Ambassador Ann Måwe delivers an opening speech at the launch of “GlobalGuyTalk” in Hanoi on 8 March 2021. (Photo credit: Swedish Embassy)

Reporter: Sweden has long actively pushed for gender equality and women’s rights, both nationally and globally. Can you share Sweden’s experience in gender equality?

Ambassador Ann Måwe: It's been a long journey really. It's been a high priority in Sweden for many, many years, a lot has happened during my lifetime and back to my grandmother's lifetime. For three generations, women in Sweden have seen a big difference. I would say that the 20th century was the century of gender equality in Sweden, with a big peak in the 1920s. Because that's when women get to go to vote to receive education. But then there was another peak in the 1970s when I grew up. At that time, both parents got access to a paid parental leave to stay home with the children when they were small. We expand the public childcare with really a lot of options of affordable health care. So that was a big push for women to get out on the labor market and, and make it possible for them to make a career. And all these developments were pushed by a strong women's movement in Sweden. Since 2014, we have a feminist foreign policy in Sweden. It consists of three R’s: resources, rights and representation. So as Swedish diplomats, we always have to look at these three aspects of women in society - rights, representation and resources.

Reporter: The program “GlobalGuyTalk” was first introduced in Sweden in 2016, but just launched in Vietnam on International Women’s Day, March 8. Why did the Swedish Embassy want to introduce it in Vietnam?

Ambassador Ann Måwe: I mean the program was started as a grass root movement in Sweden. It was men who formed groups to start to talk about masculinity and how really, you can be loving and caring and present an equal and responsible person in relation to your spouse or your children and so on. From a governmental point of view, we saw this was a really good initiative. We wanted to share this initiative to see if there was an interest in other countries. So it's now rolled out in Swedish embassies around the world. And they have started in Albania, in Kenya, and now we have Vietnam and Turkey and a few other countries coming up. What we really want to explore is if there is an interest in doing this kind of activity, I can envisage that this kind of conversation could pop up in a workplace, in the bia hoi place, in the cafe, or even in the sports team to pursue global guys talk.

Reporter: Has the Swedish Embassy got a specific plan for the program in Vietnam?

Ambassador Ann Måwe: This is a Swedish program and we will try to promote this as much we can ourselves, but we also work with Vietnamese partners - the women's museum will be present, the Vietnam Women's Union will be present, and MOLISA (Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs) will be present. We also have our own networks of students and other professional groups and so on. So we will try to work together with the Vietnamese partners. And we hope that there will be an interest with Vietnamese partners to take this forward and to amplify the efforts.

Thank you, Ambassador Ann Måwe.