Through organizing traditional guided tours and special themed visits of Geneva, the association attempts to share its enthusiasm and strong attachment to Geneva, as well as to help publicize the beauty, cultural wealth and history - both of the city and the wider Geneva region. Its tours feature Geneva's architecture, parks, museums, markets, bistrots, international organizations based in Geneva ... and lots more. In addition to the tours and presentations, the association can also organize special events, regional food and wine tasting, and visits throughout Geneva Canton as well as in other regions of French-speaking Switzerland (la Suisse romande).
For yesterday's event, the association led special tours of Geneva's Vieille Ville that focused on women who have featured in Geneva's history. One of these was Michée Chauderon, who was the last woman executed in Geneva for witchcraft. From 1520 to 1681, during one of Geneva's very dark periods, 340 people were put on trial for sorcery; 150 were executed. Ms Chauderon died in 1652. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Geneva. She was not the last person to be executed as a witch in Switzerland; that dubious distinction has been left to Anna Göldi, who was executed in 1782. Technically, Anna Göldi was executed for poisoning rather than witchcraft.
Ms Chauderon's execution was conducted with zealous overkill. Evidently there was some doubt that she was a witch. Rather than giving her any benefit because of that doubt, she was tortured severely, then hung until she strangled to death before she was burned. Her real crime seems to have been that she was merely a poor widow washerwoman of little status, who was considered socially deviant and sexually promiscuous.
Other women featured in the tour were sisters Jeanne-Françoise and Henriette Rath, who were the creators of the Rath Museum, the first Swiss museum to be devoted to the fine arts and inaugurated in 1826. Another early woman mentioned was Genevan Protestant reformer and theologian Marie Dentière, formerly a Catholic nun who converted to Protestantism, married a former priest and - especially - provided a uniquely outspoken feminine perspective in the rapidly changing world of the Reformation. She was intensely disliked by Calvin and other Protestant leaders in Geneva, in part because she was so outspoken. Plus ça change ..., I'm afraid.
Women were allowed to study at the University of Geneva from 1872 on. But the first women who studied there were all from foreign countries. The first Genevan woman to attend courses at the University of Geneva was Marguerite Champendal, who studied medicine and became a doctor. But she entered the University some 30 years after it first opened to women. This late start was due primarily to the fact that Genevan secondary schools for girls did not offer courses, namely Latin, that would allow girls to matriculate at a university.
It was refreshing to read about these women and their role in Geneva's history. Several Genevan women are prominent in Swiss politics today, both at local and federal levels. The current President of the Swiss Confederation is a woman from Suisse Romande who was also a politician in Geneva, Micheline Calmy-Rey. She has always been one of the most approachable and accessible of Swiss politicians.
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