Sylvie Durrer

Director of the Federal Office for Gender Equality

Sylvie Durrer has been director of the Federal Office for Gender Equality since 2011. She previously held a similar position for the Canton of Vaud. Ms. Durrer has an in-depth knowledge of a wide range of gender issues and public policy on equal opportunities.

She has chaired various committees at the cantonal, inter-cantonal and national levels, dealing in particular with issues of equal pay and of domestic violence. She is Co-Chairman of the Swiss Conference of Gender Equality Delegates. She has also been a member of the Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Europe and Head of the Swiss Delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

In the first phase of her career, she taught and carried out research in French linguistics principally at the Universities of Lausanne and Zurich, in which she rised to an Assistant Professorship. As an academic expert, she was Co-Director of the Lake Geneva Gender Studies Doctoral Program from 2001 to 2004.