Sea of purple: Swiss women strike for equal pay

Purple-clad protesters blowing whistles, banging pots and pans and brandishing feminist slogans filled the streets of Swiss towns and cities Friday, as women across the country went on strike for equal pay.

“I love badass women” and “Eliminate the patriarchy” figured among the messages on posters and banners, as women poured into the streets to vent their frustration with persistent gender discrimination and wage gaps in the wealthy Alpine nation.

The action comes nearly three decades after women held the country’s first nationwide strike for equal pay. Pram marches, whistle concerts and giant picnics were planned around the country, with the day’s events set to culminate in giant demonstrations in several cities. Tens of thousands of women dressed in purple filled the square in front of the government and parliament buildings in Bern.

In Lausanne, the events kicked off overnight, with women ringing the bells of the cathedral, which was lit up in purple, and lighting a “bonfire of joy”, with some women tossing in their bras. On Saturday, some 500 people gathered for a massive breakfast celebration, blocking traffic on one of the town’s main bridges.

In Zurich, demonstrators pulled a giant, pink clitoris perched on a cart through the city, while in Basel they projected the clenched-fist feminist symbol onto the skyscraper headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Roche. In Geneva, protestors replaced street signs bearing men’s names with women’s ones. While 548 streets in Geneva Canton are named after men, only 41 have female names.

The organisers of Friday’s action, say things have barely improved since the major 1991 strike, insisting women need to demand “more time, more money, more respect”. Women in Switzerland on average still earn 20 percent less than men. And for men and women with equal qualifications, the wage gap remains nearly eight percent, according to the national statistics office. “Wage equality has not been achieved. That is a good reason to go on strike,” Ruth Dreyfuss, who in 1998 became Switzerland’s first female president said. 

Riding the wave of the global #MeToo movement, a new generation of women is attacking lingering discrimination, harassment, sexual abuse and wage inequality with renewed vigour. Thursday’s strike was born out of frustration at a bid to change the law to impose more oversight over salary distribution, after a watered-down version passed through the Swiss parliament last year.

Switzerland was one of the last countries in Europe to grant women the right to vote, in 1971. Over the past three decades, women’s rights advocates in Switzerland have made some gains. Abortion was legalised in 2002, and 2005 saw the introduction of 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. But Switzerland still offers no paternity leave, and limited access to expensive daycare is seen as a major hindrance to women’s integration into the labour market.

Christa Binswanger, a gender studies professor at St. Gallen University, said she was optimistic that Friday’s strike would make a difference. “It has already shown an impact during the last weeks,” she said. “The strike has mobilised a sense of solidarity.”