Women's suffrage in Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Women's suffrage in Switzerland
was introduced at the federal level for the first time after the February 7, 1971, voting in a proportion that was the exact inverse of that reported at the time of the February 1, 1959, voting (rejected 2 to 1).
an countries is the importance of direct democracy in the political system. In fact, the introduction of federal and cantonal universal suffrage
necessitated the vote of the majority of the electors, men in this case, for a referendum. Moreover, a new federal constitutional reform must likewise be approved by the majority of the cantons. Another reason is the tight connection, since the constitution of 1848, between the right to vote and military service in the Swiss army, traditionally reserved for men.
, the upper house, in the same period. In 2008 there were 59 women out of 200 members total (29.5%) in the National Council.
, Elisabeth Kopp
, served from 1984 to 1989. Ruth Dreifuss
, the second female member, served from 1993 to 1999, and was the first president of the Swiss Confederation in 1999. Two women, Micheline Calmy-Rey
and Ruth Metzler-Arnold, served on the Swiss Federal Council from 1999 to 2003; when Ruth Metzler-Arnold failed to be re-elected in 2003, the number fell back to one. With the election of Doris Leuthard
in 2006, there were again two, and, after January 2008, three with the arrival of Eveline Widmer Schlumpf
. On September 22, 2010, the Federal Council changed to a female majority with the addition of Simonetta Sommaruga
. Micheline Calmy-Rey
was elected President of the Confederation in 2011.
During the first world war, the movement came to a halt, as more critical problems came to the forefront. Among others, the women's alliances carried out the collective welfare work during the war, since Switzerland at this time still had no social insurance
.
In the Swiss General Strike of 1918, women's suffrage was the second of nine demands. In December, the first two advances for women's suffrage at the federal level were made by the National Councillors Herman Greulich (SP) and Emil Göttisheim (FDP). In two motions, the Federal Council was called upon to "introduce a report and motion regarding the constitutional granting of the same voting rights and eligibility for election to female Swiss citizens as to male Swiss citizens."
Half a year later, in June 1919, 158 women's associations prepared a petition to grant more importance to the two motions. As a result, the motions of Greulich and Göttisheim were accepted by the National Council and taken over by the Federal Council for completion. However, the responsible Federal Councillor, Heinrich Häberlin (FDP), postponed the action, due to "urgent problems." Fifteen years later, in 1934, Häberlin handed over the unfinished business to his successor with the instruction, "The material for women's suffrage lies in the middle drawer to the right of your desk."
In 1923, a group of women from Bern prepared a constitutional complaint. They wanted to exercise their voting rights in community, cantonal, and federal matters; however, they were rejected by the federal court by reference to Gewohnheitsrecht (customary law).
Five years later, Leonard Jenni applied to the Federal Council with a petition demonstrating that the concept of "Stimmbürger" (elector) in the German language included both sexes. The petition was rejected on the following grounds:
"When one now asserts that the concept is also supposed to include Swiss women, then one oversteps the boundaries of the allowable interpretation and thereby commits an act that contradicts the sense of the constitution..."
In the summer of the same year, the Schweizerische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit (SAFFA), the Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work, took place. A memorable vehicle accompanied the procession; a snail named "women's suffrage." The organizers were strongly criticized for the snail and some critics saw this entirely as a sign of the political immaturity of the women.
In 1929, the SVF launched a new petition for women's suffrage and this time achieved a record number of signatures that even exceeded the required number of signatures for a Volksinitiative, or peoples' initiative: 170,397 signatures of women and 78,840 signatures of men. The Katholische Frauenbund (Catholic Women's League) distanced itself explicitly from the demands of the other women's associations. Also, other oppositional organizations reacted and in 1931 the Schweizer Liga gegen das politische Frauenstimmrecht (The Swiss League Against Political Women's Suffrage) took a petition to the Federal Council: "Position Against the Politicization of Swiss Women." Again and again the women and men of the Liga, and above all Emma Rufer, wrote to the Federal Council and the parliament and implored them to desist from the subject.
