Would I be where I am?
“Building gender-inclusive workplaces doesn’t just unlock greater prosperity, heighten resilience and boost socioeconomic progress – it should simply be the norm. And we hope that soon this will no longer need to be addressed because it’s the standard.”
Daniel Kessler, Managing Partner BCG Switzerland
If you were a woman, do you think you would have made it to the top leadership ranks? Why (not)?
Independent of gender, with the same career path and choices made, I would be leading BCG Switzerland today, too – gender, origin, skin color, sexual orientation, or religion are irrelevant for a career at BCG.
However, as everybody else, I was socialized in a gendered world with too few female role models in such positions. It’s great to see that women have caught up enormously in recent decades and I’m proud of women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. Despite all the advancements we’re still too far away from reaching our goal and constantly have to renew our call to action to accelerate gender equality.
How have gender stereotypes influenced your career choices and professional development?
And do you feel these stereotypes are present in your current work environment?
We have been proactively addressing gender bias and it has been a journey also here at BCG. I would not talk about stereotypes in this context. When I started in consulting, men were clearly in the majority, especially at the upper levels of the hierarchy. We noticed that women found it more difficult to combine career and family. That’s why we introduced 14 weeks of gender-neutral parental leave, for example.
Still today we are getting more male than female applications for our consulting roles. We have to make a greater effort to hire a similar number of women as men and continue to make an extra push explaining why this is a great career for both female and male talent.
In our work environment, we try to ensure that everyone challenges their own stereotypical thoughts and tries to minimize them – for example, by requiring all employees to undergo unconscious bias training or by promoting equal opportunities.
How do you personally act against gender stereotypes in your environment?
BCG is a company that thrives on diversity of people and thought. As the head of BCG Switzerland, I see my role not only in ensuring that we live up to these values on a daily basis, but also in setting an example for others with my actions – both internally and externally: As a strategy consultancy we also have a responsibility to be a role model for other companies and society as a whole.