Women Now a Majority in Swiss Government

Jennifer Cocks

September 23, 2010

7:35 pm

In 1971, women in Switzerland were finally given the right to vote. Thirteen years later, the first female minister was elected. This past Wednesday, the country’s Parliament elected a fourth woman to its seven-seat cabinet, making women the majority in the cabinet. Although this is a truly impressive feat, the inequality between sexes is still blatantly apparent not only in the composition of the Swiss Parliament itself, but also in the glass ceilings and unequal pay policies that exist in the general population. Many analysts also believe that once the new entrant, Simonetta Sommaruga, of the Social Democratic Party will help restore the “Swiss tradition of consensus decision-making in the cabinet” after years of strained relationships between members on personal, political, and departmental levels. The female-majority in the cabinet joins Switzerland with its fellow Inter-Parliamentary Union countries of Finland, Norway, and Spain.

I think this article is interesting because it holds the optimistic message of the relatively rapid progress of women in the government but it’s tempered with doubt that simply having more women in the government will have any significant impact on the somewhat sexist policies and practices that exist in the culture. While I agree with the article’s general conclusion, I also believe that “female infiltration” of the government might be the push necessary to inspire other women to run for Parliament and subsequently push for more pro-equality legislation. Furthermore, I find it a bit contradictory that women are attaining high positions in government (the heads of the two Parliamentary houses are also female) but aren’t rising in the corporate world at any greatly accelerated rate. Is female representation in the government rising because more voters are demanding equality? Are more women voting at the polls to increase their gender’s representation? Or women just not motivated (or encouraged) to rise above managerial positions in businesses to become corporate executives?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23iht-bern.html?scp=8&sq=women&st=cse