Helvetian Women Within Nationalism: A Weapon of Self-Destruction?

Growing up in Switzerland, a nation that proudly upholds neutrality and civic nationalism, one cannot help but ask: whose nation has it been? Switzerland, often lauded as a model modern democracy, embodies a profound paradox. It stands as one of Europe’s oldest and only remaining pure forms of direct democracy, yet half its population, women, were denied federal suffrage until 1971.^[1] That was sixty-five years after Finland, fifty-three after Germany, Austria, and Russia, and twenty-seven years after France and Italy.^[2]Even by 1984, when Liechtenstein became the last European country to grant women the vote, women in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden still had to wait another seven years.^[3] These dates are not merely historical curiosities; they expose deep questions about gender, power, and belonging. Has women’s place in Swiss nationalism been allocated, defined and constrained by patriarchal-nationalist structures, or taken through agency, activism, and political struggle? Nationalism, since the early twentieth century, has been built upon civic duty, loyalty, and a shared sense of belonging. Yet, how have women navigated and reshaped this movement when they were long excluded from full citizenship? This paper examines how women’s roles in Swiss nationalism have historically been allocated, through symbolic, cultural, and reproductive functions, as moral guardians and embodiments of Swiss virtue, but have increasingly been taken through feminist mobilisation, political participation, and the redefinition of national identity and belonging.

This paper will first examine the historical background of women’s roles within Swiss nationalism and the broader nation prior to the introduction of federal suffrage in 1971.^[4] It will then consider the contemporary position of women through the lenses of Swiss politics, society, and national identity. Third, it will outline the defining characteristics of Swiss nationalism, situating them in contrast to other national models. Fourth, the analysis will explore the extent to which women’s nationalist roles have been allocated, structured and constrained by patriarchal-nationalist frameworks, and  taken through agency, activism, and participation within the Helvetica. Finally, the paper will synthesise these findings to assess how gender reshapes both our understanding of Swiss national identity and the broader concept of nationalism itself. The analysis will be guided by feminist theories of nationalism, drawing on the works of Yuval-Davis, Walby, Nagel, and Cusack. These theorists provide a framework for understanding gendered nationalism, symbolic femininity, and female agency within civic nationalist contexts, concepts that will be employed to interrogate how Swiss women have been positioned within, and have actively reshaped, the national narrative.

The legal and social exclusion of women from national belonging was ensured from the founding of the Confoederatio Helvetica on August 1st 1291,^[5] which is once again paradoxical considering that Helvetia herself is meant to embody values of freedom and fertility, whether on the coins, statues, stamps, or other symbols of banal nationalism.^[6] As mentioned above, women only gained federal suffrage fifty-four years ago, with some cantons resisting the evolution until the 1990s.^[7] Like many other European nations, Swiss women embodied the role of the “reproducers of the nation,” staying home, raising children, and abiding to the wishes of their assigned husband, particularly in middle to upper classes.^[8] They were advertised as the educators, wives and mothers transmitting the Swiss values of neutrality, order, discipline, and morality to the future generations of the ‘Nati’, a common Swiss term used to refer to the nation.^[9] Additionally, the women of Switzerland were expected to behave as the symbolic figures of the “pure” Alpine motherland they supposedly represented.^[10] This crucial yet passive role was particularly contrasted with their limited participation in army and civic service, with women’s patriotic duty framed as inherently maternal. This notion  did not really change during the World Wars, unlike many other European countries where women needed to support the economy and industry as well as raise children to replace the men at war.^[11] As Switzerland remained at the very least “militarily neutral” during both wars, men stayed within the territory and women within their typical role.

