Good afternoon,

Today’s program has focused on

• turning the gender equality conversation into actions,
• the need to take bold action for change,
• why women’s empowerment is good for the bottom line; and
• that a balanced leadership is necessary in the new digital era. 

An exciting and thought-provoking program that has brought a large group of forward-thinking individuals together to advance gender equality, both in business and in the wider society.

I would have liked to have been able to participate in today’s entire program ….

But… I’m very pleased to be here now for this part of the program and I’m truly honoured to receive the Womenomics Global Impact Award 2017.

This morning the companies and leaders behind The Danish Diversity Council discussed the vital importance of ‘changing the conversation into actions’, and this afternoon, Her Excellency Ambassador Mandela delivered a speech entitled ‘taking bold action for change’.  It is this desire for action and tangible change, that themes this conference – how do we create real and sustainable change in order to progress the gender equality agenda?

One thing is for sure, we cannot continue doing more of the same.

I remember when I first became involved in the issue of gender equality, there was a lot of talk about the need for more facts, statistics and evidence to support the less emotional arguments for equality.

The emotional and human-rights arguments of the right thing to do, strong as they are, have not been strong enough to drive the change needed – to create new social norms and societal and business structures that ensure women and girls equal access to education, health, the labour market and representation in government and leadership positions.

Today, we have that indisputable evidence.  Greater gender equality in a country is linked to a higher level of education and better health, higher per capita income, stronger international competitiveness and more inclusive and rapid economic growth. The business case for promoting gender equality is just as convincing. A growing body of evidence points to the many ways that women contribute value to each link of the business value chain; as suppliers, leaders, employees, customers, entrepreneurs and community members.

We know that gender equality can transform our world and that closing the gender gap will create growth and opportunities for all.  We even have a global agenda – the 17 global goals - that puts gender equality at its center and recognizes that progress on this issue, is crucial to achieving progress across all 17 goals, which in the end means achieving sustainable development for people, planet and prosperity.

So, why is change proving so difficult?  Is our approach wrong?  Are we focusing on the wrong arguments to affect change?  Are we overlooking the role of our own behavior?

Well, firstly there is no easy solution, inequality is characterized by many different and complex factors, such as; social norms, discriminating laws and insufficient legal protection, unpaid work and unequal access to the digital universe, economic assets and property.

In order to affect the real change we desire, I believe we have to have a greater focus on the role of social norms and unconscious bias and the barriers they present.  For example, our social norms in many ways influence women’s economical opportunities; they frame a woman’s choice of education and career, and they reflect and strengthen discriminating stereotypes, which can affect equal pay and promotion.

Gender stereotypes create a widely accepted judgment or bias about certain characteristics or traits that apply to each gender.  A good example of how we can challenge this mentality is illustrated by a quote of Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook:

“Next time you are about to call a little girl ‘bossy’, say instead: she has executive leadership skills.”

Gender stereotypes lead to unconscious biases that affect our decisions and evaluations. And because it is an unconscious act, we actually believe that we are not gender biased.

It is clear that it is not just a small percentage of the population that act based on unconscious bias; otherwise one could argue we would be seeing change occurring at a faster pace.  A World Economic Forum study showed that unconscious bias of leaders is still the largest barrier in relation to women achieving success in the work place.

We need to become conscious of our unconscious biases and knowledgeable about the effect they have on our decision-making.  We could start by becoming more open for the less traditional and question more readily the legitimacy of binding social norms, and existing societal and business structures.

We need to see the world as it is today and design for that world, we cannot continue in the family and economic structures of yesterday.

I would like to share with you part of an article I read recently which suggests the question we should be focusing on is how do we mitigate unconscious bias and create inclusive organizations and societies by changing behaviour, culture and systems?

I found it to be an insightful article, published by the World Economic Forum that discussed, amongst other things, how the term gender equality has the wrong associations attached to it. It was written by anthropologist and fellow Dane, Tinna Nielsen.

The author proposes that the word "gender" connotes "women", "empowerment" suggests "fixing the women" or "helping the women", and "gender equality" implies "nice to have".

She suggests that one of the major challenges in achieving workplace gender equality is that it is wrongly perceived as "fixing the women". When what we need to do instead is “fix” the culture and systems, and make them more inclusive.

She goes on to say, and I quote; “We need to shift the discourse of gender equality to one dominated by a business rationale where gender means "all gender and all of us", where empowerment connotes "release of potential", and where gender equality and diversity is perceived as a means to engagement, better performance and innovation – not a nice to have, but an absolutely must-have.”

This shift in discourse she talks about is an important element in changing our perceptions and designing interventions that have a better chance of working.

It is also supported by what we know; that gender equality is not just the right thing to do, it is also smart economics that benefits us all.

Last month, I visited Bangladesh together with our minister for Development Coorporation.  The focus of our trip was employment and economic opportunities for women and to see a couple of Danish projects, which educate women and teach them how to capitalize on their skills and the resources available.

With employment comes economic opportunities which gives independence and freedom to make one’s own decisions. These decisions for women often mean a greater investment in the health and education of their children.  It also ensures them a better status both within the family and their local community. In other words, everyone benefits.

In fact, it has been calculated that if women from all countries in the world experienced full gender equality by 2025, the world’s BNP would increase with an estimated 25 percent.

That is exactly why it is so pleasing that the central theme of today’s conference is ‘ACTION’ – how do we turn the words of our discussions and agreements into a reality for women and girls across the globe: whether it is the protection and respect of fundamental human rights and/or diversity and gender parity in the work place.

It is important to acknowledge the progress that has been made, but we haven’t succeeded until the term gender equality is no longer an issue, that one’s gender no longer plays a role in the decisions and opportunities of the individual.

I am delighted to accept the Womenomics Global Impact Award and I accept it as a symbol of the commitment of organizations, as well as dedicated individuals across the globe who strive for a better world for all, through the achievement of gender equality. It also serves to remind us of the action that remains to be taken so that the biases and structures of yesterday don’t affect the empowerment of the girls of tomorrow.

Thank you.