During the 1930s and early 1940s, the effort for women's suffrage was once again overshadowed by international events such as the economic crisis and the second world war. Women were called upon many times during these years to "protect democracy," to which the women's alliances advocating voting rights responded, first they must have democratic rights at their disposal.
Toward the end of the second world war, the question arose again; in particular, middle-class women, in a counter-move to their entry in the military Frauenhilfsdienst (Women's Support Service), demanded their democratic rights. In 1944, National Councillor Emil Oprecht requested in a postulate the introduction of women's suffrage, because important women's political issues were close to the political agenda of the day: old age and survivors' insurance, motherhood insurance, and family protection. The postulate was supported by the BSF with a petition of February 6, 1945 in the name of 38 women's alliances. The Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Frauenverein (Swiss Women's Association for the Public Good) did not express an opinion on the question; however, the Katholische Frauenbund departed from the conservative line of the Catholic church and gave its members a free voice. In 1945, the Schweizerische Aktionskomitee für Frauenstimmrecht (Swiss Action Committee for Women's Suffrage) was established as an opinion-forming instrument.
In 1948, celebrations of the one hundred-year existence of the federal constitution were carried out, and "Switzerland, a people of brothers," celebrated. The women's associations rephrased the motto as "a people of brothers without sisters," and symbolically presented the Federal Council a map of Europe with a black blot in the middle. At this time, all European countries, with the exception of Switzerland and Liechtenstein
, had established women's suffrage. Like the SAFFA snail previously, this symbolic map was interpreted by critics as a sign of the political immaturity of the women.
In the year 1950, the Federal Council put a report before the Federal Assembly about the procedure for coming to an agreement for the establishment of women's voting rights. In 1951, the Schweizerische Frauenkreis gegen das Frauenstimmrecht (The Swiss Women's Circle Against Women's Voting Rights) under the leadership of Dora Wipf, applied to the Federal Council with a letter: "...We do not believe that our country requires politicized women..."
A year later, in 1952, Antoinette Quinche, president of the Schweizerische Aktionskomitee für Frauenstimmrecht, and 1414 other disputants from her community, demanded to be entered into the voters' register. With the argument that the cantonal constitution at that time did not explicitly exclude women's voting rights, they went with their demand before the Federal Court. Again as in 1923, they were rejected by reference to Gewohnheitsrecht (customary law).
In 1957 a plebiscite was held, by which Zivilschutzdienst (civil defense service) became obligatory for all Swiss women. During the plebiscite, a scandal took place: supported by the community council, the women of the Unterbäch community of Wallis (Valais) voted. The community council explained that according to the terms of the constitution, the community is legally authorized to set up the voting register.
Community president and chief councillor Paul Zenhäusern and the Wallis National Councillor Peter von Roten were the initiators of the women's vote. 33 of the 84 potentially eligible Unterbäch women took part; Katharina Zenhäusern, wife of the community president of Unterbäch, was the first Swiss woman who placed a ballot in a Swiss ballot box. The women's votes, that were collected in a separate ballot box (the men's votes thus remained valid) had to be annulled, because the women's participation at that time still had no legal basis. Nevertheless, these first national women's votes wrote Swiss history, because they gave an important push for the later official establishment of women's suffrage. Thus Unterbäch was the first community in Switzerland to establish the communal voting and election rights for women - in spite of the ban by the Wallis executive council.
After the canton of Basel-Stadt (Bâle-Ville) empowered the three city communities to establish women's suffrage in 1957, the community of Riehen was the first in Switzerland to introduce women's suffrage on June 26, 1958. In the same year, Gertrud Späth-Schweizer was in the city council and therefore the first Swiss woman elected to a governing body.
In 1958, the Federal parliament voted for the first time for a popular vote on the establishment of women's suffrage for national issues; the proposal was accepted in the National Council with 96 to 43 votes, and in the Ständerat (Council of States) with 25 to 12 votes.
