1959: a conservative year
Fifty years ago, in 1971, Swiss women gained the right to vote and stand for election at federal level. The same issue, put out to consultation a few years earlier in 1959, was rejected by 66.9% and accepted by just three cantons. While women’s suffrage was achieved in most European countries at the same time, Switzerland was the exception.
Also in 1959, the 2nd edition of a book written by the Federal Military Department was published, entitled Le livre du soldat: sois vigilant et fort: ton pays sera libre! With a print run of 940,000 copies, it was distributed to the troops from 1958 to 1974. In addition to chapters on general knowledge of Switzerland and military instruction, there are 4 pages devoted to “the role of women in the country”.
Social conservatism is an ideology. It defines the family and determines gender roles. In this text, an entire generation of young recruits has been offered a particularly traditional societal model as an educational reference. The issue of equal rights education is particularly important when addressed by public bodies.
“The woman is first and foremost the guardian of the home.
The man is at the factory, in the fields, in the workshop, in the office; he travels; he is absorbed by professional, political, social and military life; he is devoted to sport; he is enrolled in ten or twenty societies; he owes it to his friends and acquaintances…
The woman, vigilant, is at home. […] Although she does not yet have the right to vote, she takes an interest in public affairs, because no one knows better than she the practical difficulties of running a household, and she is well aware that running a state is no different from running a large household. […] While hundreds of thousands of men guarded the frontiers during the last world war, women took over with kindness, courage and, if need be, heroism. […] Yet it is still in the home that women serve their country best. There, she is indispensable, irreplaceable. […] No, women are not equal to men. This The crude equality [sic] claimed by certain demagogues would be to the disadvantage of women. Men and women are not equal, but complementary. […] And it is in the home that she can best blossom, because it is there, in normal times, that she can at once exercise the virtues of her soul, the impulses of her heart and the graces of her mind.”[1]
It’s not 1959 or 1971, but the debate on equality is still going on!
[1] Le livre du soldat : sois vigilant et fort ; ton pays sera libre ! [publ. by the Groupement de l’instruction par ordre du Département militaire fédéral] ; [dir. and presentation: Richard Merz, Albert Bachmann] ; [principaux réd.: Maurice Zermatten … et al.], Berne : Office central des imprimés et du matériel, 1959, pp. 58-61.
