Swiss American Historical Society Review
Keywords
Swiss women, women's suffrage, women's rights, equal rights
Abstract
PART TWO: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
To provide a taste of the thinking of Swiss people before Iris von Roten published her seminal work Frauen im Laufgitter in 1958 in Bern's Hallwag Verlag, some primary documents shall be presented. A first set reflects the parliamentary debate that was held on 12 December 1945 in the Swiss National Council, composed of the elected representatives of the cantons or member states of the Confederation. A second document is a statement of the theologian Arthur Rich (1910-1992) published in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung in November 1966. It responded to a circular which Zurich's anti-suffrage women had sent to the Reformed clergy to influence the cantonal referendum on women's voting rights. The documents are on the one hand impressive in their seriousness, on the other they stem truly from another century, given the road the Swiss polity has since then traveled due to the untiring efforts of numerous women and men, among whom the work of Iris von Roten was an important, if long submerged element.
Recommended Citation
Schelbert, Leo
(2008)
"Swiss Women's Suffrage Debated: Two Examples,"
Swiss American Historical Society Review: Vol. 44:
No.
2, Article 9.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol44/iss2/9