The survey claims women in Switzerland have made significant gains in closing the gender gap with men. The survey is supposed to cover health, education, economic and political empowerment. But another way to look at it is they still lag men by 27%.
http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/rankings2008.pdf

I had lunch with a (male) faculty member at my host institution yesterday to discuss, among other things, support and encouragement of junior faculty as a group and women faculty as a group. He is Belgian, and stated that Switzerland is 25 years behind Belgium on women's issues, and 100 years behind the US (that's not to say that the US or Belgium are particularly good on these issues).

I have found things here to be often "1950's" as we would say in the US, and at worst from the middle ages.

Perhaps in my next life, I will be a man.

Ten years after the law on equality came into force, women still earn on average 20% less than men in Switzerland.

The gap is larger in the private sector than in the public one. In public administration the disparity in pay is 10%, in small companies 15.7%, in medium-sized ones 20.4% and in large ones 30.8%.

Many women say they still hit the glass ceiling in Switzerland and there is a shortage of female top managers.

posted on SwissInfo 2 years ago.

It's not hard to improve significantly when there is still a lot to improve. In my opinion the gap in Switzerland is underestimated in that survey. How can Switzerland be number 14 among all those countries? I'm an engineering student (swiss and female), and I can't think of a single country where there are fewer women studying engineering than in Switzerland (including countries like Iran).

BTW, in Appenzell Innerrhoden people (men) voted against giving women the right to vote in 1990!!! However, they were overruled by the federal court because it was against the constitution.

Maybe I read the table wrong but the US lags 13 places behind Switzerland and Belgium lags one place behind the US...

What is the methodology for this study?

As I have lived and worked in both the US and Switzerland, I have hard time believing that the US would be behind Switzerland, at least as far as women in the private workplace. I am American and do understand my country is not perfect, but this is not an area where I see us as behind other countries. The Nordic countries may have a leg up.

If paid maternity and paternity leave is a huge element in this, yes then, I can see the results. But as far as work advancement etc., I don't see it. Also, I suppose if we consider the income inequality, poor women are less emplowered.

I would guess it looks at a cross section of society from your McDonald's sweeper-upper to your Chief Exec of an international.

In Switzerland, although not perfect, everyone seems to get the same treatment whether you are cleaning McD's or making boardroom decisions. I think poverty in the US might slew the results for them where the poor probably get a rough deal, equality-wise.

It's interesting that the UK rates fairly high in the table. You read every other day about some "terrible" breach of equality rights in the media.

Agreed, I would be interested in seeing how they got to results. I will look later. Inequality between the sexes is very different thing than income equality and a correct study would differentiate rather than paint a false picture. I don't think men and women Mcdonald cleaners are treated differently....

Apparently it was the number of women in top political jobs which skewed Switzerland's big jump. As regards the US, I've worked for American companies most of my life and i have to say that although I've seen plenty of females in middle management jobs, the ratio of women to men in senior roles is still very low.

I agree that it is low. But having worked for both American companies and Swiss companies, the glass ceiling seems lower in Switzerland.

Also, I have heard Swiss woman actually astonished that a woman would do some highly quantitative jobs. This is not clear evidence of anything but a general perception.

The public route is a great way in overcoming the glass ceiling for ambitious women in some countries where the private route seems to be more heavily blocked by the old' boys club.

The problem is that it is all very anecdotal: I have three sisters in law, two of whom are VPs for a bank and a law firm, and in my company there are women in the top finance positions so my "perception" is that Switzerland is quite advance in terms of equality.

sure I agree, that is why I want to look at the study in more detail. Initially, I have my doubts about the low ranking of the US.

Maybe it has also to do with how the women in a country perceive their roles in society (??) ...
Someone did say once (sorry I don't remember in which debate this was) that it isn't that there is no place for women at the top, there just aren't any or enough women applying for the job... interesting observation !

It's not just this country - I'm British and I'm happy where I am. I couldn't be ar$ed with the responsibility the senior managers have. Too much stress. They want it? They can have it...

I also don't understand, what should be wrong with the idea or fact, that some jobs are better suited for males and some better for females, no ?!

Even if seeing a female driving a huge truck is quite impressive or a male doing ... yes what shall I take now as an example ... hum ... ?!?!

I think the point of the thread, to use your example, is whether a lady truck driver is getting the same pay as her male counterpart, not whether she is physically capable.

Provided that she does it equally well, can do it for the same amount of time, etc...
Still the abilities should be the deciding factor and gender should has nothing to do it (unless country regulations towards maternity and maternity leaves are really screwed, which could introduce a bias in hiring)

57.9% of women in Switzerland work part-time (EU 32.4%).
85.8% of women in Switzerland work in the service sector.
(2006)


that says quite something doesn't it !!!

There are lots of reasons Swiss women work part-time. School schedules are a huge contributing factor as are the difficulties of getting child care (at a reasonable price).

Not making judgements, there are very good reasons for Switzerland being structured as it is, however the set up makes it difficult to have two full time working parents. This may be a good thing or not.

Question of the day: What percentage of Swiss men are the stay at home care giver?

A comparison of this number across countries would give me an idea of sexual equality in society