Erica Kuster was born in Basel in 1941 and grew up in a bourgeois, patriarchal family in St. Gallen. Her father was a politically active paediatrician and dominated as head of the family. Her mother had fought hard for her education from a young age – something that was not at all a matter of course at the time.… Read more
‘The crux of equality lies in the family. If differences are made there, they are almost impossible to undo.’
Born in Bern, Ruth Reusser was the youngest of three girls in a family where the advancement of daughters was taken for granted.… Read more
A conversation with former Federal Councillor Ruth Dreifuss reveals how closely social and political change are linked. She was a member of the Swiss government from 1993 to 2002. Born in 1940, she grew up in a middle-class family with loving parents who fulfilled the traditional roles of father and mother.… Read more
Gabrielle Nanchen was one of the first ten women elected to the Swiss National Council in 1971. Her biography is a testament to the long and often difficult road women have had to travel in Switzerland to achieve their rights and political participation.… Read more
“Emilie Kempin-Spyri was the first private lecturer in law. And I was the second”, said Professor Beatrice Weber-Dürler in her speech at the inauguration of the memorial to Emilie Kempin-Spyri in 2008, almost 100 years apart.
Beatrice Weber-Dürler attended a girls’ high school in Zurich, where – unlike the boys at the boys’ high school – she learned nothing about political science or the art of political argumentation.… Read more
“Politics is a democratic means of achieving the common good. Politics done right.”
Chiara Cortesi from Ticino began her political career in the 1980s. Despite the difficulties she faced during her studies, including gender discrimination, she persevered and fought for what she believed in.… Read more