Lina Thomsgård: The Woman Finder
Lina Thomsgård, PR consultant from Stockholm, is campaigning for more experts with her "Justice Office".
© Frida SjogrenIt can be said that it all started because Lina Thomsgård, 32, was fed up. "They do not exist," was the phrase she heard when she asked the manager of the best music club in Stockholm why he did not play female DJs on him. Lina's answer was: Give me 24 hours, and you have a list of 100 names. That was in March 2010, she was still working at the record label EMI. She drove home, made a page on Facebook, called her "Rättviseförmedlingen," which in Swedish means something like "Justice Office," and posted a call for female DJs to get in touch. She went into the kitchen, made herself some tea, and when she got back to her computer, her call had spread like a bushfire on the platform. The next morning she was able to present a list of 133 names.
Since then, Lina Thomsgård, who now owns a PR agency, has become something of the mistress of the expert lists. Lists of competent, clever, funny, extraordinary women, whether from the music scene, biology, architecture, research, politics. Lists that help companies and organizations, or even individuals - such as journalists - break a principle that still dominates the world. "Eighty-two percent of opinion leaders, in whatever field, no matter what conference, talk show, newspaper, are white men," says Lina Thomsgård.
Your idea seems so easy and yet it is new: you are looking for someone? Ask the masses who Liberia is an expert, where to find a geologist living in Mongolia, or a film scholar familiar with silent films. Their Facebook page now has almost 16,000 members and around 40,000 visitors every week. In the meantime, many volunteers are working on "Rättviseförmedlingen", in Sweden it has become a social media phenomenon that all the media reports about. Lina Thomsgård, the woman who says that optimism and anger fueled her project, has received prizes and intends to establish her office of justice this year in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
No matter in which country, the principle should remain the same everywhere: Everyone can contact Lina, she may ask again briefly and then publish the search. Within hours, sometimes hundreds of people who know a woman in question - or even suggest themselves. "Why not," says Lina, "I do not judge anyone and their abilities, all I've done is open a door to more gender diversity, making the women of the world visible."
