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Pär Fors

"Diversity perspective makes companies better"

Gender equality Womentor
Pär Fors wants to see a greater commitment to increasing diversity in the industry. Had it not been for the Womentor gender equality program, he would not be chairman of the board of IT&Telekomföretagen today.

- Without distorting the history, that was the case. The commitment that arose in Womentor led me to IT&Telekomföretagen. In 2015, I joined the board and since 2017 I have been chairman," says Pär Fors.

A few years earlier, in 2012, one of Pär's leaders told him that she was going to join the Womentor program.

- It was through the leader who took the program and through mentoring a leader from another company in Womentor that I became aware of this issue, says Pär Fors and continues:

- Diversity itself and diversity in leadership produce high-performing teams, which create value for customers and build better businesses, thereby delivering higher returns to shareholders. The diversity perspective makes companies better.

He believes that companies that do not take diversity seriously are left behind. Not least when it comes to attracting new talent.

- The concept of diversity obviously also includes ethnic background, age and personality, etc., but in order to address it in a structured way, the issues must be tackled one by one in parallel. Womentor primarily addresses one aspect of diversity, which is gender.

"If you want to improve diversity in a company, it will not happen by itself"

According to Pär Fors, Womentor is an excellent example of an activity that becomes much more powerful by joining forces in an industry-wide program. Womentor has been run by the IT&Telecom companies since 2008, but was launched two years earlier on the initiative of the government. At that time, the overall percentage of women in the industry was 32%, a figure that has not increased since then.

- Unfortunately, we have far too few women working in the IT industry, and far too few studying IT and technology in our universities.

The companies involved in Womentor are seeing a more positive trend. Pär Fors is convinced that this will continue.

- If you want to improve diversity in a company, it will not happen by itself, it needs active engagement. A bunch of mentees in Womenter will not solve everything, you have to do things yourself and make active decisions within the company. It is important to start at the top with gender-equal management teams, actively encouraging women to take on bigger challenges.

Pär Fors emphasizes that the task is not marked for women but for everyone in the companies. Not least all men.

- Through Womentor, ambassadors are created who can work on these issues, but also spread the power that this brings into companies. It is very much worthwhile.