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Democracy

The first countries to introduce women's suffrage did so at the end of the 19th century. Since 1948, the right to vote has been considered a universal human right. But in Switzerland, men continued to keep women out of politics for decades. Why did the introduction of women's suffrage take so long?

Swiss women obtained the right to vote at the federal level in 1971. But the citizens of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden had to wait until the end of the Cold War. The Swiss government eventually intervened to force local authorities to give women political rights equal to those of men.

In international comparison, women's suffrage was introduced late in Switzerland. The Confederation is very late compared to other Western countries.

Among the arguments put forward by opponents of women's suffrage often came up the idea that women were not made for politics. The posters showed neglected children, falling from their cribs, crying in front of closed doors or infested with flies… Some men were afraid that women would put the family and the household aside by becoming more interested in politics.

Prejudices that were also widespread in other countries.

And yet, Swiss women began very early to claim their right to participate in political life. In 1868, the Genevan Marie-Goegg Pouchoulin founded the International Association of Women, the first international organization for women.

In 1886, the writer Meta von Salis made a lecture tour in Switzerland and repeatedly denounced the unequal treatment suffered by women. In 1896, the first national women's congress was held in Geneva. One of the main demands: the right to vote and to be elected.

If the First World War was the trigger for women's suffrage in other European nations, this was not the case in Switzerland. Attempts made in the cantons have failed. Even after World War II, women's suffrage had no chance of succeeding at the polls, either locally or nationally.

When the Federal Council proposed in 1957 that women should also be obliged to perform a kind of military service, great indignation arose. In a village in the canton of Valais, Unterbäch, a protest vote was talked about even in the international media: women voted illegally by going to the polls and slipping their ballot into it. Their voices were invalidated.

While in other countries female suffrage was introduced by elected political representatives, in Switzerland it was male citizens who had to vote to renounce their own privilege. The question of who belongs to the “people” and enjoys political participation is still on the agenda, as other groups are still excluded from certain political rights, for example foreigners or people with disabilities. .

The introduction of women's suffrage began at the local level: first in certain villages, then in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva. In the 1960s, a new generation of female activists entered the political arena. She no longer relied on her network or lobbying men, but on rebellion.

Women's associations organized demonstrations, groves and actions across the country to demand the right to vote. In 1969, they marched on Federal Bern to make their voices heard.

The Federal Council wanted to sign the European Convention on Human Rights with a clause that excluded women's political rights. But in the face of strong protests, he decided to take a new national vote on women's suffrage in 1971. And this time two-thirds of the voters said "yes".

However, this decision did not resolve all discrimination against women overnight. Until 1976, women were not allowed to accept employment without their husband's consent. And marital rape was not considered an offense until the 1990s. However, women now had a say in trying to improve the situation. Even if parity has not yet been achieved in Swiss political bodies, and by far.

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