Swiss women make inroads in executive positions

Close to four out of every ten new management positions in 2021 went to women. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The share of women in management positions at corporations listed on the Swiss Market Index (SMI) reached 19%, or nearly one in five, in 2021.

The modest increase, from 13% in 2020, is largely thanks to an average of close to four of every ten new management appointments in 2021 going to women, according to a study published in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. A whopping 92% of these women managers came from abroad, namely the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France, the study by the recruitment agency Russel Reynolds Association shows.

Twenty companies are listed on the SMI, the Swiss stock exchange’s flagship index. Among them Partners Group performed best in terms of women representation at the executive level (38%), followed by Zurich Insurance Group (36%) and Holcim (30%). However, none of the 20 companies has a woman CEO.

The analysis also covered companies in the mid-cap index, the SMIM, which fared less well: women there filled 13.4% of management positions. In the lead is banking software developer Temenos (42%).

A new provision in Swiss law came into force on January 1, 2021 that requires large companies to ensure at least 20% of their executive boards is comprised of women.

‘Madam Secretary’

Women leaders have also made inroads in the top echelons of the federal administration, Le Matin Dimanche reported on Sunday. With the arrival of Christine Schraner Burgener at the helm of the migration department on January 1, all five secretaries of state – the most prestigious job titles in the federal public service – are now women.

The progress made in the last 15 years is no accident, according to the newspaper. In 2005, Micheline Calmy-Rey, then the foreign affairs minister, made a concerted effort to recruit more women into the foreign service. At the time, less than 14% of diplomats were women.

Women representation is fragile, however. One of the secretaries of state, Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, will retire this summer. And men still occupy three-quarters of management positions in the federal administration.

Switzerland’s five secretaries of state

• Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, State Secretary for Economic AffairsExternal link since 2011
• Daniela Stoffel, State Secretary for International FinanceExternal link since 2019
• Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and InnovationExternal link since 2019
• Livia Leu, State Secretary for Foreign AffairsExternal link since 2021 and chief negotiator with the European Union since 2020
• Christine Schraner Burgener, State Secretary for MigrationExternal link since 2022.