On February 1, 1959, the first people's vote on national women's suffrage decisively failed with a voter participation of 67 percent in the people's vote (33% to 66%) and cantonal vote ( 3 to 16 plus 6 half cantons). Protest actions and women's strikes followed in all of Switzerland. Only in the cantons of Waadt (Vaud), Neuenburg (Neuchâtel), and Genf (Genève) did a majority speak for women's suffrage.
The proponents, however, were able to record their first success at the cantonal level; on February 1, 1959, the canton of Waadt/Vaud accepted women's suffrage. The canton of Neuenburg/Neuchâtel followed on September 27, 1959, and Genf/Genève on March 6, 1960, as well as the first German Swiss cantons of Basel-Stadt/Bâle-Ville (June 26, 1966), and Basel-Land/Bâle-Campagne (June 23, 1968). Likewise, before the establishment of national women's suffrage, women in the cantons of Tessin (October 19, 1969), Wallis/Valais (April 12, 1970), and Zürich (November 15, 1970) were given voting and election rights.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
was introduced at the federal level for the first time after the February 7, 1971, voting in a proportion that was the exact inverse of that reported at the time of the February 1, 1959, voting (rejected 2 to 1).
The Swiss Political System and Universal Suffrage
The principal reason for the delay of the Swiss relative to the other EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries is the importance of direct democracy in the political system. In fact, the introduction of federal and cantonal universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
necessitated the vote of the majority of the electors, men in this case, for a referendum. Moreover, a new federal constitutional reform must likewise be approved by the majority of the cantons. Another reason is the tight connection, since the constitution of 1848, between the right to vote and military service in the Swiss army, traditionally reserved for men.
Women in the Federal Assembly of Switzerland
The number of women in the Swiss National Council, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, went from 10 in 1971 to 50 in 2003, and from 1 to 11 in the 46-member Swiss Council of StatesSwiss Council of States
The Council of States of Switzerland is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors....
, the upper house, in the same period. In 2008 there were 59 women out of 200 members total (29.5%) in the National Council.
Women in the Swiss Federal Council
The first female member of the seven-member Swiss Federal CouncilSwiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....
, Elisabeth Kopp
Elisabeth Kopp
Elisabeth Kopp is a Swiss politician and the first woman elected to the Swiss Federal Council .Elisabeth Kopp grew up in Bern. After finishing her law studies in 1960 she married Hans W. Kopp...
, served from 1984 to 1989. Ruth Dreifuss
Ruth Dreifuss
Ruth Dreifuss is a Swiss politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. She was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1993 to 2002, representing the Canton of Geneva)....
, the second female member, served from 1993 to 1999, and was the first president of the Swiss Confederation in 1999. Two women, Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey is the President of the Confederation in Switzerland, head of government. She is also Switzerland's foreign minister as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. She has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2003, and was President of the...
and Ruth Metzler-Arnold, served on the Swiss Federal Council from 1999 to 2003; when Ruth Metzler-Arnold failed to be re-elected in 2003, the number fell back to one. With the election of Doris Leuthard
Doris Leuthard
Doris Leuthard is a Swiss politician and lawyer. Since 1 August 2006, she has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council. From 1 August 2006 till 31 October 2010 she was head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs...
in 2006, there were again two, and, after January 2008, three with the arrival of Eveline Widmer Schlumpf
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is a Swiss lawyer, politician, and member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2008. She is currently the head of the Federal Department of Finance ....
. On September 22, 2010, the Federal Council changed to a female majority with the addition of Simonetta Sommaruga
Simonetta Sommaruga
Simonetta Sommaruga is a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. She is a member of the Swiss Federal Council, the federal government of Switzerland, and head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police .- Early life :Born in Zug, Sommaruga grew up with two brothers and...
. Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey is the President of the Confederation in Switzerland, head of government. She is also Switzerland's foreign minister as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. She has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2003, and was President of the...
was elected President of the Confederation in 2011.
