Jim D. asks:
I was asking _why_ Swiss sexism succeeds so severely.
> is there a Swiss in the house? is anyone an expert on that country?
[i.e. Swiss national suffrage came only in 1971; in the cantons voting
rights came in the '50s and '60s]
I don't think you will find major (or even interesting) "structural"
reasons. Also people may be overestimating the situation of women in
continental Western Europe most of whom could not vote until after
WWII. In the past, Switzerland was a lagging, mountainous, mostly rural
corner of Western Europe - actually an amalgam of other peoples corners so
that they were at the "end of the line" for many changes. Today, on
voting, property and similar matters it has mostly "caught up" with other
socially conservative parts of Western Europe [Yoshie was quoting a 1971
BBC article in their "on this day" feature. That is not the situation
today.]
There are of course some historical factors. Above all, wars played a big
role in accelerating the gender changes in Europe and Switzerland escaped
them.
In neighboring France women won the right to vote after WWII (actually de
Gaulle proclaimed it in 1944 during the war, obviously under
duress). [BTW, previously, the French left did not support women's
suffrage because it was felt they would vote conservative. The Catholic
Church also opposed it.] The Francophone part of Switzerland was sometimes
connected to the changes in France BUT the Geneva Canton has that
extraordinary Calvinist tradition (with genuine theocratic rule at one
time!) which certainly prevented them from moving forward on gender issues.
Women in neighboring Italy won a partial right to vote after WWI but
Mussolini formally rescinded it (the elections were rescinded separately)
and full rights were only first granted after WWII. So he Italian cantons
were the last to receive the social changes floating across Italy.
Switzerland's Romansch speakers were cut off from everyone.
And the Germanic cantons were, at best, at the end of the line from the
Black Forest and socially conservative Bavaria. Women won the right to
vote in Germany after WWI under socially liberal Weimer but the Nazis
suspended their right to run for office (and, of course, suspended elections).
In neighboring Liechtenstein women could not vote until 1984.
Paul
