The Swiss labour market is the most discriminatory in Europe in terms of gender equality, according to British magazine The Economistexternal link. It puts Switzerland 21st out of 21 European countries and 26th out of 29 OECDexternal link countries. The main reasons are traditional views of gender roles and women’s difficulties reconciling family and professional life.

The number of new female recruits has virtually doubled in the last two years. The SonntagsBlick newspaper reports that a record 250 women volunteered for service last year, up 35% from the previous year and practically double the 2015 numbers. “Interest in security issues among women has increased with the crises in Europe, in particular Ukraine,” Tibor Szvircsev Tresch, head of military sociology at the Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), told the newspaper.