Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies,

I’m very glad to welcome you to the Swedish residence.

Our topic this morning is something quite simple: that women should have the freedom and opportunities to shape their own lives. And yet it is something that continues to require a lot of dedicated work.

For me, gender equality is not an abstract idea. It’s about everyday life. It’s about whether a woman can earn her own living. Whether she can start a business, get a loan, take a seat at the table. Whether she will be heard when she speaks.

When I was preparing for today’s discussion, I thought about the women who came before us. Women who challenged expectations, opened doors and pushed boundaries. And who did this even though it came with very real costs. They made it possible for my generation to live in greater freedom than those who came before us.

My beloved grandmother, Alice, was one of those women. She is one of the most important role models in my life.

Growing up in rural Sweden, she faced very different opportunities than her brothers. Her parents expected her to focus first and foremost on family life. Yet she was curious, capable and determined to build a life of her own.

A job at a local bank gave her not only an income, but also independence and confidence. There, at the bank, she met many women who had never been involved in managing their family’s finances and were left vulnerable when circumstances changed.

Those experiences taught her, and later taught me, that women’s economic empowerment is about far more than money. It is about freedom, dignity and the ability to shape your own future. Her example continues to inspire me today.

Economic empowerment for women is also about much more than income. It is about freedom and dignity. It is about confidence. To seize opportunities and to shape one’s own future. To have the freedom to leave a violent or harmful relationship, pursue an education, start a business, build a career or provide for a family.

Too many women still have less access to jobs, financing and opportunities, and less power over their own lives.

This is aggravated by the compounding crises of today – wars, geopolitical tensions, increasing human rights violations, economic uncertainty and environmental challenges.

We know all too well that women and girls pay a higher price in the record number of conflicts that the world now faces.

As if this wasn’t enough, we see a new and deeply worrying trend. Rights and freedoms that many of us thought were secure are being questioned, and in some places even rolled back.

In my own country, which ranks so high in gender equality, we see trends such as ‘trad wives’ and ‘soft girls’. At the same time, there are girls who cannot meet whom they want, cannot wear what they want and are not allowed to choose their own future. Gender equality is not about telling women how to live. It is about making sure they are free to decide for themselves.

We need to counter this negative development now. And we need to do it together. The public sector cannot solve the challenges that the world is facing on its own.

Through partnerships across sectors, we can overcome barriers to gender equality, create more inclusive opportunities and drive change.

So, what can we do? We can make it easier for women to start and grow businesses. We can improve access to financing, markets and networks. This is where partnership matters. Governments can remove barriers. Businesses can create jobs, buy from women-owned companies and connect women entrepreneurs to markets and networks. And civil society has a role to play too.

I believe that today, we will find inspiration for new ways of working together, hearing from speakers about different creative solutions to public-private partnerships.

Also – we must not deceive ourselves by thinking that we can separate the bodily autonomy of women and girls as a fundamental prerequisite to women’s economic empowerment: If a woman or girl cannot control whether to have children, when to have children and how many children to have – that will effectively hamper her engagement outside of the home. Sexual and reproductive health and rights and women’s economic empowerment are closely tied together. And of course, men and boys have an important role to play as well. Gender equality benefits us all.

So today, I hope we focus on what works. On what we can do differently, and what we can do together. Because in the end, this is about freedom. The freedom to make your own choices. The freedom to choose your own future. That is a freedom that every girl deserves to grow up with.

Thank you!