Mary Carey: Minister Jacobs, through what role do you think your Ministry can best improve equality in the work place?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: The major role of the Ministry for Equal Opportunities is certainly on the level of legislation. It is by the means of laws that the situation between men and women, which until very recently was a most unequal one, has improved. Laws do have a regulating effect and can, by means of sanctions and /or implementing quotas, change things for the better.
The Ministry also has the role of raising awareness, which it does by organizing conferences and publishing reports and studies on typical equality issues and questions. By doing so, we bring the topic of equality to the greater public.
Mary Carey: What was the motivation to hold the conference?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: The subject of women in leading positions is important. The conference was the closing event of a project that started in October 2005. This "Cross Mentoring Project for the promotion of women in leading positions" took place within the framework of our programme for positive action and this was the first time that different companies from various economic sectors worked together. It allowed women and men from different hierarchical levels to work together. It allowed quite young companies like lEE (International Electronics Engineering) to work together with traditional organisations like Deutsche Bank. Lastly, entities from the financial sector, such as BDO Compagnie Fiduciaire and Banque Hapoalim, could work together with big organisations like DuPont de Nemours and Goodyear.
We wanted to have an international exchange. That is why we chose Mazal Renford and Shula Ferdman from the Golda Meir Mount Carmel Training Centre in Haifa/ Israel and Angelika Braem from Switzerland to share their very different experiences.
About 120 persons attended the conference and it was a full success. In the organizations that participated, women with high potential will be discovered on a regular basis and supported in a systematic way in their career development.
Mary Carey: Did cross mentoring already exist in Luxembourg?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: Mentoring projects within companies do exist in Luxembourg. However, this is the first cross mentoring programme. I think the audience got a close view of different approaches. These women have learned a lot and so have the mentors, as is shown in the evaluations.
Mary Carey: Is it necessary for a woman mentee to have a woman mentor?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: In the project, the mentees had the opportunity to choose whether they wanted to have a man or a woman mentor. The male mentors told us that they could inform the mentee about the mostly 'male-made' rules that run business life. Through this the mentee is able to better understand what is going on. A female mentor on the other hand can share her experience of what is important for a woman to do - or not to do - in a male-dominated world.
Mary Carey: With the rise in social responsibility in the work place, do you feel that the culture is shifting?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: The culture of equality really started to be taken care of when the present Government addressed the global issue in its Governmental Declaration of August 2004. Since then, a National Action Plan for equality that involves all of the ministerial departments has been established. This plan works along the 12 themes of the Beijing platform and has set precise objectives to be obtained, the measures to obtain them and the indicators to monitor them. Despite a more negative economic outlook and less encouraging perspectives, the Government has stuck to its 2004 aims in this domain.
Mary Carey: Will we ever see a Utopian day when men seek female mentors?
Marie-Josée Jacobs: Of course, men could benefit from a female mentor. However, this will only make sense if there are more women in leading positions. To achieve this we need some time.