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EQUALITY

Men’s group campaigns for Swiss fathers to play larger role in childcare

A nationwide campaign to promote the benefits of equal parenting and stay-at-home dads launched in French-speaking Switzerland on Monday.

Men’s group campaigns for Swiss fathers to play larger role in childcare
Photo: halfpoint/Depositphotos
MenCare Switzerland launched in Neuchâtel with a photography exhibition showcasing images of fathers looking after their children, reported Swiss media including La Tribune de Genève.
 
In its initial phase since 2015, MenCare is part of a global fatherhood campaign to promote men’s involvement as equal carers for their children. 
 
It is run in Switzerland by Männer.ch, an umbrella organization for men’s and father’s groups which advocates for gender equality. 
 
The campaign is “about making people aware that men are also caregivers in a broad sense and that they can get involved not only in their professional work but also in unpaid private and family life”, Gilles Crettenand, the campaign’s coordinator in French-speaking Switzerland, told broadcaster RTS.
 
From 2018 MenCare Switzerland will run two five-year programmes aiming to promote men’s involvement in their children’s lives and the equal division of tasks related to caregiving.
 
“Research shows that men’s active involvement in fatherhood has positive effects on the cognitive, emotional, and social development of infants and children; strengthens family relations; promotes economic opportunities for mothers; and contributes to fathers’ health,” says Manner.ch on its website
 
“The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child also protects the rights of children to enjoy regular contact to mother and father on a daily basis. However, in Swiss families, this right remains relegated to the status of a mere wish, at least during the workweek.”
 
However reconciling professional and family life remains difficult for men – as well as women – in Switzerland, Crettenand told RTS. There is currently no statutory paternity leave, childcare costs are high and companies are often inflexible, he said.
 
The MenCare campaign will run in two phases until 2027 and aims to act on several levels: political, social, cultural and economic. 
 
Projects will include studies, conferences, the promotion of paternity leave, preparatory courses for future fathers and awareness courses for their managers, Crettenand told the Tribune.
 
“Each area is interlinked, changes cannot be made individually,” he said.
 
The campaign aims to demonstrate not only the benefits to fathers and children, but for mothers too, who are more able to go back to paid work if their partners take on more of the caregiving at home. 
 
Speaking about the photography exhibition that launched the campaign in Neuchâtel, Crettenand said it shows that “there are other less traditional models [for family life]. Each has its advantages and its disadvantages. The important thing is to finally have freedom of choice.”
 

EQUALITY

Why is the gender pay gap so big in German-speaking countries?

In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, women are losing ground in the fight for pay equity, according to a recent analysis from the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research.

Why is the gender pay gap so big in German-speaking countries?

As DACH countries celebrate International Women’s Day, inequalities in the workplace still remain – especially when it comes to remuneration. 

Despite efforts to close the gender pay gap, new research reveals that men still receive much higher bonuses than women in German-speaking countries.

“The gender pay gap in bonus payments is significantly bigger than in basic salary,” said Ifo researcher Michaela Paffenholz in a report published on Tuesday. “These major differences make the gap in total salary even larger.”

Ifo’s data reveals the pay gap in performance related bonuses extends across the DACH region. In Germany, women receive an average of 6.1 percent less in bonus payments, while in Austria, the gap between men and women is 7.2 percent and in Switzerland, women receive an average of 5.2 percent less in bonuses.

The prevalence of performance-based pay continues to grow across Europe. The number of workers receiving performance bonuses nearly doubled from 2000 to 2015 to include nearly a third of European workers, according to a European Trade Union Institute working paper. 

Reducing the gender pay gap is one of the top priorities of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025. But the issue of unequal bonus pay has received little focus from policymakers. 

Ifo Institute’s analysis found that bonus payments can increase the gender wage gap. 

In Germany, the pay gap between men and women in basic salary is 2.7 percent, but bonuses increase this gap to 3 percent in total salary. In Austria, the gender gap in basic salary is 2.3 percent, with bonus pay bumping that up to 2.9 percent.

In Switzerland, the gap is 1.2 percent for basic salary; bonus payments increase this to 1.6 percent for total salary.

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Still, the gender pay gap is not limited to hourly earnings and bonus payments: working in lower-paid sectors and fewer working hours also contribute to the gap between men and women’s pay.

According to statistics from the Germany’s Statistical Office, working women in Germany earned 18 percent less than men in 2023. 

This story translates across the DACH region. In Austria women earned 18.4 percent less gross wages per hour than men in 2022. Swiss women face a similar reality. Working women earned 18 percent less than men in 2022, despite “equal pay for work of equal value” being enshrined in the federal constitution since 1981. 

Larger companies are overrepresented in the market data collected by Mercer, so the studies are not representative of all companies in the DACH region. 

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