40 Years of Women's Suffrage in Switzerland

"True Democracy Mustn't Exclude Women!" Photo: NZZ

Only forty years ago today, Swiss men granted the women of their country the right to vote - making Switzerland the second to last European country to accept women as full-fledged citizens in all cantons in 1971.* (Last in Europe came Liechtenstein in 1984.) Considering that Switzerland always prides itself on its exemplary democratic structures and understanding neutrality, that might come as a big surprise to those of you who weren't aware of this fact. (Via Mädchenmannschaft.)

* In a few cantons, women were already allowed to cast their vote previously, but there was also the case of Appenzell-Innerrhoden, a very small canton in the northeast of Switzerland, which had to be forced to accept women as politically equal in local matters as well by the Federal Supreme Court.