Her election represented a departure from a long precedent of replacing a Member of the Federal Council with someone from the same language group.

On 1 November 2010 she became head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, succeeding Moritz Leuenberger.

She was also the highest-ranking official in the Swiss order of precedence and had the power to act on behalf of the whole Federal Council in emergency situations.

[10] In her capacity as minister, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in 2018 to the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Melinda Gates and Jack Ma.

[12] In July 2022, Swiss media reported that Doris Leuthard was the victim of aggression by her husband in their vacation home in Ticino with a knife.