Swiss Review 1/2021

Swiss Review / February 2021 / No.1 However, not only havewomen been poorly represented in parliament for a long time, but there has traditionally been a dearth of female candidates. Flavia Kleiner believes that societal constraints are the main factor hindering female involvement. “It is not easy to reconcile a political career with family life. Meetings and events often take place in the evening or at weekends. In addition, Swiss political culture is still male-dominated with its attendant rough and tum- ble. And then we have the media, who are less forgiving to- wards women.” With political office therefore less of a draw for women, more of an effort is needed to convince would-be candi- dates to put themselves forward, says Sarah Bütikofer, a po- litical scientist who is conducting a study on female politi- cal participation. Bütikofer believes that political parties are best placed to act: “Switzerland’s political parties are organised along cantonal lines. They have the power to put women’s names forward on promising party lists.” Anyone who wants to be elected to the National Coun- cil or the Council of States normally needs experience at cantonal level. Very fewpeople are catapulted directly into the federal parliament. “It is in the national arena where a party’s political leaders are active,” says Bütikofer. “Hence, women must be given opportunities at cantonal and mu- nicipal level, so that we have a conveyor belt of female pol- iticians who are ready for higher office.” Too cautious? Or less confident? Yet, it is precisely at cantonal level where Switzerland is still a longway fromachieving gender equality. In 2019, women accounted for 25 to 29 per cent of politicians in the cantonal parliaments. Basel-Stadt managed to increase the propor- tion of females in its cantonal parliament to 42 per cent at the end of October 2020. But meanwhile Aargau again elected a cantonal government comprised exclusively of men. The proportion of women in Aargau’s cantonal par- liament even fell. For Martina Sigg, leader of the FDP women’s group in Aargau, this is an unsatisfactory state of affairs. “We are ac- tually finding it quite hard to recruit women in some dis- tricts of Aargau,” she says. “Women are a lot more cautious and less sure of their political abilities. We often have to make the first contact and persuade them ourselves. They rarely come to us.” Which is why Sigg believes campaigns like “Helvetia ruft” are important. However, when Jean- Pierre Gallati from the SVP and Yvonne Feri from the SP faced each other in an election run-off for the Aargau can- tonal government in 2019, Sigg voted for the male candi- date. “The SVPwere entitled to the seat, plus I thinkGallati was better suited for the job. Voting along party or gender lines –which ismore important? Party lines inmy view. But I would naturally have been very happy if the SVP had nom- inated an able female candidate.” Non-party politics Standing for election is one thing, voting is another. Swiss women have tended to be slightly reluctant voters. Accord- ing to the Swiss Election Study (Selects), there was a 49 per cent turnout among male voters in the 2019 federal elec- tions. Female voter turnout was only 41 per cent. Could it be that woman are turned off by the institu- tionalised nature of politics? After all, the 2019 woman’s strike, which sawhundreds of thousands of female protest- ers take to the streets, showed that women are more than willing to speak up when they want. Lisa Gafner: “I took part in the women’s strike myself. For the past two years, I have also been involved in the EKdM [Eidgenössische Kom- mission dini Mueter] – a pressure group that we set up af- ter thewomen’s strike to get a better deal forworkingmoth- ers.” Gafner, 38, has consciously decided not to join any po- litical party. “I have nowish to get drawn into petty infight- ing, personality cults, or toeing the party line. The issues are what matter to me.” Gafner’s pressure group is lobby- ing on these issues. “What the EKdM is doing is one thing. But run for a political office? Never. A structured environ- ment like that has no appeal. And it would be too hard to reconcile work and family life.” National Councillor Kathrin Bertschy is in favour of al- ternative forms of political participation. Nevertheless, she adds: “It is important that women are represented in par- liament instead of just leaving the decisions to men. Be- cause parliament iswherewomen can bring about themost change by improving the legislation and parameters that matter.” EVA HIRSCHI IS A FREEL ANCE JOURNAL IST BASED IN L AUSANNE. Flavia Kleiner says that women are play- ing catch-up: “Men have had a 170- year head start.” Katrin Bertschy on the increasing pro- portion of women in parliament: “This sends a strong mes- sage and was well overdue.” Sarah Bütikofer: “The political parties have the power to put women’s names forward.” 7