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Denmark’s Equality Minister on International Women’s Day

8 Mar 2010

The new Minister of Equality, Lykke Friis believes that men and women have to wave the flag jointly if Denmark should have a chance in the global brain race.

Lykke Friis (Photo: Casper Christoffersen)

Lykke Friis was taken from the position of a vice-chancellor of the University of Copenhagen to become the Climate Minister in November 2009. Speed talking, with strong opinions, result oriented and with a strong international profile, Lykke Friis is known as an EU expert who have a weak point for German Bundesliga football. Thus TV reporters found her watching a football match to comment on the International Women’s Day, March 8.

To Lykke Friis i’ts about using talents and remove structural and cultural barriers, which apparently still prevent women form a substantial part of the power elite.

- We must not throw gold on the street. And that is exactly what we are doing now. Girls and boys are born equally smart, but we are seeing a blatant waste of talent considering how few women reach the top. Denmark simply cannot afford that. We are in a brain race, where all skills are needed, and we have lost the battle in advance if we do not set an agenda where everyone participates, says Lykke Friis and continues:

- We must not measure and weigh fifty-fifty – that’s centrally planned economy. First and foremost we need to bring into the light what works. If there are barriers, there are also tools to dismantle them, it does not require rocket science, she explains.

Lykke Friis plans to involve different stakeholders in the dialogue on the subject, including employers, and headhunters in order to analyse and improve the recruitment process in regards to equality.

Lykke Friis has an impressive career behind her as a researcher, head of European affairs, and now as a minister, and it seems natural to ask for her for personal career advice. Here it comes:

Internationalization. Building an international tool kit is essential, whatever job you have today. It gives you a global vision, a network and self-confidence, which is extremely crucial. If you are able to assert yourself internationally among the best, you have no problems in getting by “at home”. And good advisors. I’ve always had a mentoring group to “play ball” with.

A woman who has made a big impression on Lykke, is Madeleine Albright (U.S. Secretary of State under President Clinton, ed.), whom she sat at table with a few years ago. She said very clearly:

Make an Intervention!

Meaning that if you have the competency, then you have an obligation to draw attention to yourself. To use an analogy from the football pitch: If you have a free goal ahead, try to score. Too many women sew their proficiency characters nicely on the arm and then sit down and wait for promotion.That’s what Lykke calls “girl-scout mentality”.