The Constitution of 1848
The constitution of 1848, the origin of modern Switzerland proclaims the equality in the eyes of the law of all human beings (in German, Menschen) but does not explicitly include women in that equality. However, The laws that followed that constitution rigidly placed women in a situation of legal inferiority.Debate Over Women's Rights 1860-1887
From 1860 to 1874, the first feminist movements were organized and, contemporaneously, the first constitutional revision of 1874; the political rights of women became the object of numerous discussions. Despite this, the new constitution did not produce any improvement in this sense. In 1886, a first petition was presented to the Federal Assembly from a group of eminent women by Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin. The attention attracted by this initiative opened the way for the first article about the claims of women in a large daily, Ketzerische Neujahrsgedanken einer Frau (Heretical New Years' Thoughts of a Woman), by Meta von Salis published in 1887 by the Zürcher Post. In the same year, Émilie Kempin-Spyri demanded before the federal court the right to become a lawyer. Her request was refused.Women's Rights Organizations 1894-1898
In 1894, von Salis organized meetings in the principal cities of Switzerland on the theme of the right to vote for women. Her conferences had little success and she often had to confront numerous demonstrations of hostility. Two years later, in 1896, the first congress of Swiss women was held in Geneva. Numerous male speakers called for an alliance between men and women, and, at the same time, for moderation in the demands. The importance that these demands acquired in the public debate led to the creation of the first parliamentary commission for the "woman question."Advances and Resistance 1900-1959
Around the turn of the century, women organized in the entire country, and formed various women's organizations, for, as well as against, women's suffrage. The two most important were the Bund Schweizerischer Frauenvereine (BSF), Confederation of Swiss Women's Associations, under the leadership of Helene von Mülinen, and the Schweizerische Verband für Frauenstimmrecht (SVF), the Swiss Alliance for Women's Suffrage.During the first world war, the movement came to a halt, as more critical problems came to the forefront. Among others, the women's alliances carried out the collective welfare work during the war, since Switzerland at this time still had no social insurance
Social insurance
Social insurance is any government-sponsored program with the following four characteristics:* the benefits, eligibility requirements and other aspects of the program are defined by statute;...
.
In the Swiss General Strike of 1918, women's suffrage was the second of nine demands. In December, the first two advances for women's suffrage at the federal level were made by the National Councillors Herman Greulich (SP) and Emil Göttisheim (FDP). In two motions, the Federal Council was called upon to "introduce a report and motion regarding the constitutional granting of the same voting rights and eligibility for election to female Swiss citizens as to male Swiss citizens."
Half a year later, in June 1919, 158 women's associations prepared a petition to grant more importance to the two motions. As a result, the motions of Greulich and Göttisheim were accepted by the National Council and taken over by the Federal Council for completion. However, the responsible Federal Councillor, Heinrich Häberlin (FDP), postponed the action, due to "urgent problems." Fifteen years later, in 1934, Häberlin handed over the unfinished business to his successor with the instruction, "The material for women's suffrage lies in the middle drawer to the right of your desk."
In 1923, a group of women from Bern prepared a constitutional complaint. They wanted to exercise their voting rights in community, cantonal, and federal matters; however, they were rejected by the federal court by reference to Gewohnheitsrecht (customary law).
Five years later, Leonard Jenni applied to the Federal Council with a petition demonstrating that the concept of "Stimmbürger" (elector) in the German language included both sexes. The petition was rejected on the following grounds:
"When one now asserts that the concept is also supposed to include Swiss women, then one oversteps the boundaries of the allowable interpretation and thereby commits an act that contradicts the sense of the constitution..."
In the summer of the same year, the Schweizerische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit (SAFFA), the Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work, took place. A memorable vehicle accompanied the procession; a snail named "women's suffrage." The organizers were strongly criticized for the snail and some critics saw this entirely as a sign of the political immaturity of the women.
