Don’t sit back and relax: former Federal Councilor Dreifuss wants progress on equal rights

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The successes of the past fifty years in equality policy are impressive, but not enough, Dreifuss said on Wednesday about the feminist strike in the “Tagessprach” with the Swiss radio SRF.

What she remembers most about the first women’s strike in 1991 was the effort involved. The unions then wanted to show what an enormous job women do.

Half a million took to the streets. Without the women’s strike she would not have been elected to the Bundesrat. On that June 14, a movement arose.

The election was quite dramatic, because parliament did not choose the official SP candidate Christiane Brunner. Francis Matthey would become a federal councilor instead. Matthey gave up and the council preferred Dreifuss to Brunner.

There are currently certain parties that want to reverse progress, Dreifuss said. She referred to the higher retirement age for women. Women’s strikes must continue. That pushes development a bit.

Dreifuss interprets the fact that the women’s strike is called the new feminist strike as an invitation to all women. For many, feminism has left-wing appeal, but it’s certainly not a dirty word. The strike contains no left-wing demands. It’s about women’s rights.

The current discussion about neutrality is insufficient in the case of the war in Ukraine. International law defines aggressive wars as crimes. In such a case, there need not be a neutral state on both sides. That is why Dreifuss advocates forwarding Swiss war material to other countries.

Born in St. Gallen in 1940, Ruth Dreifuss served in the state government from 1993-2002, where she was head of the Ministry of the Interior (EDI). In 1999 she was Switzerland’s first female president.

Dreifuss worked, among other things, as a journalist, social worker and central secretary at the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions. She played a key role in shaping the first women’s strike in 1991. Before her election to the state government, she never held office in the federal parliament. Among other things, the heroin administration prescribed by the doctor to seriously addicts goes back to them. Dreifuss lives in Geneva.

(SDA)

Source:Blick