Switzerland can narrow the gender gap | news | Currently

The USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia offer the best framework conditions for female entrepreneurship, as evidenced by the MasterCard Women Entrepreneurship Index. Switzerland ranks fifth, two places higher than last year. Women entrepreneurs have been disproportionately affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fifth edition of the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) this year showed above all that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected women more than men. The progress and achievements of women entrepreneurs in 65 countries around the world were examined. According to its own data, MIWE thus represents 82% of working women, and it uses publicly available data from leading international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to highlight and demonstrate the social and economic contributions of women entrepreneurs. Those factors that enhance or inhibit their progress.

Switzerland is moving up the rankings

After the USA, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, Switzerland ranks fifth in the world in MIWE 2021, two times higher than last year. The improvement in Switzerland’s overall ranking is based primarily on the increased commitment to the promotion of women (25th place + 12th), which results in the sub-domains “Access to corporate credit” (8th place), “Knowledge and technology transfer” (ranked 5). ) and “Business and Professional Infrastructure” (rank 2). However, not only has Switzerland shown strong improvements in these areas. Germany (+21), Uruguay (+9), Canada (+7), Taiwan (+5) and Great Britain (+4) managed to make up points.

On the other hand, Switzerland is a pioneer in the field of women’s entrepreneurship framework conditions. In 2021, the percentage of women starting a business based on promising job opportunities increased from 23.5% to 29.9%. At the same time, the proportion of Swiss men decreased from 46.6% to 34.7%. Moreover, more women ran a family business (16.9%) in 2021 than the previous year (11.8%). According to MIWE, these positive developments were supported, among other things, by the quality of governance and the provision of a strong business and professional infrastructure during the Covid 19 pandemic (second place in each case). It should be noted here that less than 10% of all government assistance programs worldwide contain gender-specific measures at all.

Smallest gender gap in Swiss history

While female employment has fallen by 5.0% worldwide (compared to 3.9% for men) and there is talk of a massive setback in terms of gender parity due to the pandemic, according to the index, Switzerland has also made very positive progress in this illustrated area. . According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, Switzerland has the smallest gender gap in its history this year. This can be explained, among other things, by a jump in women’s political commitment: the proportion of women in Parliament increased dramatically from 29.3% to 38.6%. However, there is room for improvement in terms of the number of female directors and female experts, with Switzerland ranking 24th and 38th respectively.

global development

According to the index, the global assessment showed that in general, women have been affected more by the Covid-19 pandemic than men. 90% of women who lost their jobs during the crisis have not yet returned to work. This trend and other factors are expected to delay closing the gender gap by 36 years.

Despite this, women around the world have shown themselves to be entrepreneurs who are resilient, self-confident, and optimistic. 14 countries saw an increase in women’s entrepreneurial activity, while women in 10 countries outperformed men. However, according to the study authors, it should not be underestimated that in 2021 women were increasingly pushed into entrepreneurship due to the emergency. However, this does not necessarily have to represent a negative development, since such projects emerging from the crisis have great potential to develop into healthy and profitable companies in the long term, provided that the framework conditions are appropriate.