Sweden’s 29-year-old Minister for Enterprise has shared her secrets on how young women can reach the top during her visit to Korea.

Annie Loof became Sweden’s youngest MP and the youngest woman ever to be elected to her country’s parliament at the age of 23 in 2006, and then became her party’s leader in September last year.

“I have noticed that both being a woman and also my age has been very interesting for the Korean people and I am very glad to have the possibility to inspire more women here in Korea to reach leadership, even in politics,” Loof told reporters during an interview at Seoul’s Shilla Hotel on Thursday.

“Being in the front is tough, especially if you are a woman. You need to be well prepared and you need to be knowledgeable to manage the hard climate to be in the top of politics.”

Loof, who leads Sweden’s Centre Party, was in Korea as part of the political and business delegation accompanying the Swedish King and Queen’s state visit last week.

As well as attending high-level political and business meetings, she joined Queen Silvia at a forum at Seoul’s Ewha University on Wednesday to discuss female leadership in Korea and Sweden.

While almost half of the Swedish parliamentarians are female and more than half of government posts are occupied by women, Loof said that women were still not well represented in all sectors.

“We have too few female entrepreneurs, too few leaders in large companies, we have also too few women board members for these companies,” she added.

“When I was elected to become a party leader in Sweden I got questions from Swedish journalists, most of them were men, asking: ‘Oh, but you are newly married, aren’t you supposed to build a family?’

“So, we have those questions and attitudes to deal with even in Sweden.”

She thought that encouraging fathers to take paternity leave and having good public-funded childcare could help more women keep a career while starting a family.

But drive and personal ambition were high on her agenda, too.

“The most important for everyone even if you are a woman or a man it is to dare. It is to have goals and ambitions that drive you through your work and your life through these goals,” she said.

“I hope that I can inspire others ― being 29 years old, a party leader and a minister ― to show that you can be a young person or a young woman and still have a leading position in Swedish politics today.”

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)