Emilie Lieberherr (October 14, 1924 in

Erstfeld Erstfeld is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. History In 1962 a collection of four gold torques and three gold arm rings were discovered near Erstfeld. While the exact origin date is unknown, they are likely from the 4th cent ...

– January 3, 2011 in

Zollikerberg Zollikon is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Meilen (district), Meilen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich, Switzerland known for being one of Switzerland's most exclusive districts. Be ...

; place of origin in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

und

Nesslau Nesslau is a municipality in the Toggenburg district of the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. The current municipality was formed in 2013 and includes the villages of Nesslau, Krummenau and Stein. History The area was incorporated into the ...

), was a Swiss politician (

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz; SP; rm, Partida Socialdemocrata da la Svizra) or Swiss Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste suisse, it, Partito Socialista Svizzero; PS), is a polit ...

Early life and education

The second of three sisters, Emilie Lieberherr was born to a machinist and seamstress in Erstfeld in 1924. She attended Theresianum Igenbohl, a Catholic boarding school during her youth and graduated with a commercial diploma. After graduating, she worked as a secretary at the

Swiss Bank Corporation Swiss Bank Corporation was a Swiss investment bank and financial services company located in Switzerland. Prior to its merger, the bank was the third largest in Switzerland with over CHF300 billion of assets and CHF11.7 billion of equ ...

in Zurich for three years. In 1947, Lieberherr left the position to then work four years as a personal trainer at the Oscar Weber AG in Bern. Lieberherr later earned a doctorate in economics from the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...

after attending from the year 1952 to 1956. After earning her doctorate, she moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

for three years during which time she worked as a governess for

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and ra ...

, taking care of his children,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and Jane Fonda. Returning to Switzerland in 1960, Lieberherr took a position as a vocational school teacher for sales staff in Zurich from 1960 to 1970.

Activism and Political Career

In 1961, Lieberherr co-founded the Consumer Forum of Switzerland. Towards the end of the 1960s, she became more politically involved, joining and becoming one of the leading figures in the movement of

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 no ...

. Lieberherr became the President of the Action Committee that lead the March to Bern. On March 1, 1969, she spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered in the Federal Square to demand the right to vote from the Swiss government. Lieberherr joined the

soon after and from 1970 until 1994, when she resigned, she was the first female city councilor of the city of Zurich and the head of the Zurich Social Welfare Office. Lieberherr was the representative of the Canton of Zurich in the Federal Assembly from 1978 to 1983. She also served as the first President of the Federal Commission for Women's Issues in Switzerland. Up to 1978, she was re-elected with support from the Social Democratic Party until she had a falling out with them in 1982. In 1986 she was re-elected again with support from the Zurich Trade Union Confederation. Lieberherr was officially excluded from the Social Democratic Party in 1990 for supporting Josef Estermann instead of the selected party candidate during the election for the City Executive Committee. In 2014 Emilie Lieberherr's work was honoured by the

Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster is a guild–like organisation in Zürich, Switzerland, not yet associated with the Zünfte of Zürich as of 2015. History of Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster In medieval times, in Zürich all female and male ''B ...

Social Work

Aside from working as the head of social services for 24 years, Lieberherr did a lot of work for the public while in office. She was the co-initiator of the medically controlled distribution of heroin for severe cases of addiction and was involved in constructing the four pillar model of the Swiss drug policy. She introduced alimony advance in Zurich and established the Foundation of Residential Care for the Elderly. Throughout her time in office she also built twenty-two homes in Switzerland for the disenfranchised, established youth centers, and introduced programs for unemployed young adults.

Youth protests of 1980

The further, for that time extremely high subventions, but lacking of alternative governmental cultural programs for the youth in Zürich, occurred in 1980 to the so-called ''

Opernhauskrawalle Opernhauskrawalle (Opera House riots) is the Swiss German term generally used for the youth protests at the end of May 1980 in the Swiss city of Zürich, a municipality in the Canton of Zürich. Also called Züri brännt ("Zürich is burning"), t ...

'' youth protests – ''Züri brännt'', meaning ''Zürich is burning'', documented in the Swiss documentary film '' Züri brännt (movie)''. The most prominent politician involved was Emilie Lieberherr, then member of the city's executive (''Stadtrat'') authorities.

Literature

* Trudi of Fellenberg Bitzi: ''Emilie Lieberherr: pioneer of Swiss woman policy.'' NZZ Libro, Zürich 2019, .

Video

* Monika Rosenberg:
the rebellious
'' In: '' NZZ Folio.'' 4/2006 (archived version). *
«I have read the riot act the Federal Council»
'' In: ''

Tages-Anzeiger ''Tages-Anzeiger'' (), also abbreviated ''Tagi'' or ''TA'', is a Swiss German-language national daily newspaper published in Zurich, Switzerland. History and profile The paper was first published under the name ''Tages-Anzeiger für Stadt und ...

'', January 4, 2011 (interview). * Balz Spörri:
it mocked the Bundesrat
'' In: ''Swiss family'', April 2019 (German).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lieberherr, Emilie 1924 births 2011 deaths Swiss suffragists Swiss feminists Swiss socialist feminists 20th-century Swiss women politicians 20th-century Swiss politicians