Background

Although the constitution of the Helvetic Republic of 1798, the liberal cantonal constitutions of the 19th century or even the federal constitutions of 1848 and 1874 did not explicitly exclude women from political rights, their codetermination remained out of the question. As early as 1833, the municipal law of Bern granted landed women codetermination in the Communal Assembly, although they had to be represented by a man. The requirement for representation was abolished in 1852, although the right of single women and widows to participate was restricted, before being scrapped entirely in 1887. In the early 19th century, it was rare for women to demand political rights. Rather, they far more frequently demanded improvements to civil rights.

Initial attempts, setbacks and successes

Probably inspired by the arrival of the “first wave” of the women’s rights movement from the US, the women of Zurich demanded women’s suffrage throughout Switzerland for the first time in 1868, on the occasion of an amendment to the cantonal constitution – albeit to no avail. Starting from the turn of the century, a growing number of associations and the Socialist Party (SP) began to back women’s suffrage. In the two decades that followed, two motions were submitted to the National Council and one petition to the Federal Council with around 250,000 signatures and initiatives were also launched in multiple cantons. However, all of this failed to have the desired effect. Between the two world wars, fascist and conservative tendencies in society were on the rise – a backwards step, including in matters of women’s rights.

After the second world war, during which women made enormous contributions, many European countries granted women the right to vote. However in Switzerland, multiple cantonal projects fell through and, even at the federal level, the view that women’s suffrage had been introduced too soon was widespread. When the Federal Council then expressed a desire to introduce a civil protection obligation for women, multiple associations took to the barricades. As the Federal Council viewed this as a threat to its proposal, it put forward draft legislation for introducing the right of women to vote in referenda and elections, which was ratified by both councils but firmly rejected at the ballot box. NULLtheless, there were initial signs of success: Vaud, Geneva and Neuchâtel introduced women’s suffrage on the cantonal level on 1 February 1959. In 1966, the canton of Basel Stadt followed suit as the first of the German-speaking cantons.

The breakthrough

When the Federal Council signed the European Convention on Human Rights in 1968, with certain reservations regarding the political rights of women, a wave of indignation ensued. This spurred the Federal Council on to hold another referendum on the right of women to vote in referenda and elections, which was ultimately accepted – 53 years after Germany, 52 years after Austria, 27 years after France, 26 years after Italy and 78 years after New Zealand, the first country in the world to introduce women’s suffrage in 1893. With 65.9% in favour, Article 74 of the Swiss Federal Constitution of 29 May 1874 was amended. The first female members of parliament were welcomed in the first winter session of 1971. The final cantons then followed in introducing the right of women to vote in elections and referenda. There was one exception: the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden first introduced women’s suffrage in November 1990, when the Federal Supreme Court granted the women of Appenzell the right to vote in the so-called Frauenstimmrecht-Entscheid.