Thousands join feminist strikes across Swiss cities
Thousands of people took part in feminist strikes in Basel, Lucerne, Zurich and Bern on Sunday to raise awareness about wage discrimination, gender violence and harassment of women in the workplace.
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Thousands join feminist strikes across Swiss cities
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
In French-speaking Switzerland, protests coincided with the G7 summit, organised by Evian, France. Feminist strike rallies were held on Saturday in Lausanne and Neuchâtel in which thousands of people participated. Activists in Geneva joined the large No G7 protest on Sunday in the western Swiss city.
In Bern, various “decentralised” events took place on Sunday. Music and speeches accompanied the protesters, who gathered on the Bundesplatz main square in the capital. Instead of holding a major demonstration, the striking women of Bern met up for brunch, craft activities and smashing boards – before gathering in front of the federal parliament building.
More
Mum in the kitchen, dad in the shed: why roles are slow to change in Switzerland
An estimated 5,000 people of all ages gathered in the afternoon for the joint event in front of the parliament, the Keystone-SDA news agency reported. Many strikers skirted the edge of the public square in search of shade to escape the scorching sun.
Dressed in shades of purple and making themselves heard, they voiced their demands. Their banners bore slogans such as “My pussy, my rules” or “Protection costs money, violence costs lives”. The supporting programme included DJ sets and speeches by various collectives.
More
Women make up 35% of Swiss boards of directors
Earlier in the day, the strikers had participated in some 50 different organised events. Numerous organisations brunches, craft sessions and yoga classes. At one event, participants brought boards to a city centre park that they proceeded to smash under the slogan “Smash the patriarchy”.
A large demonstration through Bern city centre was not on the agenda this year. The Bern strike collective attributed this break in demonstrations to a lack of resources. These resources were already being channelled into preparations for the nationwide care strike on June 14 next year.
+ Switzerland leads the way in fight against ‘unexplained’ wage gaps
The strike action focused on the fight against gender-based violence and the call for political participation and equal rights for all, the strike collective explained. Specific demands included, for example, safe access to abortion, the introduction of a third and open gender option on official records, and non-discriminatory naturalisation criteria.
In canton Ticino, a day of feminist mobilisation organised by the local collective took place at the Villa Argentina park in Mendrisio.
Translated from Italian with AI/sb
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.