The 1960s marked a decisive turning point in Swiss feminist history, as the country witnessed the emergence of its first major wave of women’s protests and referendums. In 1959, a federal referendum proposing women’s suffrage was rejected by popular vote. Although the outcome was negative, this moment was far from insignificant, it transitioned the women’s suffrage movement from the work of a small female elite to  a period of sustained popular activism that laid the groundwork for subsequent legislative and social progress. Among the movements that followed, Frauen Macht Politik (“Women Make Politics!”) stands out as a key catalyst for change. Originating in Zurich from the Wyberrat, an open forum for women engaged in party politics, the movement campaigned vigorously for women’s rights and political inclusion.^[12] Similarly, the Bund Schweizerischer Frauenvereine (Swiss Women’s Association), founded in 1900, experienced a resurgence in visibility and influence during the late 1960s.^[13] Its successor, the Alliance F (est. 2001), continued this legacy, contributing to a series of landmark achievements: the 1971 federal suffrage act, the 1981 constitutional article on equality, the 1988 reform of matrimonial law, and the 2005 federal maternity indemnity.^[14] Together, these reforms advanced the recognition of women as autonomous citizens, equal in rights, status, and agency.

From a theoretical standpoint, this transformative period can be understood through Nira Yuval-Davis’s concept of women as boundary-keepers of the ethnic community.^[15] For much of Swiss history, women’s symbolic role was to preserve cultural continuity and moral integrity within the private and civic spheres, rather than to participate directly in shaping the nation. Sylvia Walby’s analysis further illuminates this dynamic: while men traditionally embodied the defenders of the nation, women were positioned as its symbolic essence, carriers of virtue, culture, and identity.^[16] The feminist mobilisations of the 1960s and beyond thus represent not only a political awakening but also a profound challenge to these gendered foundations of Swiss nationalism. By asserting their right to define and participate in the nation, women shifted from being symbols of the Swiss nation to active shapers of it.

Today, although the position of women in Switzerland has advanced considerably, they remain persistently underrepresented across political, social, and institutional spheres.^[17] Despite notable progress, women currently occupy only around 42% of seats in the National Council, less than 33% of positions in the Council of States, and approximately 25% of senior roles within the armed forces.^[18] In response, both the federal government and feminist organisations have intensified efforts to promote gender parity in leadership and the military, most visibly through the federal Stratégie Égalité 2030, which seeks to advance equality in employment, education, and civic participation.^[19] Yet, as women gain visibility in the public sphere, they continue to bear what can be described as a symbolic burden, serving as embodiments of Swiss “modern civility” rather than being recognised as full and autonomous participants in the nation’s civic life. This dynamic reflects Michael Billig’s concept of banal nationalism, visible in everyday representations such as gendered media portrayals and recruitment campaigns by the Swiss army that frame women’s participation as both exceptional and emblematic of national progress.^[20]

Scholars have identified structural barriers that persist beneath this symbolic inclusion. Lloren highlights that Switzerland’s direct democratic system reproduces gender bias, as women face higher hurdles in referendums and initiatives due to entrenched social attitudes and unequal participation networks.^[21] Similarly, Gisler notes a revival of feminist historiography that exposes women’s historical exclusion from the nation’s collective memory, revealing how narratives of Swiss identity continue to marginalise female contributions.^[22] Theoretically, these contradictions underscore the tension between liberal nationalism and feminist critique. While Tamir argues that nationalism can, in principle, be reconciled with egalitarian ideals, the persistent underrepresentation and symbolic framing of women in Swiss public life illustrate the limits of such integration.^[23] Swiss nationalism, though modernised in form, remains subtly gendered in function, where women’s presence signifies progress, yet their power remains structurally constrained.

Historically and today, Swiss nationalism has been characterised as civic-led, defensive, and exceptionalist, a model of stability and neutrality distinct from the ethnic or expansionist nationalisms of its European neighbours.^[24] This self-image rests upon enduring myths of unity sustained through neutrality, multilingualism, and direct democracy.^[25] Yet, Switzerland embodies a profound paradox: it presents itself as the purest form of national democracy while simultaneously lacking many of the conventional markers of nationhood, such as a common language, religion, or culture. To bridge this paradox, Swiss national identity has been imagined and maintained through symbolic and ideological constructions. The figure of Helvetia, the allegorical female symbol of the Swiss nation, encapsulates this tension. Representing virtue, purity, and moral steadfastness, Helvetia stands not as an agent of political participation but as a passive emblem of the nation’s ideals, embodying the civic virtues that women themselves were long denied the right to exercise. As Studer notes, Swiss national identity was defined as much by exclusion as by inclusion: women, foreigners, and other “non-traditional” citizens were positioned outside the imagined boundaries of true national belonging.^[26]

Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities illuminates how the Swiss nation was constructed through a distinctly masculine civic discourse, where citizenship, military service, and political engagement became the primary markers of national identity.^[27] In this sense, women were not participants in the nation but symbols within its imagination.^[28] Similarly, Hobsbawm’s notion of invented traditions is instructive: the rituals and narratives that sustain Swiss democracy, referendums, oaths, national holidays, long excluded women from their enactment, rendering them observers rather than actors in the performance of nationhood. Finally, as Cusack argues, nationalism often draws on gendered nostalgia to construct a backward-looking national memory.^[29] In the Swiss case, this nostalgia idealises moral purity and civic unity while obscuring the structural inequalities that have historically underpinned them.^[30] Thus, while Switzerland projects an image of democratic perfection, its national narrative remains deeply gendered, rooted in myths that elevate symbolic femininity while constraining real female agency.

The evolution of Swiss feminism since the late twentieth century reveals how women’s movements have not only sought equality but have actively reshaped the national discourse itself. The 1991 Frauenstreik (Women’s Strike) marked a pivotal moment in this transformation.^[31] Over half a million women took to the streets, demanding gender equality and social recognition, an unprecedented act of collective mobilisation in a country that prizes civic restraint and consensus.^[32] Following Billig’s distinction between “banal” and “hot” nationalism, this event can be read as a moment of hot nationalism: an eruption of political passion that redefined patriotism through the language of equality.^[33] As Bader and Mottier argue, the strike and its successors transformed feminist mobilisation into a form of civic patriotism, reclaiming the nation from the exclusionary frameworks that had long defined it.^[34] This reframing of equality as a patriotic duty challenged the patriarchal logic of Swiss nationalism. By invoking civic ideals such as justice, participation, and solidarity, feminist activists positioned themselves not as opponents of the nation but as its true inheritors. The slogan Wenn Frau will, steht alles still (“When women want, everything stops”) resonated with the ethos of direct democracy itself, emphasising collective action and civic agency as core Swiss values. Subsequent waves of mobilisation, including the nationwide feminist strikes of 2019 and 2023, built upon this foundation, translating symbolic protest into structural demands for parity in politics, the workplace, and public life.

Movements such as Frauen Macht Politik (FraP!) further institutionalised this transformation, pushing for gender quotas and greater representation across federal and cantonal levels.^[35] These initiatives reconfigured women’s relationship to the nation-state, moving from symbolic embodiment toward political agency. Yet, as Bader and Mottier caution, this process also opened space for femonationalism, the strategic co-optation of women’s rights within nationalist rhetoric, where equality becomes instrumentalised to reinforce exclusionary visions of Swiss identity, particularly against migrants and minorities.^[36] This  exposes what may be called the hypocrisy of nationalism: a system that proclaims universal civic belonging while simultaneously marginalising those within its own body.

The redefinition of national memory has also been central to women’s agency. Feminist historians such as Wecker and Gisler have sought to rewrite the nation’s past by recovering women’s voices from its margins.^[37] Their work challenges the masculinised canon of Swiss historiography, revealing how national myths of neutrality and democracy were sustained through gendered exclusions.^[38] This intellectual movement complements the cultural shift visible in public imagery: while Helvetia continues to represent virtue and purity, new feminist icons, emerging from art, protest, and politics, embody an active, plural, and self-determined Swiss womanhood. Even in state institutions like the Swiss army, gender-inclusive recruitment campaigns signal a symbolic redefinition of patriotism, where defending the nation is no longer exclusively male terrain.^[39] Theoretically, these developments echo Yuval-Davis’s observation that women occupy a dual role within nationalism, as both subjects and symbols.^[40]Nagel further highlights how the masculinised structure of national politics is disrupted when women enter the public arena, redefining its symbolic economy.^[41] Similarly, Racioppi and See argue that women in nationalist contexts rarely reject the nation outright; rather, they renegotiate its meaning from within.^[42] In the Swiss case, women’s movements have transformed nationalism from a discourse of exclusion into one of contested inclusion, reimagining the civic nation not as a masculine ideal, but as a shared, evolving project.

