SWITZERLAND - MORE WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT CABINET THAN MEN - FIRST TIME

Published: Thursday, September 30, 2010

Switzerland women have for the first time taken control of the reins of power in this Alpine country that denied any females the vote until 1971.
One Swiss canton, Appenzell Inner-Rhodes, continued to bar women from local elections until 1990, making Switzerland the last European country to introduce universal suffrage.
The historic shift in the balance of power came as the Swiss parliament in Bern voted Simonetta Sommaruga, a Social Democrat MP, on to the cabinet, a Federal Council.
The council is comprised of seven politicians from different parties, four of whom are now women, and does without a fixed Prime Minister or President to rule Switzerland - one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
"It's a great day to see a female majority in the Cabinet," said Claudine Esseiva, a cabinet ministers and member of the pro-business Free Democrats.
Professor Pascal Sciarini, of the political science institute at the University of Geneva, said: "Symbolically, it is a rather powerful message from a country, with a conservative reputation to have four women out of the seven seats in the government. That would be unique in the world."
The four-three majority makes Switzerland only the fourth country in the world to have more women than men in its cabinet, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The others are Cape Verde, Finland, and Norway.
Spain came close in 2008 with the appointment of nine Socialist female ministers and eight male colleagues but the presence of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister and a man, evened out the numbers.
But the Swiss male backlash has already begun. Rene Kuhn, author of a controversial Swiss book Back to the Woman and organiser of an international antifeminist conference in Switzerland next month is concerned about women running the country, rather than the home.
"We all know that when lots of women work together there can be more problems," he said.