Women's suffrage in Switzerland

Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in 1971. In 1991 following a decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, Appenzell Innerrhoden became the last Swiss canton to grant women the vote on local issues.

A previous referendum on women's suffrage was held on 1 February 1959 and was rejected by the majority (67%) of Switzerland's men. Despite this, in some French-speaking cantons women obtained the right to vote in local referendums. The first Swiss woman to hold political office, Trudy Späth-Schweizer, was elected to the municipal government of Riehen in 1958.

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 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 States, the upper house, in the same period. In 2015 there were 64 women out of 200 members (32%) in the National Council and 7 out of 46 in the Council of State.

The first female member of the seven-member Swiss Federal 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.

...
Wikipedia