From a critical standpoint, women’s roles in Swiss nationalism were largely allocated: confined to symbolic, cultural, and reproductive functions that reinforced patriarchal ideals. Over time, however, women have increasingly taken agency, using activism, political participation, and feminist mobilisation to appropriate nationalist symbols for their own ends. Contemporary Swiss feminism merges civic ideals of equality with critical engagement of the nation’s patriarchal structures, highlighting the tension between Billig’s banal nationalism, which naturalises inequality through everyday symbols, and a more transformative nationalism, where feminist action actively redefines national identity.^[43] Yet obvious debates persist; does women’s inclusion represent genuine transformation, or merely co-optation of feminist agendas into nationalist rhetoric (femonationalism)? The Swiss case illustrates how inclusion can simultaneously challenge and reproduce nationalism, raising critical questions about whether feminist engagement subverts or reinforces the very structures it seeks to transform.^[44]

In conclusion, women's roles in Swiss nationalism have been both allocated and actively taken, reflecting a tension between exclusion and agency. Historically, they were confined to symbolic, cultural, and reproductive functions, mothers, educators, and moral guardians, while political participation remained largely male-dominated.^[45] Figures like Helvetia embodied the nation’s ideals, highlighting how Swiss national identity was constructed around gendered hierarchies.^[46] Feminist mobilisation, from the postwar suffrage movements to the Frauenstreiks of 1991, 2019, and 2023, demonstrates how women have reclaimed and reshaped their role.^[47] By asserting agency through activism, political participation, and public engagement, women moved from symbolic “mothers of the nation” to active “makers of the nation,” challenging patriarchal frameworks and redefining Swiss civic identity. This trajectory reflects broader European patterns of late inclusion, symbolic feminisation, and emerging feminist nationalism. The Swiss case shows that nationalism is a dynamic, socially constructed process. Its gendered dimension exposes both its capacity to exclude and its potential for redefinition. By tracing how women were both positioned within and reshaped the nation, this study illustrates that Swiss national identity, and nationalism more broadly, is continually negotiated through gendered struggle, memory, and civic participation, and helps me, a Swiss woman, better understand how my role has been historically and politically constructed.

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd edition. London: Verso. 1991.

Bader, Dina, and Véronique Mottier. “Femonationalism and Populist Politics: The Case of the Swiss Ban on Female Genital Mutilation.” Nations and Nationalism (ASEN). 2020.

Bendix, John. “Women’s Suffrage and Political Culture: A Modern Swiss Case.” Women & Politics 12 (3): 27-56. 1992.

Bendix, John. “Women and Politics in Germany and Switzerland.” European Journal of Political Research: 157–176. 1994.

Billig, Michael. “Banal Nationalism.” London: Sage. 1995.

Chollet, Antoine. “Switzerland as a ‘Fractured Nation.’” Nations and Nationalism 17 (4): 738–755. 2011.

Confédération Suisse. “Stratégie Égalité 2030 – Augmentation de la proportion de femmes au sein de l’armée.” Bureau fédéral de l’égalité entre femmes et hommes. 2024. https://www.egalite2030.ch.

Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly B. “The Women’s Movement Knocks on the Door: Theorizing the Strategy, Context and Impact of Frauen Macht Politik (FraP!) on Women’s Representation in Swiss Politics.” Politics & Gender 16 (1): 48–77. 2020.

Cusack, Tricia. “Janus and Gender: Women and the Nation’s Backward Look.” Nations and Nationalism 6 (4): 541–561. 2000.

Gisler, Monika. “Historienne du féminisme en Suisse.” Musée national – Blog sur l’histoire suisse, 2021. https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/fr/2021/08/historienne-du-feminisme-en-suisse/.

Glatthard, Jonas. “En politique Suisse, les femmes sont encore loin du but.” Swiss Info. January 28, 2021. https://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/politique/en-politique-suisse-les-femmes-sont-encore-loin-du-but.

Ipperciel, Donald. “La Suisse: Un cas d'exception pour le nationalisme?” Swiss Political Science Review 13 (1): 39–67. 2007.

