Development & governance of Swiss equal opportunity policies

Gainful work is a central field for equal opportunity policies because it is a precondition for financial autonomy and social independence. The increase of female labor market participation and educational achievement was not accompanied by a comparable decrease of the gender pay gap, egalitarian life courses and career opportunities. On the labor market exist obviously discrimination mechanisms that afford political interventions. Political commitments for equal opportunities and diverse measures and policies have not been very successful yet. The goal of the project is to develop basic knowledge on the origin, dynamics and interrelations of measures in the area of occupational equal opportunity policies in Switzerland. Steering mechanisms are analyzed in a macro perspective going beyond the individual measures. With the knowledge on these mechanisms it should be possible for political actors to improve future programs. The objective of research are the key areas of occupational equal opportunity policies, that means outlines, laws and programs that intend an egalitarian participation of women and men in gainful work addressing the welfare triangle between state, market and family. For Switzerland there will be research on antidiscrimination and active promotion of women for the private sector, the arrangements of the framework and the programs for reconciliation of family and work as well as the national program for equal opportunities of the universities as an example of active promotion of equality in the public sector. Agenda setting, political genesis and steering mechanisms of these policies are hardly analyzed. Central characteristic of equal opportunities policy are their link with normative - partly ambivalent - visions, unclear goals and interdependencies with other political areas. This leads to multiple choices and combinations of steering mechanisms (active and passive hierarchical regulations, promotion with sensitization and consulting), that emerges in stronger or softer regulations. We assume that political goals and the development of steering mechanisms can be influenced by the framing of topics, ideas and interests, political proportions and institutional frameworks. We study the policy formulation of problems and solutions, the constellation of actors and the steering mechanisms. Therefore we survey and classify political initiatives of the three areas for the federation and the cantons of Switzerland. We will choose a range of relevant cases for a detailed process construction that differ in their steering mechanisms. This will be done with standardized surveys, expert interviews and analysis of political documents. The collected case studies will be standardized by "Actor Process Event Schemes", will be subject of social network analysis and comparative analysis. Also part of the project are comparative analysis of the steering mechanisms of the same policies in other countries. According to a "most similar systems design" the neighboring countries Austria and Germany possess similar context conditions concerning their gender arrangements. But they feature different political answers and development paths, so that the "antidiscrimination profile" of Switzerland faces a "reconciliation profile" of Austria and Germany. We will analyze which factors could be crucial for the development of different profiles and what could be used for successful interventions in Switzerland. In more general the comparative analysis could also elaborate potentials and ideas for improvement of political learning.

In Austria, equal opportunity policies in the public sector are hardly topic of research, although the public sector functions as political institution as a role model for the organization of work and is an important employment sector for women. The comparison of institutional and substantial measures of equal opportunity policies in public administration between Switzerland, Germany and Austria is based on similar gender regimes but different policy and governance regimes. The inter-country comparison is embedded in a project on the development and governance of Swiss equal opportunity policies.Public administration in Austria is characterized by strongly formalized equal opportunity policies (as well as in Germany). This is encouraged by Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Budgeting policies. The Austrian government action plans for women and work differ between the ministries and include regulations of minor practical relevance but can be estimated as effective because of the integrated monitoring of the compulsory gender ratios in employment. By this, womens quotas that are provided by the equal treatment act become binding commitments. This is also supported by the institutionalization and networking of agents for equal opportunities. The regulations and programs in Austria differ from the Swiss Case in the way that they are much more oriented on the reconciliation of work and family. But compared to the private sector in Austria they include more anti-discrimination rules for recruitment and career processes. The statistical findings that more women reach leading positions in the Austrian public administration is not necessarily the effect of better policies but is related to the structure of the public administration: In Austria 30% of the employers in public administration are teachers with a relatively high proportion of women in leading positions, meanwhile teachers are excluded in Germany and Switzerland.