Switzerland's Gender Guideline Values for Company Boards (Art. 734f/734e CO)

Switzerland's 2020 corporate-law reform ("Aktienrechtsrevision") introduced Articles 734e and 734f of the Code of Obligations, effective 1 January 2021. Large public companies — those exceeding two of three thresholds (balance sheet over CHF 20 million, revenue over CHF 40 million, or more than 250 average full-time employees) in two consecutive years — must aim for at least 30% representation of each gender on the board of directors (5-year transition, binding from financial year 2026) and at least 20% in executive management (10-year transition, from 2031).
There is no legal penalty for missing the guideline values. Non-compliant companies must instead disclose the gap in their annual remuneration report and describe the reasons and any measures taken to increase representation of the underrepresented sex — a "comply-or-explain" model rather than a hard quota.
The independent schillingreport 2026 (Guido Schilling AG) found women held 34% of board seats across the sample (36% among SMI blue-chip companies), with 71% of covered companies already meeting the 30% board guideline ahead of the 2026 deadline. Executive management, however, moved the other way: the overall share fell to 27%, and among SMI companies only 25% of newly filled executive roles went to women, down from 28% the year before.
Caveat: because the mechanism carries no sanction beyond disclosure, and executive-management progress is going into reverse even as board-level numbers improve, the guideline values illustrate a clear board/executive gap and the limits of a disclosure-only enforcement design.

Read the full analysis: https://www.schillingreport.ch/en/schillingreport-2026/