Zug,02.12.2016

Cantonal government acts to ensure more women occupy top jobs

Last September the cantonal parliament opted not to introduce legislation relating to equal opportunities for men and women. However, the cantonal government has subsequently acted to introduce a bye-law which comes into effect on 1 January 2017. With this, it hopes to ensure more women are appointed to leading positions, in cantonal administration, for example, and that more men take to the classroom, in primary schools in particular.
 
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Manuela Weichelt-Picard, the only woman in the cantonal government and the head of the Department of Inner-Cantonal Affairs, said that this matter was not one which concerned predominantly women, but society as a whole.
 
In an area where the cantonal authorities have control over who is appointed to jobs in administration, for example, the new bye-law should lead to more women being appointed to top positions. At present, there are just seven women heads of departments or general secretaries, whereas 40 men are in such roles.
 
The government expressed its hope that, with the opportunity to work away from the office and with the introduction of flexible annual working times, more women would be able to combine managing a career and organising family life in a better way.
 
The cantonal government would also like to see more women on juries. Furthermore, it wants to continue to promote schemes such as the “Back2work” one for well qualified English-speaking women.
 
Not that the cantonal government’s aims are simply restricted to encourage women to take on more roles in male-dominated areas, they want to see measures undertaken to ensure that more men take up places at the Zug Teacher Training College, too, so that more of them are a presence in the classroom, where women dominate at present.