The well-known Swiss champion of women’s suffrage and a pioneer in various political offices was born a century ago today in Urtfeld, Ursula.
On March 1, 1969, several thousand women’s rights activists and other people demonstrated on the Bundesplatz in Bern for women’s suffrage and against the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights with reservations. Emilie Lieberherr, President of the Action Committee for the March to Bern, gives her speech.Photos: Keystone
Emilie Lieberherr was born on October 14, 1924. The Zurich women’s rights activist and full-blooded politician, who died in 2011, was a pioneer and, as she herself said, “a radical woman”.
The former Zurich city councilor and state councilor has shaped women’s, social and drug policy far beyond the city and cantonal borders. From 1970 to 1994 she was a member of the Zurich city council and head of the social department. From 1978 to 1983 she also represented the Canton of Zurich in the Council of States, where she advocated for social policy, consumer protection and equality.
PhD in economics and tutor to Henry Fonda’s children
Lieberherr was born on October 14, 1924 in Erstfeld UR as the daughter of a railway worker. At the end of the 1950s, she received her doctorate in economics from the University of Bern through the second educational path. She was a champion of women’s suffrage and a pioneer in various political offices.
The actor Peter Fonda meets his former tutor Emilie Lieberherr on the occasion of the premiere of his new film “The Hired Hand”, filmed on October 20, 1971 in Zurich. Mayor Sigmund Widmer can be seen in the background.
After completing her studies, she spent around two and a half years in the USA, where, among other things, she worked as a tutor for the children of actor Henry Fonda.
First woman in the Zurich city government
In 1970 – before women’s suffrage was introduced at the national level – the social democrat became the first woman ever to be elected to the Zurich city government. In 1976 she became the first president of the Federal Women’s Commission and was the first woman from Zurich to join the Council of States.
Emilie Lieberherr is happy as a newly elected city councilor in Zurich as neighbors at home crown her with laurels for her electoral success, taken on March 8, 1970 in Zurich.
Excluded from the SP
Her tough stance towards the youth movement led to a falling out with the SP in 1983 and to her abandoning any further parliamentary activity in Bern. Her support in the election of Thomas Wagner as mayor of Zurich led to her expulsion from the SP in 1990. However, with the support of the unions, she was re-elected. After 24 years in office, the then 69-year-old left the Zurich city government in 1994.
The “Dennerplatz” on Langstrasse in Zurich was renamed “Emilie-Lieberherr-Platz”.
In 2020, the Zurich city council dedicated a space to its former member. The area equipped with trees and benches at Langstrasse 214, popularly known as “Dennerplatz”, has since been called “Emilie-Lieberherr-Platz”.
In her private life, Lieberherr was with her partner Hermine Rutishauser (1920 to 2015) for decades. Lieberherr died on January 3, 2011 at the age of 86 in Zollikerberg ZH.
