Women, the vote and power

I learned from today's print edition of the Tribune de Genève that tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of women's right to vote in Geneva.  Yes, it was on 6 March 1960 that 55 per cent of the then 100 per cent male electorate granted Swiss women residents of Geneva canton the right to vote.  They were thus able to join their counterparts in Vaud (the first canton to grant women that right) and Neuchâtel (the second) in order to cast their ballots in cantonal elections.  Both Vaud and Neuchâtel said "oui" to women's suffrage a year earlier, in 1959.

It took eleven more years, until 1971, for Swiss women, residents of one of the world's oldest direct democracies, to achieve the right to vote in Swiss federal elections.  Thereafter, Swiss women wasted no time in ensuring that their votes would be taken seriously at all levels by electing women to office.  By 2007, some 36 years later, the Interparliamentary Union ranked Switzerland as 22nd in the world for its proportion of women in parliament.  In the same table, the United Kingdom shared 51st place with the Dominican Republic.  The United States, on the other hand (US Congress = parliament, for this purpose), was ranked 65th.  This is somewhat shameful considering that the United Kingdom passed universal suffrage for all adults over the age of 21 in 1928.  The United States passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting voting rights to women in 1920.

Women's right to vote did not necessarily help woman politicians achieve significant power faster in the United States and the United Kingdom.  The United Kingdom is a special case because the Queen, most definitely a woman, is a constitutional monarch and considered as the ceremonial head of state.  Still, it was also the first country as among the UK, the US and Switzerland to have a woman politician actually in charge of the government.  This occurred when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 as Prime Minister and held that office until 1990.   It was only in 2008, however, that the US had its first woman candidate with a serious chance of winning the Presidency when Hillary Clinton gave the ultimate Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, a real run for his money in the primary elections.

Compare the situations in the US and the UK to that in Switzerland.  Despite women's tardy access to political parity in Switzerland, the country has had three (!) women serve as President of the Swiss Confederation.  They are, in order, the following: Ruth Dreifuss (1999); Micheline Calmy-Rey (2006); and Doris Leuthard (2010).   While Ruth Dreifuss was born in eastern Switzerland, her political career and residence are in Geneva.  Micheline Calmy-Rey is "genevoise" from birth.  It is fitting for both of these French-speaking women to be the first ascending to that office, considering that it was the westernmost French-speaking cantons that led the way to women's emancipation in Switzerland.  Both are pictured below.  For information about other women presidents or heads of state in the world, see here.

As a female born in Montana, I am particularly proud of one Montana woman who was in the vanguard of two movements close to my heart: women's rights and world peace.  Her name was Jeannette Rankin.  Early in her career, she became a lobbyist for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).  Her speaking and organizational efforts were in large part responsible for convincing Montana's male voters to give women the right to vote in 1914, six years prior to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.  Following that victory, she successfully ran for office herself.  She was the first woman politician in the US to be elected to national office.  She was fully conscious of the historical significance.   When she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1916, she remarked, “I may be the first woman member of Congress.  But I won’t be the last.”

After her first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the US Senate.  Then she devoted herself to women's suffrage, social welfare and peace efforts in general.  She actually travelled to Switzerland in 1919 to attend the Women’s International Conference for Permanent Peace.  From the beginning, she was a dedicated pacifist and did not hesitate to make her pacifist views known.   Whether because of or in spite of those views, she was returned to the House in 1941.  During that second term, she distinguished herself for being the only individual to vote against US entry into World War II, thus becoming the only person to vote against US entry into both World War I and World War II.  While she had been one of 20 representatives who voted against US entry into WWI, she was the alone for the WWII vote.  When the roll call vote was taken, Rankin voted “No” amid “a chorus of hisses and boos.”  Rankin stated, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”  The war resolution passed the House 388–1.  Although she finished out her term, Rankin's political career was over.  But she continued being outspoken, marching in protest against the Vietnam War even late in her life.

In a world dominated by testosterone, where guns count more than butter, where powerful interests manipulate economies and where war is considered by some to be the first response, rather than the last of all possible options, we need more people in power to stand firm for something positive.  Whether one is completely in agreement with her beliefs or not, Jeannette Rankin stood firmly for what she believed in until the end of her life, sacrificed a lot, and worked very hard to improve life for many.  I personally am impressed with how pragmatic, practical and progressive Swiss women politicans have been both in vouchsafing women's rights and in keeping this lovely country highly-placed on the quality of life index.  Bravissima!   Well-done and enjoy this well-deserved celebration!