To promote a gender balance in decision-making . Recipe n.44   What Mentoring The County Administrative Board of Östergötland (Sweden) has for more than five years yearly promoted a project of mentoring in order to promote Equal Opportunities in both the private enterprises, the state as well as in local authorities in the county of Ostergotland. The project is called The Ithaca Project and it has in many ways been a great success. The aim with the project is that we want more women in leading positions across the public and private sector in Ostergotland.  The Ithaca Project is a program for mutual development of leadership skills and the mentors can be both men and women but all the mentees are women. The meetings between mentors and mentors start a completely new , professional relationship. One of the targets is that from now on more work places should understand that gender equality as a strategy within the organisation is good for productivity and profitability. How much Each participant in The Ithaca Project pays an allowance to attend the project. Since the project is very popular and has a very high quality the work places are chosen to participate by the County Administrative Board. Each year 22 mentees and 22 mentors attend and so far totally 226 persons have participated. With all the experiences from the Ithaca Project the County Administrative Board was the project leader for another project within the 4th Program on Equal Opportunities called The DIAMOND PROJECT. This project was partly financed by the European Union, partly by the companies within the project.     How   The County Administrative Board of Östergötland choose together with Swedish companies and organisations such as SAAB AB and the Ostergotland County Council 16 Swedish women (all with experiences as mentees) with functions of middle manager. These women were allowed to visit companies such as ENEL spa in Italy, VOLKSWAGEN and Deutsche Telecom in Germany and BRITISH AEROSPACE form UK for 3/5 days. They met 16 male managers who acted as mentors . During their visit the mentees and the mentors discussed leadership, gender issues and different cultural differences. Surprisingly enough – in spite of the shortage of time – the relationship between the mentors and the mentees grew quite strong and both mentor and mentee learnt a lot from each other. Why Still women are under-represented at the top-management positions in both public and private companies. This is due to the existing prejudices about skills and lack of important abilities and education of women. The explanation is very seldom a lack of self-confidence in women themselves. A mentoring program with clear aims and distinct targets will help the women to understand the problems within the organisations and realise that they often depend on the fact that women and men have totally different prerequisites. Men build organisations – in order to suit men. When women get to know this facts as well as they discuss the issues together with other women they grow and dare to make new and brave decisions. Together with their mentor they recognise their own capabilities. Results Personal and professional development of the mentée, with a consequent gradual increase in the presence of women at a management level. Women get more visible within the company's hierarchy. Male managers get a greater knowledge about women’s working conditions. More communication between men and women; more exchanges of experiences among the company units. The organisation will reach new knowledge of the importance of gender in the organisation   References for further informazion: CATHARINA ALPKVIST (PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR) COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD DI ÖSTERGÖTLAND - SWEDEN TEL.: 0046 13 19 63 72 FAX: 0046 13 19 60 38 E-MAIL: catharina.alpkvist@e.lst.se WEB SITE: www.e.lst.se/jem/diamond