Introduction

What’s it like to be a woman in Switzerland today?

How are women faring in a country that took its time to allow them to take part in democracy ? What are their hopes and fears – and what still needs to change in Switzerland in 2021 ? This work explores these questions.

50/50/50 is a project where 50 female photographers portrayed 50 women 50 years after women got the vote in Switzerland. The result is an inspiring cross-section that shows how diverse women’s lives can be. We hear from the farmer and member of the cantonal parliament who recounts how she never wanted to be a farmer’s wife like her mother. She says that although she and the majority of her fellow female farmers are the ones who keep everything going and without whom nothing would work, 70% still work without any salary and without any secure retirement provision. Switzerland’s first Federal Supreme Court judge talks about how stubborn she has had to be in her chosen path. And that she has realised along the way that women can do exactly the same as men.

We hear the stories of women who eschew accepted ideals of female beauty and who are blazing a trail and passing on their passion for sport to future generations of women. We meet a woman for whom being a lesbian in the 1970s was something “unspeakable”. And one can’t help but draw parallels with the sad reality of the fight for same-sex marriage, which continues in 2021. We learn about the terrible fate of traveller women and girls who have been erased from Swiss history – moved between foster families, repeatedly abused, and left to fend for themselves by the State. Here, too, it is a woman who is championing victims’ rights.

Of course, women also tell their stories outside of our exhibition. But how do female directors work in a male-dominated world ? How does feminism influence the generation of young women in educating their co-workers, partners and friends ? And why does it matter if not everyone knows the difference between a vulva and a vagina ?

We discover that women make music differently. They cook differently, think differently, live differently. And that there is incredible strength to be found in recognising this otherness and using it as an advantage. In a world that is designed for competition and manspreading, we are slowly but surely coming to the realisation that empathy combined with determination might just be the way forward.