Digital transformation is often measured in infrastructure, investment, and adoption rates. But a transformation that leaves half the population under-represented in its design, its workforce, and its benefits is not a transformation; it is a transfer of old inequalities onto new technology.
That conviction sits at the heart of a newly published study on gender equality in Switzerland's digital transformation, commissioned by the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Office for Gender Equality as part of the Action Plan for the Swiss Digital Strategy. Ayisha Piotti, co-authored the study alongside Maya Dougoud, Professeure HES associée, Fribourg, Switzerland; Cesla Amarelle, Professeure de droit public à l'Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Mascha Kurpicz-Briki, Professor, Berner Fachhochschule BFH and Ania Tadlaoui-Brahmi, Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud (HEP Vaud), with support from Federal offices across the Swiss administration, including the Federal Statistical Office, OFCOM, the Federal Office of Justice, SECO, SERI, and the Federal Office of Personnel.
Six Strategic Priorities
The study sets out six priorities for embedding gender equality into Switzerland's digital future:
- Digital sovereignty: integrating gender perspectives into how Switzerland asserts control over its digital infrastructure and data.
- Innovation: developing gender-sensitive approaches to research, funding, and product design.
- Future of work: boosting digital skills and supporting an evolving workforce so that technological change widens opportunity for all.
- Economic autonomy: strengthening women's access to and participation in the digital economy.
- Data-driven policy: consolidating indicators so that public action is guided by evidence, not assumption.
- AI governance: establishing robust frameworks for the management and control of AI systems.
The Study Matters Beyond Switzerland
Two features of the study deserve wider attention. The first is the placement of AI governance as a gender-equality priority. Algorithmic systems increasingly mediate access to jobs, credit, and public services; without deliberate oversight, they absorb and amplify existing biases. Treating AI governance as part of the equality agenda rather than a parallel technical track - is the right structural choice, and one other governments would do well to emulate.
The second is the insistence on data. Gender gaps in the digital economy are frequently discussed but inconsistently measured. By consolidating indicators to guide public action, the study converts a value-based conversation into an accountability mechanism something that can be tracked, budgeted for, and delivered.
Inclusive digital policy is not a constraint on innovation; it is a condition of innovation that lasts. We are proud to have contributed to this work, and to the broader effort of ensuring that Switzerland's digital strategy serves all of its citizens.