Swiss lawmakers call for better pay for women in the army
Parliament says women in the Swiss armed forces should receive higher pay, with the Senate on Tuesday endorsing a motion - already approved by the House of Representatives - aimed at eliminating existing financial disadvantages.
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Swiss lawmakers call for better pay for women in the army
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Allowances based on previous final income remain low for women who worked part‑time before entering the army, according to Marcel Dobler of the centre‑right Radical‑Liberal Party, who introduced the motion. Consequently, a woman with the rank of major who has completed 1,000 days of military service is paid the same as a recruit on her first day.
This inequality must be eliminated, especially as the army wants to increase the number of women in its ranks: the goal is 10%, compared with 1.5% at present.
The Federal Council also supports this motion.
More
Mixed political response to compulsory army orientation day for Swiss women
Return to service for ex-soldiers
The Senate also approved another House of Representative text aimed at strengthening the armed forces. It accepted the motion by Rémy Wyssmann of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to allow former soldiers to return to service.
However, the Senate sent back to the House of Representatives Mauro Poggia’s motion, which seeks to stop French‑Swiss dual nationals from avoiding their military service obligations in Switzerland.
The two parliamentary chambers agree on the content of this proposal, but their opinions differ on procedural details.
More
A day in the life of a woman in the Swiss Army
Adapted from French by AI/sb
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.