From talent to power: New Nordic white paper highlights why women are still not reaching the highest leadership roles
WiLD Norway, together with our sister Organizations WiLD in Denmark and VILDA Sweden, has published a new Nordic white paper: From Talent to Power: Why women in Nordic life science are not reaching the highest leadership roles, and what needs to change. The report is based on responses from 212 senior professionals across the Nordic life science sector and points to a clear conclusion: the challenge is not a lack of qualified women. It is how leadership systems and access to decision-making actually operate.
Across the Nordics, women make up more than half of the highly educated life science talent base. Many respondents have more than 20 years of professional experience, and many already hold senior leadership roles. Still, three out of four report having encountered barriers in their careers.
The most critical pressure point appears in mid-career, where progression into senior leadership becomes less dependent on performance alone and more dependent on access to visibility, sponsorship, networks, and decision-making arenas.
For WiLD Norway, these findings confirm something we have long emphasized: the leadership gap is closely linked to the women’s health gap. Those who hold leadership roles and financial influence help shape which research gets prioritized, which innovations are funded, and what care systems ultimately deliver.
The report’s 17 recommendations:
For companies and executive teams
1. Make career paths transparent
2. Measure what leadership says matters
3. Separate potential from availability
4. Formalize sponsorship, not just mentoring
5. Open decision-making spaces intentionally
6. Link leadership diversity to innovation and investment priorities
For boards and nomination committees
7. Broaden the board candidate pool
8. Use more independent and transparent recruitment processes
9. Strengthen the long-term board pipeline
10. Ensure diversity in capital and decision-making committees
For individual leaders
11. Become bias-aware and act on it
12. Challenge the criteria, not the individuals
13. Use your position to create access and sponsorship
For the Nordic life science ecosystem
14. Treat leadership diversity as an ecosystem competitiveness issue
15. Strengthen cross-sector visibility and access to leadership, governance, and capital
16. Increase transparency and accessibility in capital allocation
17. Align leadership, capital, and research priorities
The message is clear: the Nordic life science sector does not lack talent. It loses it where power begins.