The association of responsible shareholders Actares and the UND study centre have just published the results of a survey on equal opportunities between men and women for which 30 Swiss listed companies were approached.
Equal opportunities between men and women as well as the issue of work-life balance are an important aspect of corporate sustainability. The study covers these questions as well as measures taken by companies to address the issue.
It is regrettable that only five companies actually took part in the survey by answering the questionnaire : Credit Suisse Group, Clariant, Sika, Swiss Re and UBS. The results therefore cannot be considered as representative of the situation in the largest listed Swiss companies. However, while company practice differs, it is possible to establish certain trends :
- there is very little transparency concerning the way in which remuneration is distributed according to gender and hierarchical level;
- being under-represented in executive and managerial positions, women benefit less than their male counterparts from training programmes offered by the company;
- the survey confirms a number of elements which are already well : the lack of women in the upper echelons of company hierarchy and in the board of directors or the fact that part time work is essentially reserved for positions carrying little responsibility and for women.
The companies which took the time to answer the questionnaire already take a certain number of measures to enhance equal opportunities and work-life balance, in particular : the adoption of guidelines, the integration of information in annual reports, as well as internal communication and documentation on the subject. Yet to date, the disclosure of detailed quantitative data is still lacking.
For further information on Actares and for the complete result of the study, please refer to the Actares website www.actares.ch
02/04/2003
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