Switzerland is special, also not
Do women have leisure time? And if not, why not?
A shocking piece of news emerged recently: Switzerland’s myriad sport associations are having trouble recruiting women to their boards of directors.
Let’s back up. The head of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection, and Sport (since 2019) is a woman, Viola Amherd. 1 She is a very down-to-earth person who went at her new assignment in a – dare I say it?– very female fashion. Study, ask questions, listen to everyone, form an opinion, test it with a few hand-picked advisors, and then gather input and support from influential characters. Compromises and revisions along the way, and then: here is how it’s going to be done now, folks.
Amherd has achieved some impossible tasks in the past five years, not least of which was getting Swiss voters to support a proposal to spend billions on new fighter jets for the Swiss Air Force. Both her predecessors failed miserably to conclude a deal with voters, politicians, and jet manufacturers. In choosing Lockheed Martin’s ultramodern FA-35 fighter jets, Amherd made the clear statement that Switzerland, though not a NATO member, sees its future defense linked to the alliance. That takes balls in a country that has been fussing over the “meaning of neutrality” in an increasingly unrealistic fashion since Russia’s war in Ukraine erupted.2 A no less impressive feat is the dismantling of the “old boy” mentality in the Swiss armed forces. The guys finally got called out on their liberal declaration of expenses and many of the more colorful aspects of the cushy Swiss military life are a thing of the past. These days, a female strategist (preferably from Amherd’s centrist party) is more likely to get that cool job at the ministry than a well-connected officer is. The old boys grumble publicly, Amherd does not engage. In looking at how to make military careers more attractive to women (who, unlike men, do not have obligatory service), Amherd’s ministry is also inadvertently making the military a more interesting employer for Gen Z. Exciting times.
Enough praise singing.3 In her role as Sports Minister, Amherd gets to go to all kinds of events and praise Swiss athletes. But the ministry also governs the funding of the training of coaches, athletes or officials, for the promotion of mass sports, for the development of concepts and for the support of junior and elite sports as well as for the implementation of obligations in the area of fair and safe sports. So a couple years ago, the ministry announced that there would be new guidelines for diversifying the boards of sport organizations: 40% of the seats should go to women as of 1 January 2025, else the organizations will lose their federal funding.
Predictably, it’s a few months before the deadline and one association after another has realized they won’t make it. The Swiss Sport Shooting Association, for example, only has one woman on its five-member board.4 The Swiss Football5 Association has had an all-male board forever. When they changed their statutes, two women were promptly elected in June 2023. But two out of nine is still less than 40%.
Being on the board of a national sport governing organization sounds like a big deal. Maybe this is the moment to point out that, in Switzerland, these are unpaid positions. Wait! you say. This is perfect for women! We do important stuff for low or no pay all the time!
Let me quote the president of one of those sport associations. He shall remain nameless for obvious reasons:
The board needs experienced and educated people who are willing to take on this voluntary position and who also have time for frequent weekend commitments.
Aha.
SO WHY DO MEN HAVE ALL THIS FREE TIME?
I have nothing more to say on this matter.
Confession: I am a big fan. She is a pragmatic politician with a wry sense of humor (probably because she is from the Valais and not German-speaking Switzerland), and a tough cookie. When Amherd was elected to the Federal Council, Switzerland’s executive, she got last pick of the portfolios– which meant the insanely unpopular defense ministry. No one does well in this post because it is de facto run by Switzerland’s masculine elite in the military hierarchy.
This is a topic for another time. And boy, is it ever.
Ok, one more thing. When two Swiss federal councilors stepped down at the end of 2022, it opened the way for a cabinet shuffle. Amherd moved up the seniority ladder and could have ditched Defense, Civil Protection and Sport for something less fraught. The fact that she chose to keep her portfolio rather than foist it on to one of the newbies only increased my admiration for her.
Funny, isn’t it, that Swiss markswomen are so successful in international competition. Nina Christen, for example, won bronze with the air rifle and gold in the 50m Rifle Three Positions match at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. (This was the first Olympic gold medal for Switzerland in shooting since 1948.) And Chiara Leone just took gold in Paris in the same discipline, considered the most prestigious, all-rounder award for shooters.
If you are reading this in the US, “soccer.” You’re welcome.