The proportion of women on the executive floors of the 20 blue-chip companies on the SMI (Swiss Market Index) stock exchange is 13%. The comparable figure is higher in Scandinavia, as well as in neighbouring France, Germany and Italy.
At 29.6%, it is highest in the companies on the Norwegian OBX index, according to a survey by recruitment consultants Russell Reynolds published on Tuesday.
Since this year there has been a government target for at least 30% of the board of directors and at least 20% of the executive board of listed companies in Switzerland to be women. If these benchmarks are not met, the company is obliged to state the reasons in its annual report and to present measures for improvement.
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Parliament approves quotas for women on company boards
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The Swiss parliament has approved a proposal calling for better representation of women at the top echelons of large publicly-traded companies.
However, this reporting obligation does not begin for executive boards until 2031. If things continue at the current pace, it’s likely to be tight: it would take 20 years for every single SMI company to reach the 20% quota at the current rate of change, according to the Russell Reynolds report.
This is because it would require 21 more women to join management boards than today. But in the past year only one woman has joined. Five female CEOs are new to the management of SMI companies, but four women left.
Seventeen of the female top managers of SMI companies hold a central function such as human resources or legal, six are heads of divisions or geographic regions and one is chief financial officer. There is not a single woman at CEO level in the SMI.
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Poll suggests Donald Trump has many fans in Switzerland
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Around a quarter of Swiss citizens would vote for Donald Trump if they had the chance, according to a recent poll. This percentage is higher than in many other European countries.
Swiss court rejects special assistance for student with disabilities
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The Swiss Federal Court has rejected an application for special assistance from a student with disabilities at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
Police arrest 15 drug dealers in Verbier in southern Switzerland
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Swiss and French police have arrested 15 suspected drug dealers operating in the mountain resort of Verbier in southern Switzerland.
New European space tech centre in Switzerland launches its first project
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The European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Centre (ESDI), launched in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), is to be located in the immediate vicinity of the PSI in northern Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Railways launches campaign for safety on public transport
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The Swiss Federal Railways is launching a campaign for greater respect and safety on public transport, with posters to go up in stations and on trains starting next week.
Swiss scientists to use AI for improved weather and climate forecasts
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MeteoSwiss and the Swiss Data Science Center have signed a four-year agreement to make greater use of AI in meteorology and climatology going forward.
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Prices of owner-occupied homes rose in the third quarter of 2024 by 0.5%, with inflation affecting both apartments and single-family houses, says the Federal Statistical Office.
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The honey harvest is projected to be lower than usual this year, as Swiss beekeepers report harvesting an average of just 16kg of honey per bee colony.
More young refugees in Switzerland following vocational training
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More than half of young refugees and temporarily admitted persons between the ages of 16 and 25 are now in training. This is significantly more than five years ago.
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Number of women on boards rises to 10%
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The percentage of women on executive boards of Switzerland’s largest 100 employers has – for the first time – reached 10%, a report has found.
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Few women sit on company boards in Switzerland. Parliament has put off deciding about quotas, but business has ideas about what should be done.
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Russell ReynoldsExternal link found that 55 of the 206 board members are women, raising the proportion from 21% to 27% within two years. Last week the annual Schilling ReportExternal link from recruitment firm Guido Schilling said that women made up more than a fifth (21%) of supervisory board members at Switzerland’s 100 largest firms for…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.