21 percent women in top positions
Published: Saturday, May 4th 2024, 07:50
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Listed companies in Switzerland still have very few women at the top. The situation is somewhat more balanced among the largest corporations, as an analysis by the news agency AWP shows.
Overall, women make up around 21% of the management and board of directors of listed companies as at the beginning of May. This means that their share has increased by one percentage point in one year.
The situation is slightly better for the 30 largest companies in the Swiss Leader Index (SLI): The proportion of women there is 31 percent and has risen by a good 2 percentage points within the space of a year.
The Basel-based pharmaceutical company Sandoz had the highest proportion of women. Women made up 45 percent of the management team there. Roche and Zurich Insurance followed in second and third place with a ratio of 43% and 42% respectively.
The worst performers were the sanitary group Geberit with a share of 15 percent and Swiss Life with a share of 20 percent.
In order to improve the gender ratio, the Federal Council introduced a so-called "women's quota light" for large companies in 2021. The regulation stipulates a 30% quota for women on boards of directors from 2026. From 2031, every fifth member of the executive board must also be a woman.
The women's quota is referred to as "light" because comparable laws abroad often have stricter requirements. France, the Netherlands and Austria, among others, introduced similar laws before Switzerland. In EU countries, 40 percent of board members must be women from mid-2026.
©Keystone/SDA
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