Post by Advance – Gender Equality in Business

Yesterday, we launched our new whitepaper on digital skills and the gender gap in Switzerland, co-authored with the Universität Zürich | University of Zurich, #Swiss_Job_Market_Monitor (SJMM), and built on over one million Swiss job advertisements analyzed across a decade. A big thank you to Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. #Marlis_Buchmann for presenting the key findings, and her two co-authors Dr. Johanna Bolli-Kemper and Dr. Andrea Ghisletta.   The conversation in the room truly made the data come alive! A warm thank you to Kanton Zürich, Innovation Zurich for the support, to IBM Switzerland for the hosting, and to our panelists and speakers Samuel Mösle, Keira Correll Rodriguez Gomez, Dennis Scheuer, and Jenny Mathias, for bringing practice, depth, honesty, and real optimism to the room, and to Alexandra Rhiner for keeping a highly energetic conversation moving.   Here are our three key takeaways from the research and from the panel:   🔷 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 Demand for digital skills in management has risen by 55% over the past decade. Women's share of management has moved from 33% to 37%. Close that gap deliberately: audit where advanced digital skills are concentrated in your organization, ensure access to digital work is not shaped by unconscious bias, and build your AI approach with inclusion by design from governance to tools to teams. The more diverse the people shaping AI, the less it amplifies existing gaps.   🔷 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 AI adoption is not an IT project. It is a culture shift. The companies moving fastest are making it an all-employee effort, creating the psychological safety to learn by doing, and accepting that it is fine not to have all the answers yet. What matters is that leaders point the direction, walk it first, and hold the organization accountable for inclusive outcomes.   🔷 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞 Invest in digital proficiency across your full workforce, not just in select functions. And pair it with the competencies no algorithm replaces: analytical thinking, critical judgment, and the confidence to question what AI produces.   👉 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰.   👉 Download the new whitepaper THE DEMAND FOR DIGITAL SKILLS: GENDER GAPS ACROSS OCCUPATIONS AND MANAGEMENT ROLES here: https://lnkd.in/ebNs7kkr   Together, we #advance faster! Photo credits: Sabrina Durante   #DigitalProficiency #DigitalSkills #AI #AILiteracy #GenderEquality #Switzerland #FutureOfWork #WomenInLeadership #FutureOfWork #ThoughtLeadership  Kanton Zürich Anita Martinecz Fehér Margit Vunder Sabine Lehner Charleen Englert, Gabriele Baumgartner, Sophia Seidelmann, Alkistis Petropaki Faye Witteveen Jasmin Danzeisen