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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Schwarzenbach’s America, social revolution, feminine empowerment

College

Humanities

Department

German and Russian

Abstract

Switzerland’s democratic culture is at once both laudable, yet contradictory. Continuing even today and Stemming back to 1378, the mountain Kanton of Appenzell, Switzerland has conducted democratic elections in a communal town-gathering setting. At first glance, one would think that this long-standing tradition of democracy is a sign of laudable democratic progress that was centuries ahead of its European neighbors. Yet, the hypocritical part of Appenzell’s democratic culture is that only beginning in 1994 were women allowed to take part of the Democratic process. Appenzell was the last of the Swiss Kantons to grant their women full suffrage rights. Most of the nation gave these rights to women in 1971, seemingly quite far behind the rest of the Western world. As a result of this interesting situation, I asked the question of whether or not this oppression in the voting arena spilled over into other aspects of political expression for women.

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