroad for many years. She is confronted with very the traditional gender roles amongst her new class mates with loud and dominating males and females trying to please their environment by acting like quit Barbie dolls. When she tries to change theses patterns she receives fierce resistance, not only from the boys but also from the girls and the teachers.
The movie paints a rather gloomy picture of the lack of gender equality in Sweden. According to Anna, a women who wants to become successful as a leader has to be aware of these, often hidden, but still strong structures.
- A female leader is more or less automatically being labeled with one of four fixed roles: the Mother, the Puppet, the Iron lady or the Lover. It is very difficult to change these expectations but if you are aware of them you have a better chance of being successful as a leader.
As head of the Swedish Association for Communication Agencies she felt forced to use her “female charm” to be fully accepted as a leader. When her male colleagues greeted her with words like “How beautiful you are today”, something that no one would say to a male boss, she just smiled and said “Thank you”. She was also expected to make inquires about her colleagues families when she greeted them in the morning.
- If I would not have accepted these expectations as a female leader I would have been seen as an Iron Lady and that would have made my job very difficult.
According to Anna the traditional gender structures are still alive in Sweden but nowadays people are not aware of it. Women in Sweden spend as much time at work as men but the women still takes care of the family after work to a much greater extent compared with their male colleagues.
- Women hesitate to take leading positions in companies because of this. At law school for example, where I studied, 50 percent of the students are women and generally speaking they have better grades than then male students. But after university women disappear. In the fancy law firms the majority are men. Women take jobs in the public sector with more regulated working hours to be able to take care of the family and household after working hours.
According to Anna there is a structural problem in society that needs to be addressed and it will not be solved by itself. The only solution, at least temporarily, is legislation.
- We have environmental laws, labor laws and many other laws that society has been forced to put in place to change attitudes and behavior in society. Gender equality also needs help from the law.
Johan Norman
