Switzerland

Women's Rights and Health Care

Often highlighted as one of the most “advanced” societies in Europe, Switzerland has an awkward history in regards to women's rights. Women have helped families run businesses for centuries; the mother of the 16th-century theologian John Calvin helped her father run an inn in France. After moving to Geneva, Calvin stressed that women had the right to read the Bible and participate in church services, moves which attracted many Swiss women to Calvinism, and saw significant numbers of women play important roles in Swiss society in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, gradually many Calvinists came to argue that women were subordinate to their husbands, eroding the earlier advances made by Swiss women.

In 1929, with the Great Depression, there was political pressure to prevent women entering the workforce. Switzerland was one of the last countries in Europe to allow women to vote, with women being granted the right to vote in 1971. In the elections later that year, 5.5 percent of the people elected to parliament were women. It was not until 2004 that paid maternity leave was implemented, following a referendum.

Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman, helped to establish the Red Cross in the 1860s, and Switzerland now has one of the best hospital networks in the world, and health care is provided to its citizens free of charge, including many maternity and midwifery services. This has been reflected in low infant mortality rates. Most babies are born in hospitals, where it is expected that mothers stay for about seven days. For foreigners giving birth in the country, the costs of obstetricians are very high.

Abortion is available on request, and in 2004 the abortion rate for women age 15–44 was 7.3 per 1,000. In 2008, it was estimated that 82 percent of Swiss women used contraception (78 percent modern methods). Swiss women are entitled to a minimum 14 weeks of paid maternal leave at 18 percent [Page 1189]of salary. Decisions about education are taken at a cantonal level in the country. There have been school courses on sex education in Geneva since the 1950s, which has gradually spread to the rest of the country, with contraception and family planning being explained. This, arguably prompted by prosperity of the country, has seen a fall in the country's fertility rate from 1.61 in 1975 to 1.48 in 1999, with the percentage of extramarital births during the same period rising from 3.7 percent to 10 percent, both figures being some of the lowest in all of Europe.

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