We are invincible!

It wasn't that long ago that the birth of a daughter meant a big financial burden for the family, even in Switzerland. If you wanted to survive, you had to work and earn money, and that wasn't easy as a girl. With the introduction of compulsory education in the 19th century, girls were given the right to four to six years of instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic. But they remained excluded from higher public schools, grammar schools or even universities. For a long time, there was a dispute whether women were at all suitable for university studies in terms of their mental capacity and physical condition. It was not until 1981 that Switzerland adopted a constitutional article granting women equal rights in education and training and in the labor market.

Today, women can enter virtually any profession. But that was not always the case. Or did you know that in the early 1960s, women in Switzerland were not even allowed to complete a postal apprenticeship and were only employed as poorly paid assistants? And that female teachers in the canton of Zurich were not allowed to marry until 1962? In 1912, a law was passed in the canton of Zurich which stated that female primary and secondary school teachers who got married had to resign from their posts before the marriage was concluded. It was not until 1962 (!) that this law was repealed.

Speaking of marriage law, women in this country also had nothing to laugh about for a long time. According to Swiss marriage law, the husband was the head of the family. As such, he had the right, for example, to forbid his wife (or daughter) from working outside the home. In addition, he managed the marital property. This meant that the wife could not even order a magazine subscription without her husband's signature. The new marriage law, in which both partners have equal rights and obligations, did not come into force until 1988.

But all this has probably strengthened us women. Because today women are to be found practically everywhere. In compulsory school, girls perform better on average than boys, they attend secondary schools more often, acquire more Matura certificates in percentage terms and have also made strong gains in university degrees. Despite this, in 2022 only 17 percent of top management positions in Swiss companies were held by women, while the proportion of women in management positions at middle management level was 22 percent. Conclusion: the battle goes on. Because giving up is not an option for women.