"If women want to, everything comes to a standstill": the historical significance of June 14, as told by historian Lisa Fornara

From the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution to the women’s strike, Ticino-based historian Lisa Fornara – a professor and instructor of history education at SUPSI and the DFA liaison for the Gender & Diversity Office – revisits a pivotal moment in Swiss history, weaving together contemporary history, women’s and gender history, gender education, and the history of education.

In Switzerland, June 14 is a day that brings together historical remembrance, political advocacy, and reflections on the present. In 1981, on June 14, equality between women and men was enshrined in the Federal Constitution; today, the principle is enshrined in Article 8, paragraph 3, which affirms equality in law and in fact, including within the family, in education, in the workplace, and in pay.

The history of women’s demands significantly predates the first bills on equality, since “the formal dimension and the real dimension do not always coincide.” It is precisely in the gap between what is recognized on paper and the actual changes in real life that the profound significance of June 14 lies.

The history of women’s rights can be viewed in terms of major waves. The first was the suffrage movement, which demanded the right to vote and to hold office; the second, particularly since the 1960s, has focused on the body, reproductive rights, work, and material discrimination; more recent movements have further broadened the focus to include gender-based violence, consent, LGBTQIA+ identities, and less visible forms of exclusion, since “after obtaining the right to vote, women began to realize that this was not enough to combat discrimination.”

Switzerland occupies a unique position in this history. Federal women’s suffrage was not achieved until 1971; ten years later, in 1981, equality was enshrined in the Constitution. This was a decisive step, though not a definitive one. Fornara notes that, even after this recognition, many inequalities continued to shape women’s daily lives. Until the new marriage law came into effect in 1988, wives still did not enjoy full autonomy; the new law introduced a partnership of equals, allowing women to work without their husband’s consent, manage their own income, and have their own bank accounts.

Even schools, Fornara notes, reflect the slow pace of cultural change: as late as the early 1990s, girls and boys were still separated into activities considered “appropriate” for their gender, such as home economics for the former and technical and manual activities for the latter.

In the wake of growing dissatisfaction with equality that existed only in theory, about half a million women took to the streets to demand their rights with a slogan destined to remain in the collective memory: “If women want to, everything stops.”

Among the central themes of the 1991 strike was also unpaid work—domestic and caregiving—which is often invisible and taken for granted. Fornara highlights an issue that remains highly relevant today: “We are still convinced, deep down, that there is a natural predisposition among women toward caregiving. And this has harmful effects.” The problem, therefore, is not only economic but cultural: it concerns the way we raise girls and boys, distribute responsibilities, and recognize value.

Ticino also participated in the 1991 mobilization. In Italian-speaking Switzerland, the strike had significant impact, particularly linked to the trade union dimension.

The political effects were not immediate, but they helped keep the debate alive. In 1996, the Federal Act on Gender Equality came into force, prohibiting discrimination in the workplace, including in hiring, working conditions, pay, promotion, dismissal, and sexual harassment. Subsequently, other measures were introduced to promote equality between men and women, such as the regulations on the time limits for abortion in 2002, maternity leave in 2005, accession to the Istanbul Convention to combat gender-based violence in 2018, and the revision of sexual criminal law in 2024 with the “No means no” principle.

In 2019, June 14 returned to the center of public debate when a new feminist strike brought hundreds of thousands of people back into the streets. In recent years, issues such as violence, consent, stalking, sexism in language and communication, and the social recognition of women’s value have come to the fore. Furthermore, in 2026, the 142 hotline was launched throughout Switzerland to provide assistance to victims of physical, psychological, or sexual violence; the service is free and available 24 hours a day.

The present, however, remains fraught with contradictions. Equal pay, despite being a constitutional right, has not yet been achieved: according to the Federal Office for Gender Equality, women in Switzerland earn on average 16.2% less than men, and even the most optimistic projections suggest that true pay equity will not be achieved until 2148.

Fornara therefore urges us not to view the history of women’s rights as a straight line, consisting solely of progressive gains, since every step forward can encounter resistance.

“We are at a stage where there is still much to be done,” she states. And she adds a consideration as simple as it is radical: “Equality benefits everyone. If a man is married to a woman who is discriminated against in terms of pay, he is indirectly discriminated against as well.”

To learn more about the history of women, feminism, and equality, here are some recommended reads:

• L’ideologia gender è pericolosa, di Laura Schettini — Laterza
• Le donne nella storia europea, di Gisela Bock — Laterza
• Fare femminismo, di Giulia Siviero — Nottetempo
• Chi ha cucinato l’ultima cena? Storia femminile del mondo, di Rosalind Miles — Fandango Libri
• Donne, potere, storia. La storia della parità in Svizzera, a cura della Commissione federale per le questioni femminili — Commissione federale per le questioni femminili; per l’edizione storica cartacea: Berna, EDMZ
• La conquista di un diritto. Il suffragio femminile in Svizzera 1848-1971, di Brigitte Studer — Armando Dadò Editore
• Storia delle donne in Occidente, a cura di Georges Duby e Michelle Perrot