Dear Readers,
 

Nearly a half million women participated in the women's strike in Switzerland on June 14th. One of the many topics debated was the impact on society due to unpaid work. In quantitative terms, unpaid work represents 43% of Switzerland's GDP, most of which  continues to be done by women, see TV News TJ RTS.
 

In his documentary film « De la cuisine au parlement » Stéphane Goël traces  Switzerland’s long history of suffrage of women. The film pays tribute to women who fought and mobilized for this victory.  Noteably, it took more than a century (1848 - 1971) for them to be heard. Women's suffrage  was dependent on Swiss men’s conservative position who set the rules of the democracy excluding women.  Only they had the formal right to change the situation. 
 
Today, we are experiencing a similar phenomenon in regards to women's access to leadership positions. The labor market is mainly governed by men or male dominance that impose 120% work toll by one person for these leadership positions. Constant search for immediate results, a high degree of competition and some linear and hierarchical structures are all a part of it. These principles can exclude women as some are unable or unwilling to adopt a male work culture for family organization, maternity, quality of life or societal conditioning reasons. 
 
The press interview with Lynn Mackenzie, an active member of our PTO Association in “La Côte” newspaper, and the Radio RTS Interview with her illustrate well this point.
 
Yet a growing number of women are still determined to take on positions with a high level of responsibility. They are able to  work innovatively in work models such as job and top sharing. However, it is still men who dominate management positions and have the overall power to change the situation. To  place more women at the top-level of hierarchy women and feminine work for qualities have to be integrated such as confidence, co-responsibility, collaborative and empathic management. Society must  be open for new working models such as job and top sharing.

COMING SOON The next conference at Berne University of Applied Sciences on August 30th 2019 will be focused on a similar topic bringing together high level academic researchers and influential policy makers to address challenges posed by labor market discrimination. Distinguished academics will present their latest findings on different instances of discrimination (gender-, fertility-, ethnically-based or other types of labor market discrimination). Those findings will then be addressed in a policy session, whereby policy makers and other individuals with the ability to influence the implementation of actual policies will discuss concrete ways to eradicate discrimination, see information on The Financing of Early Education and the Labor Market Participation of Women.  The PTO Association will also be on the panel.