Nordic Talks highlight women's efforts in entrepreneurship

• Published date: 11 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Korea has made rapid progress in economic development, but it still has a long way to go in achieving gender equality in the workplace.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, which fell on March 8, the four Scandinavian embassies in Seoul ? Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden ? hosted the 11th Nordic Talks to discuss the gender gap in entrepreneurship from Korean and European perspectives.

Two male ambassadors from the Nordic countries took part as panelists to share their thoughts on gender equality, especially in the field of economy.

Swedish Ambassador to Korea Daniel Wolven noted that the lack of gender diversity in entrepreneurship is not just an issue of fairness and equality, but also a question of economic growth.

"Women make up half the population, half of the workforce, half our creativity ? maybe more than half to be honest. There was a former Swedish prime minister who used the expression that gender equality is not only morally right, but it's also economically smart," Wolven said.

Finnish Ambassador to Korea Pekka Metso agreed that promoting women is not just about gender equality, but it is also necessary for economic growth and sustainable development.

"It's all about innovations, because without gender equality, we can't have the great innovations and creativity in the future. Nevertheless, the statistics show that women are largely underrepresented in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in the high growth industry, such as ICT and technology," Metso said.

"I'm really happy to see that we have representatives from that field, joining the panel discussion, because especially in Korea that needs to be changed. And this goes also for Nordic countries, there are lots of changes we have to do among ourselves," Metso added.

Sara Shafiee, CEO and founder at DivERS and assistant professor at Technical University of Denmark, shared her experiences as a female entrepreneur who faced challenges due to unconscious biases during recruitment processes. To reduce the influence of bias in hiring, Shafiee developed DiveERS, a data-driven technology which removes prejudices in the recruitment process.

She also noted that biases can affect the chances of women's success in entrepreneurship beyond just the hiring process. While she understands the frustration of being judged based on their background rather than their potential as an entrepreneur, Shafiee emphasizes the importance of resilience for entrepreneurs, seeing failures and threats as catalysts...