Biography
Sylvie Durrer has been Director of the Federal Office for Gender Equality FOGE since 2011. She previously held a similar position in the canton of Vaud. She has chaired various commissions at cantonal, inter-cantonal and national levels, dealing in particular with issues of equal pay and domestic violence.
Sylvie Durrer is currently Vice-President of the Swiss Conference of Equality Delegates (CSDE). At the international level, she chairs the Steering Committee of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) initiative, launched by ILO, UN Women and OECD. In addition, she is a regular member of the Swiss delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a member of the Bureau of the OECD Working Party on Gender Mainstreaming and Governance (WPGMG) as well as a member of the Board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
In 2018 her office was distinguished with a UN Public Service Award for its large-scale public sector initiative called SAGE “Switzerland Advancing Gender Equal Pay”.
Sylvie Durrer first pursued an academic career in the field of French linguistics. She holds a PhD in linguistics. She is 60 years old, married and the mother of three adult children.