In Västerbotten the number of gender equal companies is 15 per cent, a reduction by one per cent. The national average is 16 per cent.
Almi's board of director survey 2025 is not very uplifting in terms of the state of gender equality among Västerbotten companies. The number of women MDs in Västerbotten companies is only 11 per cent this year. That is even a reduction by one per cent compared to last year. In the nation as a whole the average is 15 per cent. Västerbotten and Östergötland are second worst in the survey and only Jönköping with 10 per cent has a smaller number of female MDs.
One of the women working as an MD in Västerbotten is Laila Olofsson who runs the cleaning company Wikk in Norsjö with 26 employees. In 2011 she left a job within the care sector to start working with administration and as a cleaner with the cleaning company Wikk that had been started in 2007 by the Bastuträsk residents Kajsa and Katarzyna Wikström. The following year she became a partner in Wikk and since 2018 Laila is the MD of the company which, in addition to cleaning, also runs Norsjö Gästgiveri.
She has often wondered why there are so few female MDs.
– I don’t really know why that's the case. Perhaps it’s as simple as only gender stereotypes that say that men should be in management positions. Unfortunately we probably haven’t got further than that, says Laila.
She is on the board of Norsjöbygdens Företagare and is also a member of the network Business Lady which is run by Region 10.
– In the networks that target female entrepreneurs, most MDs are self-employed and not very many are external MDs of companies. It would be good to have more women in leading positions, Laila concludes.
The number of women chairs of boards in Västerbotten is 11 per cent, the same number as 2024. This is also close to the bottom. The same number, 11 per cent, is found for Blekinge and Kalmar and in the bottom is again Jönköping. In this category with 9 per cent.
Wikk has a board of directors with three members where all three are partners but only Laila works operationally in the company.
“We have a long way to go before we achieve more gender equality in the board rooms”, says Fredric Genberg.
– We’re two women, me and Katarzyna Wikström and one man, Jerry Wikström, who is the chair.
When it comes to the number of women who are board members in Västerbotten the number is 19 per cent, which is the same as in 2024. The national average here is 21 per cent.
In Västerbotten there is a woman board member in 39 per cent of the companies, which is the same level as 2024. In the nation as a whole the number is 42 per cent.
In Västerbotten the number of gender equal companies is 15 per cent, a reduction by one per cent. The national average is 16 per cent.
– We have a long way to go before we achieve more gender equality in the board rooms, says Fredric Genberg, MD of Almi Nord in a press release.
The number of women chairs of boards in Västerbotten is 11 per cent, which is the same number as 2024.
In the preface to the report Anna Lundmark Lundbergh, MD of Almi Värmland, states that Sweden since last year has had a record low increase in the number of companies and board members and that there is no greater changes to gender equality in small and medium-sized companies.
“Many owners chose not to use their boards to work strategically with the company's growth. The development is very slow despite research and experience shows that companies with equal, active boards show better growth”, she writes.
The limited companies that are encompassed by Almi's survey has a turnover of at least SEK 5 million and/or a minimum of five employees.
Sweden's publicly listed companies has a different situation. This year’s report from Pwc states that 37 per cent of board members are women, which is not far from the definition of equal representation which is 40/60.