Swiss Review 1/2021

Swiss Review / February 2021 / No.1 4 Focus SUSANNE WENGER The exact date onwhich Swisswomen became fully fledged citizens of their own countrywas 7 February 1971. It was on this day that amomentous referendumsaw the female pop- ulation gain the right to vote and stand for election at the federal level. In other words, women could now participate in elec- tions and popular votes, run for parliament, and sign petitions for referendums and popular initiatives. Notably, men decided that this could happen, because they alone had exercised full political rights until then. Women had been denied the right to vote and stand for election ever since the creation of the federal Swiss state in 1848. In 1959, most of Switzerland’s menwanted to keep pol- itics exclusively male, with almost 70 per cent voting against women’s suffrage at the federal level. But the flood- gates opened twelve years later. “We are not asking you, we are telling you!” announced Emilie Lieberherr at a large rally on Berne’s Bundesplatz (Lieberherr would later be- come a member of the Council of States for the canton of Zurich). Two thirds of Swissmen obliged by voting yes. The first-ever national elections with female participation took place as early as autumn 1971. Eleven female National Councillors and one female member of the Council of States were “honourably elected”, said the weekly news- reel. The story of a pioneer Two of these female pioneers are still alive: Gabrielle Nanchen from Valais and Hanna Sahlfeld-Singer from the canton of St. Gallen – both fromthe Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP). Hanna Sahlfeld-Singer now lives in her hus- band’s home country, Germany. When she was elected to the National Council, Sahlfeld-Singer, a qualified theolo- gian, was 28 and the mother of a one-year-old child. “My first day in parliament was exciting,” says the now 77-year- old. On entering the Federal Palace for the first time, she was told to use the visitors’ entrance. She can laugh about it now. However, the anecdote shows howmuch opposition she had to overcome. She was a woman pastor with the Reformed Church whowanted tomake a difference in politics. On top of that, she was a working mother married to a foreigner. “This was too much for many people.” In 1970, Sahlfeld-Singer made speeches on Swiss National Day calling for women’s suffrage. They caused quite a stir. Criticism rained down, but not necessarily on her. “People knew that I would not be swayed.” Her husband, himself a church minister, was on the receiving end instead. But her spouse always sup- ported her. Forced to give up her church duties Hanna and Rolf Sahlfeld wanted to share parenting and work responsibilities – an approach that broke the mould. However, Sahlfeld-Singer, who came froma working-class family, had to give up her church position in order to take up her role as National Councillor. That was what the law said – a relic from cultural struggles between church and state. She says it was a ruling aimed at Catholic priests. “For a hundred years, no one thought it would be of rele- vance to a young lady like me.” To ensure that she could work in Berne, Sahlfeld-Singer played the pastor’s wife in- stead – a role that is traditionally unpaid. As National Councillor, Sahlfeld-Singer fought for such issues as bet- It was no accident that women’s suffrage came late to Switzerland It was only 50 years ago in 1971 that Swiss women gained the right to vote and stand for election – after a century of campaigning. Hanna Sahlfeld-Singer was one of the first women elected to the federal par- liament. “It was a marathon, not a sprint,” recalls the former National Councillor, who now lives abroad.