ABSTRACT
If the Nordic countries are imagined to be gender superpowers, Switzerland is perceived as a much more conservative country as far as women’s rights are concerned. Freidenvall has discussed how Sweden, unlike Norway, never enacted mandatory gender quotas. In Denmark, gender quotas have also been very controversial and, unlike in Norway and Sweden, there are no gender quotas for political parties. Similar laws have been proposed by the governments in Norway and Sweden and are in preparation. Thus, during the first debates in the Swiss parliament, proponents of the quota system mostly women were repeatedly using the Nordic countries, and Norway in particular, to call into question the Swiss system, which was described in comparison as being much more 'traditional', and by implication more conservative. Since the Swiss debate on female business quotas began in the early 2000s, both supporters and opponents of the quota system have compared Switzerland with other European countries.
