**Annie Leuch-Reineck was one of the leading figures in the Swiss women’s movement in the 1920s.** Gosteli Archive

Record-breaking petition stuffed in a drawer

The story of a petition demanding voting rights for women, which attracted 250,000 signatures before being stuffed in a drawer and forgotten about for decades.

Noëmi Crain Merz

Noëmi Crain Merz is a historian at the University of Basel.

1928 saw the publication of a book exploring the origins, impact and aims of the Swiss women’s movement. Its author Annie Leuch-Reineck held a PhD in mathematics and had recently become the president of the Swiss Association for Women’s Suffrage. She paid tribute in her text to the pioneering Swiss women who had fought simultaneously with their sisters in other industrial nations to put the issue of universal suffrage on the political agenda. The movement had succeeded in making a breakthrough in many places around that time: in Germany and Austria in 1918, in the United States in 1920 and in the United Kingdom in 1928. The momentum seemed unstoppable. Things were even beginning to move in Switzerland, with the first popular referendums at cantonal level and motions at federal level. But the pace of progress was too slow for Annie Leuch-Reineck and the other campaigners. They vented their frustration at the opening of the Saffa Swiss Exhibition of Women’s Work in August 1928, when they paraded a giant snail through the streets of the country’s capital. Women came from all over Switzerland to take part. And while the Saffa gave them an opportunity to show how they contributed to the success of the state and its economy, crucially, they were still denied a voice on the political stage.

**Annie Leuch-Reineck’s book about the Swiss women’s movement was published in 1928.** Photo: Gosteli 65

A large-scale petition was intended to make the Federal Council think again. Women from different social strata and with various political leanings banded together in an attempt to shake up the country. They also hoped to convince members of the general public of their cause by addressing them directly. Both men and women were involved. They included German-, French- and Italian-speakers. Some lived in the towns and cities, others in the countryside, including small villages. The aim was to demonstrate that giving women the vote was not an issue of right or left, despite it often being portrayed as such. It was not an “unSwiss” idea, copied from abroad. And it did not pose a threat to the very foundations of society or democracy. On the contrary: it was supposed to strengthen them.

A snail symbolising the slow pace of progress towards women’s suffrage in Switzerland. Protest in Bern during the Saffa exhibition, 1928. — **A snail symbolising the slow pace of progress towards women’s suffrage in Switzerland. Protest in Bern during the *Saffa* exhibition, 1928. Photo by Otto Rohr.** Gosteli Archive

Switzerland divided

From January 1929, large numbers of women and a small number of men sallied forth to give talks on the issue in town and country. They knocked on doors, wrote articles and readers’ letters, organised campaign committees in the remotest of areas and sent petition forms out to every corner of the land. Annie Leuch-Reineck coordinated the crusade from Bern and Lausanne, where she had moved a few years before with her husband, who was a federal judge. The 48-year-old garnered broad support in her new hometown, with almost 18% of the adult population signing the petition. In Geneva more than 20% of Swiss citizens backed it, in the Basel area the figure was over 15%, and in the canton of Neuchâtel it reached almost 25%. Together with the larger towns, these regions were responsible for making the collection of signatures a resounding success. Around a quarter of a million Swiss women and men added their signatures ‒ more than any petition ever before. Yet Switzerland was deeply divided. In rural areas especially, the hoped-for thorough examination and consideration of the matter was barely possible. Disparagement sometimes put an end to the collection of signatures, as in the Bernese Oberland. And even where women who supported the cause could be found, societal pressure often stood in the way of their becoming actively involved. Many were afraid it would bring them into conflict with their families, according to Rosalie Küchler-Ming, a poet from Obwalden who wrote in the local dialect. Flora Volonteri Valli from Lugano complained that women there were sheep surrounded by wolves. She observed that anyone daring to speak up was treated shockingly, with a complete lack of respect, which discouraged women from acting. Consequently, Ticino was the only canton in which more men than women signed the petition – although not in any great numbers.

**Women like Annie Leuch-Reineck had a hard time campaigning for votes for women.** Gosteli Archive

Scorn and derision were the opponents’ strongest weapons. Displaying contempt was a sure way to nip any debate in the bud and stop women from making a strong stand. In the end, many of those won over by the cause failed to sign the petition “because they didn’t wish to expose themselves to ridicule”, as Küchler-Ming from Sarnen reported. Her part of the world, the half-cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden, returned the paltriest haul of signatures in all Switzerland, totalling 6 men and 28 women.

Extract from the petition documents of 1929. Swiss Federal Archive

The laconic conclusion relayed to Annie Leuch-Reineck from Thurgau was that the attitude of the public could be summed up as “women completely apathetic, men mocking”. The lady organising the collection of signatures in that particular canton had been sceptical from the very beginning, wondering how it would be possible to convince men that the nation’s women should be given the right to vote when they were not even prepared to let women have a say in the running of schools and churches? But as the campaign was already under way, she zealously threw herself into the task. She was not afraid of being frowned upon by society. Originally from what is now Georgia, Ludomila Scheiwiler-von Schreyder may have lived in the countryside, but she was not part of the local farming community. She coordinated the gathering of signatures from her villa on the edge of the hamlet of Dingenhart near Frauenfeld. However, she was soon forced to admit that she could not get through to the local population. Collecting signatures from door to door proved impossible. Her final report states that the mood in Eastern Switzerland was thoroughly hostile and, in some cases, even aggressive.

Stuff it in the drawer!

But the Federal Councillors responsible for the dossier over the next few years came from those parts of the country: from Thurgau and Appenzell-Ausserrhoden. The media circus surrounding the submission of the petition following a parade through Bern did little to impress the federal government, and the majority of National Council members on the Petition Commission found that resolving the issue was “not a matter of urgency”. When vacating his office in 1934, Federal Councillor Heinrich Häberlin let his successor Johannes Baumann know that the material on women’s suffrage was in the middle drawer on the right-hand side of the desk. And it was to remain there untouched. The first nationwide referendum did not take place until 30 years later. The results mirrored the breakdown of signatures on the petition: the cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Neuchâtel in the French-speaking part of Switzerland said ‘yes’, those in Central and Eastern Switzerland a clear “no”. Appenzell-Innerrhoden now stood at the top of the table of dissenting voices: 95.1% of its voters said “no”.

**Johannes Baumann was a member of the Federal Council from 1934 to 1940.** Wikimedia

**Heinrich Häberlin was Baumann’s predecessor. The women’s suffrage petition was submitted during his term in office.** Wikimedia

Thanks to her good health, Annie Leuch-Reineck did eventually enjoy the right to vote. She was able to vote at the national level for the first time in 1971, at the age of 90. Most of the women who had fought alongside her in 1929 did not live to see this day. But they have the posthumous satisfaction of knowing that posterity respects and admires their efforts, and that the scorn and mockery to which they were once subjected is now directed at the men who continued to protest vehemently against giving women the vote right to the very end.

More of: 20th / 21st century Politics Women in history

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