Sandvik breaks the glass ceiling
The Wall Street Journal featured Sandvik's Petra Einarsson, Head of Business Area Sandvik Materials Technology, and President and CEO Olof Faxander in an article on the gender gap in the Nordic countries.
While only 3% of 145 Nordic large-cap companies have a woman as chief executive, compared with 5% of the U.S. Fortune 500, Sandvik is credited for its good efforts. In the organization, the proportion of women in business area management positions has risen from 9% in 2011 to 23%. Einarsson says she was taken aback by the massive response to her appointment as President of business area Sandvik Materials Technology in 2013. "It was clear this was not about me," she says. "It was bigger than that. People could hear the glass ceiling break."