Women in leadership positions – Not only female lawyers have a hard time – News


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Female lawyers rarely advance to become partners in large law firms. What about other sectors in Switzerland?

When it comes to women in managerial positions, Switzerland is still one of the worst in Europe. On the current Women Lawyers Day, the University of St. Gallen found that the proportion of women in the partnership with large Swiss law firms is only 13.6 percent – even though two thirds of law students are women.

What about the proportion of women in the Swiss executive floors overall and in other sectors in particular? Not necessarily better, like figures from the Federal Statistical Office (BFS) and one as well Study conducted at the University of St. Gallen show from last year.

According to the FSO, women are significantly more likely to be non-managerial employees. Men are much more likely than women to be employees in company management or in managerial positions. The BFS emphasizes that these differences remain even when women and men have the same level of education.

Leadership positions by industry

According to the study by the University of St. Gallen, the percentage of women in upper and top management in the banking sector, in the machine, electrical and metal industry (MEM), in the insurance sector and in consulting is at a similarly low level of 12 to 17 percent as in the executive floors of the large law firms mentioned at the beginning.

The media and pharmaceutical industries as well as public administration are in a slightly better position. Here women make up more than 20 percent in the upper floors.

However, these differences are partially put into perspective when one considers how many women are actually represented in the respective industry or could advance from lower to middle and upper management. The MEM industry is doing comparatively well here, with the proportion of women in middle and upper management at 16 percent hardly differing from the proportion in lower management (19 percent).

In addition, the machine, electrical and metal industries, with a total of 24 percent women, only have a few female employees anyway. With 28 percent women in non-management, the female talent pool in the MEM industry is significantly smaller than in other industries, the authors of the study emphasize. However, the proportion of 15 percent women in the upper management is only slightly smaller than in most other sectors. This means that despite the low proportion of women, MEM companies are relatively good at promoting gender diversity in management positions.

In contrast, women in the banking industry receive significantly less support. As in the MEM industry, 16 percent of middle and upper management are women. In the lower management levels, however, the proportion of women is much higher at 31 percent. According to the study, this shows that the female talent pipeline is used significantly less in the banking industry.

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