Soup kitchen in Basel. In the final years of the war, more than a quarter of the urban population was dependent on government food aid.
Staatsarchiv Basel

The dilemma of the middle-class women

On the opposing side, too, women got involved during the days of the strike. They supported the army and were involved in caring for the soldiers who were sick with flu. In Zurich, the Frauenzentrale, an alliance of middle-class women’s organisations, together with the soldiers’ welfare association (Verband Soldatenwohl), organised the infrastructure and care for around 2,000 flu-affected soldiers within a very short space of time. These middle-class women vehemently opposed the strike. However, a demand from the OAK put certain members of the middle classes in a quandary: active and passive women’s suffrage was ranked a prominent second in the list of demands. Many people had fought for years for the implementation of this demand. Emilie Gourd, chairwoman of the Swiss Association of Women’s Suffrage, publicly expressed her support for the demand and on the very first day of the general strike, 12 November 1918, sent a telegram to the Federal Council (Bundesrat) calling for women to be given the right to vote. This act elicited divided reactions among the middle-class suffragettes: while some criticised Gourd for her alleged solidarity with the strike, others praised her, saying she had recognised which way the wind was blowing and had acted correctly. After all, on 12 November 1918 women’s suffrage was enshrined in law in both Germany and Austria.

In the aftermath to the general strike, two motions for women’s voting rights were tabled, by SP National Council member Herman Greulich and liberal National Council member Emil Göttisheim. For the first time in Switzerland’s history, women’s suffrage was on the agenda of the federal legislature. However, both motions vanished on to the dusty shelves of the Federal Council without being discussed.

Even though women’s suffrage was not introduced, the strike was by no means felt by women to have been merely a defeat. The socialist doctor Minna Tobler-Christinger described the feelings of fellowship and solidarity women experienced during the strike as follows: “All those who took part had become friends. People patted each other’s hands, smiled at one another. You had profound philosophical discussions with strangers. You rejoiced together over a strike successfully seen through.”

Katharina Hermann

Women on strike!