After a day packed with fascinating insight and inspirational messages, Ylva Johansson, Sweden’s minister of employment and integration, helped close out day one of the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in London yesterday with an especially memorable set of remarks.
Johansson, speaking to the MPW dinner crowd, recalled a moment that occurred some 23 years ago. She was 30 years old with four-month-old twins when Swedish prime minister asked her to join his Cabinet. “That was a difficult question to answer,” she said. The prime minister, perhaps sensing her hesitancy, sweetened the deal: He told Johansson that he was aiming to form the first Cabinet in the world with gender parity and wanted Johansson to help him show it was possible to be a politician and a parent.
How could she say no?
“I said yes and became education minister with four-month-old twins,” she said.
Making that set-up work was, at times, as unglamorous as you may have guessed. On the first day of her appointment, Johansson—as Swedish tradition dictates—appeared before the king, only to leak breast milk through her shirt. As embarrassing as that moment was, standing before the king in her stained shirt helped her realize that she faced the same challenges as other working women, but was also fortunate enough to be in a position to address them.
“If you have the power,” she said, “you are obliged to use that power to pave the way for others.”
Read on for more highlights from the first day of the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit.
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
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| All but certain |
| Conservative MP Nicky Morgan appeared at MPW International a mere four days after her party lost its majority in Parliament. She said what voters want now is certainty and by no means another election. She also spoke about the Queen's Speech, which takes place next week. Morgan said she hopes mental health will get a mention in the address, since it's an issue that could garner cross-party support. |
| Fortune |
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| Hop to it |
| In a rare interview, Heineken heiress Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken spoke at the Summit about succession planning for the family business, as three of her five children have shown interest in carrying on the legacy. "I don’t want to rule beyond the grave," said de Carvalho-Heineken, whose fortune is pegged at some $14.7 billion. "I want to let go even before that." |
| Fortune |
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| Feeding the sole |
| Even after the staggering success of Jimmy Choo, co-founder Tamara Mellon, who's launched a new eponymous shoe brand, told the MPW audience that she still feels the need to prove herself. |
| Fortune |
THE AMERICAS
| Like father, like daughter |
| In an interview with Fox & Friends yesterday, First Daughter Ivanka Trump echoed her father's assessment of former FBI Director James Comey's testimony last week, saying the president felt “very vindicated." She also talked about her introduction to Washington, D.C., saying she's encountered "a level of viciousness that I was not expecting." |
| New York Times |
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| Ad byes |
| NBC anchor Megyn Kelly is planning to air an interview with right-wing provocateur and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones's appearance on Kelly's new show caused a firestorm on social media, but advertisers have remained silent—with one exception. J.P. Morgan Chase yanked its digital ads from the show and all NBC news programming until after the show airs. CMO Kristin Lemkau tweeted: “As an advertiser, I’m repulsed that @megynkelly would give a second of airtime to someone who says [the] Sandy Hook and Aurora [massacres] are hoaxes.” |
| Wall Street Journal |
ASIA-PACIFIC
| Pricey pads |
| Koreans are finally talking openly about menstruation and the cost of feminine hygiene products after stories emerged of women wrapping toilet paper around shoe insoles to use as pads to save money. In Korea, a month's supply of pads costs about $2.53; the same supply costs $1.80 in the U.S. Current Korean law bans more economical alternatives, like menstrual cups, from being sold in the country. |
| Quartz |
| . |
| Coming on board |
| Amid internal turmoil and following an investigation into allegations of sexism and sexual harassment, Uber is expected to name Wan Ling Martello, Nestlé executive vice president for Asia, Oceania, and sub-Saharan Africa, as its eighth voting director. Martello, who will be Uber's third prominent female hire in the past week, is credited with helping Nestlé recover quickly from its Maggi noodle safety scare in India. |
| Fortune |
IN BRIEF
| Norway proposes a ban on face veils in schools, kindergartens |
| Bloomberg |
| Melania Trump’s parents are at the White House |
| Fortune |
| Lady Gaga gets her own line of drinks at Starbucks |
| Fortune |
| Teenage girls are taking on Putin in anti-Kremlin protests |
| The Cut |
PARTING WORDS
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| —Rebecca Taichman, one of few woman to have won the Tony for Best Direction of a Play. She took home the award for her work on 'Indecent.' |
