Gender Diversity

On February 7, 2021, Switzerland celebrated the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage. Voting rights for women were introduced at the federal level in 1971. Twenty years later, in 1991, the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden was the last Swiss canton to forcibly introduce women's suffrage.

Gender equality has been enshrined in the Federal Constitution since 1981. In 1996, the Gender Equality Act also came into force, prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination in all employment relationships and ensuring equal opportunities in working life.

Despite being enshrined in law, gender equality is still a hotly debated topic in society today. Gender discrimination can still be found in everyday working life. According to the Federal Office for Gender Equality, women's paychecks in 2018 were on average CHF 1,512 lower each month than those of men. 45% of the wage difference cannot be explained and indicates potential wage discrimination based on gender.

Of course, men can also be affected by gender discrimination. For example, discrimination is present if the daycare employee, in contrast to his female colleague, is not allowed to be alone in a room with the children. It is the employer's duty to create an environment free of discrimination. This means that no one may be disadvantaged by directives, regulations, procedures and job specifications.

In our weekly blog post today, we look at gender diversity and take a look at women's quotas in larger companies.

What does diversity actually mean?

The concept of diversity embraces acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each person is unique and recognizing our individual differences. These may be along the dimensions of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is about exploring these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding one another and moving beyond simple tolerance to acknowledge and value the rich dimensions of diversity inherent in each individual.

One subfield of diversity management is called gender diversity and deals with the equality of women and men. This is the best-researched subdiscipline of diversity management. However, gender diversity is also a hot topic. Although measures to reduce inequality in everyday working life are discussed, implementation is often still lacking. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that the higher the hierarchical level, the fewer women are to be found. According to statista, the proportion of women in management positions in Swiss companies in 2021 is 27.1%. And this is despite the fact that the proportion of women in Swiss universities today is greater than the proportion of men. In other words, the lack of qualifications among women is not an argument for the low proportion of women in top management.

Rather, the situation can be explained by the fact that women are often somewhat forgotten when it comes to promotions. The reason for this is often that women start a family in the crucial career years between their thirties and forties and therefore often reduce their workload. As a result, they are less visible to employers than full-time male employees. In addition, it is still unusual in Switzerland for managers to work part-time.

There are some voices that would like to see a women's quota enshrined in law so that this "grievance" is remedied and more women are represented in the executive suite. There are certainly many reasons in favor of a quota. Nevertheless, there are also just as many counter-arguments. Instead of arguing about whether a women's quota makes sense or not, it would be better to use the time to look for concrete solutions. It is time for a sustainable rethink to take place.

Many companies still rely on a strong culture of presence, which makes flexible working difficult. Flexible working hours for all would be a valuable step toward equality. Managers should not be expected to work exclusively full-time. This is where we need to start. Alkistis Petropaki, head of Advance - Women in Swiss Business, an association supporting women in leadership positions, believes that measures must be found to enable women with children to remain in the workforce. This could be made possible, for example, by flexible working hours or by sharing family work between both parents.

The Corona pandemic has led to a forced rethinking. The home office obligation made it clear that flexible and location-independent working actually works. The pandemic has greatly accelerated the necessary change towards flexible working hours. Now it remains to be seen whether Swiss companies will grant their employees this newfound flexibility after Corona. According to a survey by Syndicom, nine out of ten Swiss employees are satisfied with the home office and do not want to do without it in the future - at least as a supplement. So it remains exciting. The buzzwords diversity and women's quota will certainly accompany our company for some time to come.