A gender pay gap exists in every country in the world. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women earn 23 per cent less than men worldwide. This disparity is detrimental not just to women and their families but to society as a whole. According to the delegation’s co-head, FDFA Secretary General Benno Bättig, “the fight against wage inequality and the economic empowerment of women benefit the whole economy. It pays to invest in equality”. That is why women’s economic empowerment is a core component of Switzerland’s foreign policy in addition to being a key domestic policy concern. At this year’s CSW session, Switzerland will also push for unpaid care and domestic work to be better recognised and valued, and for a strengthening of the role played by the private sector on this issue.
Today, in collaboration with its partners Switzerland will launch the Global Equal Pay Coalition, an initiative which aims to eradicate wage inequality by 2030. With the equal pay self-test tool for companies, Logib, Switzerland is playing a pioneering role in the promotion of equal pay. This instrument, which is available in four languages, has attracted keen interest worldwide. Logib offers companies with more than 50 employees a simple way to find out whether their equal pay policy is being respected.
Also leading the Swiss delegation is Sylvie Durrer, Director of the Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality at the Federal Department of Home Affairs. Beth Krasna, a member of the board of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) who also sits on the board of various companies will be part of the delegation alongside representatives of the Federal Administration, civil society (NGO-Coordination post Beijing and Alliance F). Joining them is a young representative from the FDFA’s Youth Rep programme, a Swiss National Youth Council project run in collaboration with the FDFA.
The CSW is the UN's central body responsible for improving gender equality. The official delegations will be joined at this year’s CSW session, which runs from 13-24 March, by over 8,000 NGO representatives.
Further information:
Federal Office for Gender Equality
UN Women / CSW61 (en)
Women’s Human Rights App (en)
Address for enquiries:
Information FDFA
Bundeshaus West
CH-3003 Bern
Tel.: +41 58 462 31 53
Fax: +41 58 464 90 47
E-Mail: info@eda.admin.ch