In 1929, the SVF launched a new petition for women's suffrage and this time achieved a record number of signatures that even exceeded the required number of signatures for a Volksinitiative, or peoples' initiative: 170,397 signatures of women and 78,840 signatures of men. The Katholische Frauenbund (Catholic Women's League) distanced itself explicitly from the demands of the other women's associations. Also, other oppositional organizations reacted and in 1931 the Schweizer Liga gegen das politische Frauenstimmrecht (The Swiss League Against Political Women's Suffrage) took a petition to the Federal Council: "Position Against the Politicization of Swiss Women." Again and again the women and men of the Liga, and above all Emma Rufer, wrote to the Federal Council and the parliament and implored them to desist from the subject.
During the 1930s and early 1940s, the effort for women's suffrage was once again overshadowed by international events such as the economic crisis and the second world war. Women were called upon many times during these years to "protect democracy," to which the women's alliances advocating voting rights responded, first they must have democratic rights at their disposal.
Toward the end of the second world war, the question arose again; in particular, middle-class women, in a counter-move to their entry in the military Frauenhilfsdienst (Women's Support Service), demanded their democratic rights. In 1944, National Councillor Emil Oprecht requested in a postulate the introduction of women's suffrage, because important women's political issues were close to the political agenda of the day: old age and survivors' insurance, motherhood insurance, and family protection. The postulate was supported by the BSF with a petition of February 6, 1945 in the name of 38 women's alliances. The Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Frauenverein (Swiss Women's Association for the Public Good) did not express an opinion on the question; however, the Katholische Frauenbund departed from the conservative line of the Catholic church and gave its members a free voice. In 1945, the Schweizerische Aktionskomitee für Frauenstimmrecht (Swiss Action Committee for Women's Suffrage) was established as an opinion-forming instrument.
In 1948, celebrations of the one hundred-year existence of the federal constitution were carried out, and "Switzerland, a people of brothers," celebrated. The women's associations rephrased the motto as "a people of brothers without sisters," and symbolically presented the Federal Council a map of Europe with a black blot in the middle. At this time, all European countries, with the exception of Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
, had established women's suffrage. Like the SAFFA snail previously, this symbolic map was interpreted by critics as a sign of the political immaturity of the women.
In the year 1950, the Federal Council put a report before the Federal Assembly about the procedure for coming to an agreement for the establishment of women's voting rights. In 1951, the Schweizerische Frauenkreis gegen das Frauenstimmrecht (The Swiss Women's Circle Against Women's Voting Rights) under the leadership of Dora Wipf, applied to the Federal Council with a letter: "...We do not believe that our country requires politicized women..."
A year later, in 1952, Antoinette Quinche, president of the Schweizerische Aktionskomitee für Frauenstimmrecht, and 1414 other disputants from her community, demanded to be entered into the voters' register. With the argument that the cantonal constitution at that time did not explicitly exclude women's voting rights, they went with their demand before the Federal Court. Again as in 1923, they were rejected by reference to Gewohnheitsrecht (customary law).
In 1957 a plebiscite was held, by which Zivilschutzdienst (civil defense service) became obligatory for all Swiss women. During the plebiscite, a scandal took place: supported by the community council, the women of the Unterbäch community of Wallis (Valais) voted. The community council explained that according to the terms of the constitution, the community is legally authorized to set up the voting register.
Community president and chief councillor Paul Zenhäusern and the Wallis National Councillor Peter von Roten were the initiators of the women's vote. 33 of the 84 potentially eligible Unterbäch women took part; Katharina Zenhäusern, wife of the community president of Unterbäch, was the first Swiss woman who placed a ballot in a Swiss ballot box. The women's votes, that were collected in a separate ballot box (the men's votes thus remained valid) had to be annulled, because the women's participation at that time still had no legal basis. Nevertheless, these first national women's votes wrote Swiss history, because they gave an important push for the later official establishment of women's suffrage. Thus Unterbäch was the first community in Switzerland to establish the communal voting and election rights for women - in spite of the ban by the Wallis executive council.
