Swiss Review 1/2021

Swiss Review / February 2021 / No.1 6 ­ unable to work as a judge because she lacked full civil rights. Kempin-Spyri took her case to the Federal Supreme Court – and lost. She argued that the constitution’s provi- sions on suffrage also pertained to women. The presiding judges called this reasoning “both novel and audacious”. A personal price to pay At the turn of the 20th century, more and more women – and men – began campaigning for women’s suffrage. The government in Berne was slow to act, while certain can- tons took matters into their own hands. Social change at the end of the 1960s finally brought thematter to a head at the federal level. In 1990, Appenzell Innerrhoden became the last canton to introduce women’s suffrage, on the or- der of the Federal Supreme Court. “Again, it was a marathon, not a sprint,” says Sahlfeld- Singer, who was emphatically re-elected in 1975 but later resigned. Sahlfeld-Singer’s husband was no longer able to find work in eastern Switzerland because of his wife’s po- litical career. The family left Switzerland and made a new start near Cologne. Sahlfeld-Singer is one of the women who blazed a trail for future generations of female politi- cians in Berne. Commemorative plaques today adorn their old seats in parliament. “Our fight was worth it,” she con- cludes, even if she and her husband paid their own per- sonal price. People now take equality for granted in many areas of life, she adds. “But women must hang on to what they have achieved, otherwise they may lose it again.” More information on 50 years of women’s suffrage in Switzerland: www.ch2021.ch EVA HIRSCHI Some 84 women were elected to the National Council in 2019 – 20 more than in 2015. This is the biggest increase since the introduction of women’s suffrage in 1971. At 42 per cent, female representation in the National Council has never been as high. In the Council of States, where the fe- male contingent had been dwindling over the previous 12 years, the proportion of women climbed to a record 26 per cent. “This sends a strong message and was well overdue,” says Kathrin Bertschy, Green Liberal National Councillor for the canton of Berne. “It reflects a newzeitgeist, of which thewomen’s strikewas symptomatic.” Bertschy is co-chair of alliance f, a cross-party umbrella organisation of wom- en’s associations that are campaigning for better gender bal- ance in parliament. Alliance f is behind the “Helvetia ruft” campaign, which aims to help more women get into poli- tics. “Not only have we urged political parties and those re- sponsible for nominating candidates to put women on party lists where they have good chances, but we have also organ- isedworkshops andmentoring programmes for female can- didates,” explains Flavia Kleiner, co-initiator of “Helvetia ruft”. “It is not about achieving fairness, it is about accu- rately reflecting Switzerland’s demographics. Women ac- count for half of our population after all.” Catching up on 170 years But why has it taken 50 years for parliament to suddenly become noticeablymore female? “Men have had a 170-year head start, whilewomenhave been trying to play catch-up,” says Kleiner. “So we need a little time.” Swiss politics has been a man’s world until now, says Bertschy: “When they gavewomen the right to vote, they forgot to ensure that we were adequately represented to the same extent as the can- tons and the language regions are in the National Council. But the Confederation does love dealing in quotas – I tick one of their boxes as a woman from Berne.” Women with a foot in the political door It is 50 years since women in Switzerland were first entitled to vote and stand for election. Female political participation is growing, but a little more effort is necessary to ensure a proper gender balance. The striking motif of a carpet beater. A campaign poster from the 1947 Zurich referendum on women’s suffrage. Photo: Keystone Argument from the Yes camp – “A free people need free women” (1946) Zurich Museum of Design, poster collection