Empowering Tomorrow
Empowering Tomorrow: Female Leadership in Times of Uncertainty – Key Takeaways
This text is based on Women With Impact’s 40th issue.
We are so grateful to share that our second event of our event series “Empowering Tomorrow” was a success. Co-hosted with Women With Impact, the topic of the evening was “Empowering Tomorrow: Female Leadership in Times of Uncertainty”. In form of a panel discussion, our audience learned from personal stories of our panellists, and we explored the role of Swiss youth in shaping diverse environments.
Carolina Müller-Möhl
Founder and President of the Müller-Möhl Group and Müller-Möhl Foundation, Investor and Philanthropist
Katrin Eggenberger
Board member, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Culture of Liechtenstein
Andrea Rauber Saxer
Ambassador, Head of Bilateral Economic Relations at SECO and Federal Council Delegate for Trade Agreements
The moderation was led by Clara Richter, Founder of Women With Impact and Global Shaper at the Bern Hub.
A big thank you goes to our sponsor Bern Economic Development Agency and the team at Global Shapers Bern for bringing this project to life: Clara, Epu, Svenja, Laura and James.
The current state of female leadership
We gathered in Switzerland’s capital Bern to highlight the urgency of diversity in leadership. Despite substantial progress, the road to gender equality remains fraught with challenges. Amidst crises, from conflicts and war, to inflation: According to Deloitte Global’s latest Women in the Boardroom report (2024), women hold less than one-quarter of the world’s board seats, around 8% of the world’s boards are chaired by women and 6% of CEOs are women. In Switzerland, we observe similar trends. For instance: the gender pay gap remains ever-significant: According to the Federal Office for Gender Equality, there was an 18% gender pay gap in 2020, if public and private sectors are combined. This sentiment resonated throughout the evening as panellists discussed the systemic, cultural, and individual barriers that women face in their professional journeys.
Carolina Müller-Möhl on striving for equality and the need of systemic changes
Carolina Müller-Möhl explained that the causes of inequality exist at three levels: the socio-cultural, the systemic and the individual level – the latter being the women themselves. During the panel, we touched on all three.
Starting off, Müller-Möhl presented stark statistics on gender disparities in leadership across various sectors in Switzerland. “It can take another 135 years like the Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum is actually predicting it, to reach gender equality”. Müller-Möhl shared numbers on how the average life of a Swiss woman evolves, and highlights Swiss women are greatly invested in, when it comes to education. However, when the average woman decides to marry and bear children around the age of 30, a significant number drops out of the labour market. Another striking figure is that around 60% of the female workforce works part-time, and from this population, 50% work less than 50%. This leads to immense financial gaps over the course of a lifetime.
In this context, Müller-Möhl stressed the importance of women’s financial independence, that one can always pay for one’s own life. Additionally, choosing a partner and an environment which fully supports you on your professional journey and career goals is crucially significant, according to her. She advises to ask yourself: “How well do I know my partner? Is my partner sustaining, does he want you to make a professional career? Or will you be standing there at day 2, having a discussion and learning that your partner would not support your 100% pensum while having three children?”
The overall gender question is complicated, which is why Müller-Möhl’s initiative Taskforce 4 Womendeveloped a 5-part, scalable programme for change based on scientific evidence. The following six areas, which go hand in hand, are being actively worked on: Business, Politics, Society, Media, Science and Culture. Part of the programme involves collecting data, developing tools, facilitating knowledge transfer between stakeholders, and making solutions visible across all channels. And because things work better together, expert partners are on board as well.
The socio-cultural element is equally significant when working towards attaining gender equality. Here, Müller-Möhl referred to her recently launched podcast, “Rock und Randale”, through questions and topics are being addressed, which are meant to increase the reflection on the position of women in society as well as ignite societal change for the better.
Müller-Möhl further urged the need for immediate action. She elaborated on her advocacy for systemic changes, such as individual taxation and affordable childcare in Switzerland, which are essential for enabling women to work full-time and avoid poverty. On the individual level, she advised to get involved in these topics as equal participation and representation of women in many areas as not been reached yet. Greater participation by women will essentially lead to a more balanced and resilient society. Lastly, she shared on the importance of resilience, stating, “You have to keep on going, just keep on going.”
