The President of the Stockholm School of Economics, Lars Strannegård, who selected the scholarship recipients, emphasizes that:

"Astrid Palmstierna and Yuelin Wang have presented a challenging and practical project that addresses an important topic often debated in society today. The decision to address gender equality in China and the Philippines promises a very different experience and demonstrates creativity and deep interest."

The Gun and Einar Larsson Scholarship (GELS) offers outstanding students at the Stockholm School of Economics an opportunity to create and then realize innovative projects abroad, all based on their own designs. The aim of the scholarship is to offer experience and personal development outside of the academic realm that benefits the students’ education and professional aspirations.

During the summer of 2017, Astrid and Yuelin will travel first to the Philippines, where they will make observations and conduct interviews. The aim is to create an actionable plan for gender equality improvement measures to be implemented in selected firms in China during the second part of the project.

"The gender equality issue has always been really important to us, and it is especially relevant because a more equal gender distribution throughout society might be one way for LEDCs to achieve greater prosperity. In the hope that the Philippines, a LEDC country with a large number of women in corporate board position, might shed some light to how to improve gender parity in other LEDCs, we want to explore the topic in the Philippines and then work with the issue in China. We are extremely honored and thankful to SSE and especially the GELS foundation for having given us this opportunity!" say Astrid Palmstierna and Yuelin Wang.

For more information, please contact:

Astrid Palmstierna, GELS scholar 2016, tel. 0735-162 999, email: 23270@student.hhs.se
Yuelin Wang, GELS scholar 2016, tel. 0707-171 450, email: 23431@student.hhs.se