After the canton of Basel-Stadt (Bâle-Ville) empowered the three city communities to establish women's suffrage in 1957, the community of Riehen was the first in Switzerland to introduce women's suffrage on June 26, 1958. In the same year, Gertrud Späth-Schweizer was in the city council and therefore the first Swiss woman elected to a governing body.
In 1958, the Federal parliament voted for the first time for a popular vote on the establishment of women's suffrage for national issues; the proposal was accepted in the National Council with 96 to 43 votes, and in the Ständerat (Council of States) with 25 to 12 votes.
On February 1, 1959, the first people's vote on national women's suffrage decisively failed with a voter participation of 67 percent in the people's vote (33% to 66%) and cantonal vote ( 3 to 16 plus 6 half cantons). Protest actions and women's strikes followed in all of Switzerland. Only in the cantons of Waadt (Vaud), Neuenburg (Neuchâtel), and Genf (Genève) did a majority speak for women's suffrage.
The proponents, however, were able to record their first success at the cantonal level; on February 1, 1959, the canton of Waadt/Vaud accepted women's suffrage. The canton of Neuenburg/Neuchâtel followed on September 27, 1959, and Genf/Genève on March 6, 1960, as well as the first German Swiss cantons of Basel-Stadt/Bâle-Ville (June 26, 1966), and Basel-Land/Bâle-Campagne (June 23, 1968). Likewise, before the establishment of national women's suffrage, women in the cantons of Tessin (October 19, 1969), Wallis/Valais (April 12, 1970), and Zürich (November 15, 1970) were given voting and election rights.
Women's Suffrage at the Cantonal Level - 1960s
It was necessary to wait for the 1960s for eight cantons to introduce women's suffrage at the canton level. Twenty more years were necessary for this right to be generalized for all the cantons. In a judgment of November 27, 1990 in the case of Theresa Rohner et consorts contre Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures (ATF 116 Ia 359), the Swiss federal court declared unconstitutional the exclusive male suffrage as had been practiced in the half canton of Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures; the principle of equality between men and women as was guaranteed by the federal constitution ordered, in effect, an interpretation of the Appenzell constitution such that women's suffrage should be equally possible. The voters of the canton had refused women's suffrage in 1959 by 2050 votes to 105.Introduction of Women's Suffrage at the Cantonal Level
| Date | Canton |
|---|---|
| 1 February 1959 | Vaud Vaud Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,... |
| 27 September 1959 | Neuchâtel |
| 6 March 1960 | Genève |
| 26 June 1966 | Bâle-Ville |
| 23 June 1968 | Bâle-Campagne |
| 19 October 1969 | Tessin Tessin -People:* Carl Gustaf Tessin* Nicodemus Tessin the Elder* Nicodemus Tessin the Younger-Switzerland:* Ticino, a canton... |
| 12 April 1970 | Valais Valais The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley... |
| 15 November 1970 | Zurich |
| 7 February 1971 | Argovie, Fribourg, Schaffhouse et Zoug |
| 2 May 1971 | Glaris |
| 6 June 1971 | Soleure |
| 25 October 1971 | Lucerne |
| 12 December 1971 | Berne, Thurgovie |
| 23 January 1972 | Saint-Gall |
| 30 January 1972 | Uri Úri Úriis a village and commune in the comitatus of Pest in Hungary.... |
| 5 March 1972 | Schwytz et les Grisons |
| 30 April 1972 | Nidwald |
| 24 September 1972 | Obwald |
| 30 April 1989 | Appenzell Rhodes-Extérieures |
| 27 November 1990 | Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures (by decision of the federal court) |
| The Jura, created by secession from Berne on 20 March 1977, has always had women's suffrage. | |
External links
- : le 7 février 1971, les femmes accèdent au droit de vote en Suisse, un dossier des archives de la Télévision Suisse Romande