On March 5, 2025, Leading Women for the Ocean (LWO) member Phoebe Koundouri, moderated an inspiring panel discussion at the Finnish-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce. The Workshop, organized in collaboration with the Athens Chamber of Tradesmen and the Embassy of Finland in Greece, brought together business and policy leaders to explore women’s leadership and entrepreneurship in Greece and Finland, highlighting best practices, policies, and strategies for advancing gender equality in business.
Key Points from the LWO representatives interventions:
Phoebe Koundouri, Professor at ASOEE, member of Leading Women for the Ocean showed how far behind gender balance still is with various UN indicators. There is still a lot of work to be done and the while progress is being made, we should step on the gas instead of letting change happen on its own space as this would take decades and decades.
Maria Damanaki, Co-Founder of Leading Women for the Ocean and former EU Commissioner highlighted that we should understand how every woman is different. It is not just women and men, it’s also about the variation and how women support each other. It appears that in terms of employment models, well structure hybrid arrangements work best for female workforce. She also emphasised that access to funding is crucial for encouraging female entrepreneurship and that banks and the financial system play a major role in promoting women in business.
Zefi Dimadama, Associate Professor at Panteion University, member of Leading Women for the Ocean, encouraged gender mainstreaming. There is a new logic needed – women contribute to competitiveness of businesses and are an important part of the economic growth. Sadly, funding opportunities for women are not the same as they are for men.
