I had previously not been able to enroll at language school for classroom-based learning due to my travel schedule but soon after lockdown, and once the schools reopened, I started attending Danish classes. It’s a running joke in my house that if I knew I would marry a Dane, I would have spent years studying Danish and not German! I’m grateful that the majority of Danes can, and are happy to speak English. This certainly has helped, particularly when I first moved over. I’m much more confident in speaking Danish now and at home, we have a rule of speaking only in Danish at the dinner table. Additionally, language school has been great for meeting other people. However, there are many challenges in trying to build a professional network when you are completely new to a place and have to effectively start over.

I learned of ProWoc through one of the co-founders and joined just before Denmark went into lockdown in March 2020. My first few interactions with the group were through virtual events.

However, I really appreciated the contact with other professional women in Denmark and being able to listen to their experiences of navigating careers, how they were now dealing with the turn of events, as well as life as an expat in Denmark. The group allowed for a safe space and a platform to share experiences and information. The various events organised by ProWoc have offered insight and guidance on career development, as well as getting to meet some fantastic women.

I benefitted immensely from the Mentoring programme which had input from Djøf. My ProWoc mentor helped me to gather my thoughts and formulate how I envisaged my career going forward in Denmark. As well as voicing the various ideas, I also wrote them down with an action plan on how to achieve them. In particular, we explored avenues to make my qualifications, experience and skill set relevant and geared towards the Danish labour market. We identified courses that would allow me to build on my existing skills and effectively upskill them. I, therefore, undertook a GDPR Data Protection Officer Skills certification, a course in Business Ethics as well as a single master’s course in Business and Human Rights. With the latter, there was a lot of overlap with my existing work and so I was able to contextualise the issues, including labour standards, freedom of association, child labour, forced and bonded labour as well as combatting exploitation in global supply chains—especially its most severe forms frequently described as modern slavery. I don’t recall ever being as enthralled by a subject at law school as I was in the content of the Business and Human Rights course.

The ongoing travel and quarantine restrictions have changed my working schedule and like many, I now work completely from home. I envisage that international travel will remain problematic for some time. I have therefore also started to explore career opportunities in Denmark. There is momentum in the responsibility to conduct environmental and human rights due diligence in supply chains and for this to transform into a legal duty for companies and I wish to be a part of the transformation.

I am hopeful that my experience and many transferrable skills can be put to good use elsewhere in an in-house role. My hope is to continue championing the human rights we are provided in law because unfortunately, the reality is, often, very different! This includes helping organizations and private actors meet regulatory requirements on sustainability and mitigate human rights risks in direct operations, investments, and supply chains.

I am open to opportunities in business and human rights, corporate social responsibility, labour rights, and other human rights-related positions.