About HimToHer

HimToHer is created by GreenCounsel AB, a legal tech startup founded by me, Christina Blomkvist, in 2017. I am a business lawyer and was previously responsible for merger and acquisitions at one of Sweden's largest insurance companies. In addition to this, I am also a trained concert organist and a self-taught programmer since childhood.

When I entered the startup world a few years ago, I was met by a culture where it did not seem to be a problem that only 1% of the venture capital went to female founders while almost about 90 times as much went to male founders. I was met by a culture where the explanations flooded that women must gain more self-confidence, have more role models who show that it is possible for them to run companies and that more women must run "growth companies". As the problem was discussed, it was entirely with the women themselves and thus all solutions were based on "fixing" the women in various respects.

No one asked why almost all investors chose to invest in male-only teams and what these investors' responsibility for this situation was. No one asked the question of women's opportunities to run growth companies if potential customers choose not to become their customers. There was talk that it was important for more women to receive funding so that they could take on typically female problems, and all the women who worked to solve problems that were not tied to a specific group were ignored. There was talk that women must "want" to start companies at the same time as all the women who actually start companies and need traction to get started were disregarded.

In recent years, I have delved into the EU regulations that are currently being implemented in sustainable financing and with my own background within M&A and with the experience I have gained in recent years from the startup world, I think I have gained a unique position to see some distortions that should worry us all.

Right now, the focus is very much on the climate crisis, and it is good that this crisis is being noticed with such vigor. What many of us do not seem to be aware of, however, is that social sustainability is experiencing an equally strong crisis and has been for a very long time. Movements such as MeToo and Black Lives Matter have put their finger on problems that we in society have not previously talked about in the public conversation or taken so seriously.

Dealing with the crisis in which social sustainability finds itself is just as important because society can only last in the long run if everyone experiences security and where all are given equal opportunities. There are still prejudices that make us opt out of companies founded by women. There are many who try to explain the situation by saying that it is the women's own fault because then you do not have to do anything about it. But if it is not women's own fault but a shortcoming in our society that holds them and many others back - then what does it mean that society does not provide any resources to fix this?

In the next few years, EUR 1.3 trillion will be invested in the environment within EU. On the other hand, the initiative taken within EU to increase the share of female founders is a tech initiative that will give 50 female-founded companies EUR 75,000 each and a comprehensive program that will coach the founders and give them role models (!). If women founders do not get more resources - either by making us all more aware of where we place our purchases or by ensuring that there are the right regulatory conditions to bring in more actors who want to invest in women's entrepreneurship - there is a risk that the solutions for many of the climate problems that large parts of the total pension capital will finance, will not be long-term sustainable. Women's innovation is needed and we need to give women in particular more resources so that they can have the opportunity to change the society in which we will all grow old.

But it's not just about women. The barriers that hold back many women are shared by many other groups who also do not belong to the more privileged sections of society. Social sustainability is thus ultimately about striving for a society where the all have equal value and where equal opportunities are provided.

At HimToHer, we have collected a number of texts and articles on various aspects of equality. What we really mean when we talk about equal opportunities and how different one can look at this concept. It is about implicit biases that prevent us from seeing potential and instead rebuilds inequality when we are given the opportunity. We have also developed two services where you can experiment with different texts to discover biases and reflect on how you yourself react if the situation was the opposite. We will continue to expand material on the site with more articles and angles. The hope is that you who visit the site will either know that you are not alone or that you may start to reflect.

Christina Blomkvist
Founder of GreenCounsel AB