Simone Chapuis-Bischof (16 March 1931 – 9 October 2023) was a Swiss activist. She was an organizer for

women's suffrage in Switzerland Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was n ...

. She was also the head of the Association Suisse Pour les Droits de la Femme (ADF or in English, the Swiss Association for the Rights of Women), and the president of the journal, ''Femmes Suisses''.

Biography

Chapuis-Bischof was born in

Bâle Basel ( , ), also known as Basle ( ),french: Bâle ; it, Basilea ; rm, label=Sutsilvan, Basileia; other rm, Basilea . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river High Rhine, Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, th ...

. When she was eight, her family moved to

Lausanne Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

. Chapuis-Bischof became a teacher in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...

. She traced the beginnings of her activism to 1959, when she discovered that men at her school were earning 30% more than women with the same qualifications. She began to work towards equal rights afterwards, dedicating herself to

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

, educational access,

equal pay for equal work Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the fu ...

, maternity benefits and the decriminalization of

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. She worked as an activist for the right of women to vote, which Swiss women were finally fully granted in 1971. Chapuis-Bischof became active in the ''Association lausannoise pour le suffrage féminin'' (Lausanne Association for Women's Suffrage) and later was president from 1971 to 1974. She later became president of the cantonal-level association from 1974 to 1980. In 2011, Chapuis-Bischof was given the award, “Femme exilée, femme engagée” (exiled woman, committed women), from the town of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

. Simone Chapuis-Bischof died on 9 October 2023, at the age of 92.

References

External links

Un engagement féministe
(video) 1931 births 2023 deaths People from Basel-Stadt Swiss feminists People from Lausanne Swiss women's rights activists Swiss suffragists {{feminism-activist-stub