Equality between the sexes

The "Gender Gap Index", a survey of 58 countries worldwide published by the World Economic Forum for the first time in 2005, put Switzerland in 34th position. Although it did well for women's health and well-being and relatively well for political empowerment, it had much worse scores for women's economic participation and educational attainment. The top five places in the index were taken by Nordic countries; the UK was 8th and the US 17th.

Women are more likely to give up school

Although men and women have equal educational opportunities, women were much more likely than men to give up school after the 9 compulsory years.

However, in the past two decades the gap has narrowed considerably as women have profited from the upsurge in training opportunities. In 1980 just under 18% of women took no further training after leaving school; by 2001 the figure was just under two per cent, only marginally greater than the proportion of men.

Nevertheless, women tend to follow shorter courses than men do. The number of women who have completed tertiary level education - university or specialised institutes - is much lower than the number of men. Even in the 25-34 year age group, the figures in 2000 were 34% for men and 14% for women - the biggest discrepancy in all the OECD countries.