Reference no: EM133375728

Elisabeth Harstad was employed as a trainee at the Norwegian risk management consultancy DNV when she realized that being a woman was a barrier. Although trainees were supposed to go abroad, the company had problems finding a job for Elisabeth in a foreign subsidiary: "I wanted to go to London, Houston, or Singapore. In the end I managed to get an international assignment from Oslo to Copenhagen,".This was in the 1980s. However, Elisabeth Harstad did not give up and energetically pursued her career. She is now the manager of the research and innovation unit at DNV, and since 2006 a member of the board of directors of the large Norwegian chemical company Yara. When the new members of the board of directors were elected for the first time, it was an advantage for Elisabeth to be a woman. Since 2008, Norwegian companies have been required by law to have 40 percent female members of their board of directors. Thus, Elizabeth is part of an experiment - if women do not make it to the top on their own, politics support this process in Norway.

1 Relate the situation in Norway to one of the cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede. How can you explain it?