Andrea Rauber Saxer on federal institutions and taking pro-diversity choices
Andrea Rauber Saxer highlighted the importance of policies and mentorship programs within federal institutions to promote gender diversity. Raising awareness among those individuals who recruit persons and leaders of leaders, is key. The first step is to have a policy which lays out gender equality and captures that more women are to be included in leadership positions. According to Rauber Saxer, a general policy at the federal administration, the Foreign Department of Foreign Affairs and SECO exists, which sets out a vision to aim a certain quota and target. Hence, a number is needed stating on how many women are to hold how many positions.
Rauber Saxer continued, “If you have a choice, then it should always be a choice pro-diversity,” stressing the significance of intentional recruitment practices aimed at increasing gender and linguistic diversity within organisations.
Speaking about her experiences as a diplomat, Rauber Saxer noted, “Getting out of your comfort zone is essential. And oftentimes, when I look back, I see the beauty in diplomacy, that it allows you to live several lives in one.” Rauber Saxer encouraged young women to seek roles that challenge them and to maintain flexibility in balancing professional and personal lives.
Moreover, Rauber Saxer stressed that opportunities do not happen automatically, but that holds true no matter the gender: “In order to make a career, you have to be determined, you need courage.” She continued that as a women however, you need to be very flexible – especially if you want to have a family. “I think that’s just a fact. But, I think it’s also good to be aware of these facts. Lastly, I would advise, like the Nike slogan, just do it.”
Katrin eggenberger on taking risks in life and following your passion
Katrin Eggenberger shared her journey from the financial sector to international politics, underscoring the importance of taking risks and embracing opportunities: “Just do it. Try it out. If it doesn’t work out, try something else. But always keep moving forward.”
She shares with the audience that pursuing her PhD helped her a lot on her journey. Eggenberger reached out to the Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, and asked him if he would become her doctoral supervisor. Knowing that Stiglitz had never had an external student (not being enrolled at Columbia University) and the strong disbelief of her surroundings who thought that it would ever work out, she persisted and won him as supervisor. For her, this is a wonderful example that one should not listen too much to one’s surroundings and ask too many questions on what someone else might thing about a particular topic. “Just do what you feel you love the most and are most passionate about. The passion for a topic itself is the most important in life.”
As the previous Chief of Staff of the World Economic Forum working from out of Geneva, Cologny, Eggenberger shared a story on how important words and labels can be in the diversity space: instead of referring to communities of chairmen at the WEF, under her leadership, she changed it to community of chairpersons. According to her, it all begins with rethinking terminologies and indeed, language is an important vehicle to create a sense of belonging.
Additionally, Eggenberger addressed the lack of women in top government roles and advocated for clearer communication and empathic leadership. “The world would be a better place if we had more clear communication and more empathic communication,” she affirmed, encouraging women to seek both male and female mentors to support their growth.
Outlook
The event concluded with a robust Q&A session, where the audience sought advice on preparing for leadership roles, balancing personal and professional lives, and addressing the interconnected challenges in the current political landscape. One attendee passionately declared, “I am looking for mentorship to rebuild trust in institutions,” underscoring the evening’s theme of collective empowerment and support.
The following advice was also highlighted: Identify and execute on opportunities, even if they are not on your plans. And seek mentors which challenge you to grow and whom you can learn from.
The panellists shared diverse insights and shared experiences painted a vivid picture of the hurdles and triumphs in the journey toward female leadership. The recurring themes of resilience, support networks, and systemic change provided a powerful call-to-action.
Moderator Clara Richter concluded, “The power is in our hands, and together we can make a change to reach gender equality.” This event mirrored a broader societal shift towards recognising and elevating female leaders who can navigate and transform our world in times of uncertainty. Together, with determination and shared commitment, we can indeed empower the next generation of female leaders.
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