Lloren, Anouk. “Switzerland: Direct Democracy and Women’s Political Participation.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights, edited by S. Franceschet, M. L. Krook, and N. Tan. Gender and Politics. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2019.

Losa, Fabio B., and Pau Origoni. “The Socio-Cultural Dimension of Women’s Labour Force Participation Choices in Switzerland.” International Labour Review 144 (4): 473–494. 2005.

Nagel, Joane. “Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21 (2): 242–269. 1998.

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. “Women’s Right to Vote in Europe.” Austrian National  Library,

2025. https://www.onb.ac.at/en/more/ariadne-the-women.

“Participation Politique: Les femmes dans les fonctions et positions politiques.” Histoire de l’Égalité en Suisse de 1848 à 2000.Accessed 10th October 2025.

Racioppi, Linda, and Katherine O’Sullivan See. “Engendering Nation and National Identity.” In Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation?, edited by Sita Ranchod-Nilsson and Mary Ann Tétreault, 17–36. London: Routledge. 2000.

Schmitt, Nicolas. “Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism as Essence of Federalism: The Swiss Example.” Il Politico: Rivista Italiana di Scienze Politiche, no. 231: 169–187. 2012.

Sidjanski, Dusan. “The Swiss and Their Politics.” Government and Opposition 11 (3): 294–321. 1976.

Studer, Brigitte, “Citizenship as Contingent National Belonging: Married Women and Foreigners in Twentieth-Century Switzerland,” Gender History 13 (3): 622–654. 2001.

Tamir, Yael. “Liberal Nationalism.” Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1993

Walby, Sylvia. “Woman and Nation.” In Mapping the Nation, edited by Gopal Balakrishnan, 235–254. London: Verso. 1996.

Wecker, Regina. “Women’s History in Switzerland.” In Writing Women’s History, edited by Karen

Offen, Ruth Roach Pierson, and Jane Rendall. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 1991

Wimmer, Andreas. “A Swiss Anomaly? A Relational Account of National Boundary-Making.” Nations and Nationalism 17 (4): 718–737. 2011.

Yuval-Davis, Nira. “Nationalism, Feminism and Gender Relations.” In Understanding Nationalism, edited by Montserrat Guibernau and John Hutchinson, 120–142. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2001.

Zimmer, Oliver. A Contested Nation: History, Memory and Nationalism in Switzerland, 1761–1891. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003.

Zimmer, Oliver. “‘A Unique Fusion of the Natural and the Man-Made’: The Trajectory of Swiss Nationalism, 1933-39.” Journal of Contemporary History 39 (1): 5–24. 2004.

Footnotes

^[1] Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. “Women’s Right to Vote in Europe.” Austrian National  Library,

2025.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Studer, Brigitte, “Citizenship as Contingent National Belonging: Married Women and Foreigners in Twentieth-Century Switzerland,” Gender History 13 (3): 622-654. 2001.

^[6] Wecker, Regina. “Women’s History in Switzerland.” In Writing Women’s History, edited by Karen Offen, Ruth Roach Pierson, and Jane Rendall. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 1991.

^[7] Bendix, John. “Women’s Suffrage and Political Culture: A Modern Swiss Case.” Women & Politics 12 (3): 27-56. 1992.

^[8] Yuval-Davis, Nira. “Nationalism, Feminism and Gender Relations.” In Understanding Nationalism, edited by Montserrat Guibernau and John Hutchinson, 120–142. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2001.

^[9] Zimmer, Oliver. A Contested Nation: History, Memory and Nationalism in Switzerland, 1761–1891. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003

^[10] Cusack, Tricia. “Janus and Gender: Women and the Nation’s Backward Look.” Nations and Nationalism 6 (4): 541–561. 2000.

^[11] Losa, Fabio B., and Pau Origoni. “The Socio-Cultural Dimension of Women’s Labour Force Participation Choices in Switzerland.” International Labour Review 144 (4): 473–494. 2005.

^[12] Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly B. “The Women’s Movement Knocks on the Door: Theorizing the Strategy, Context and Impact of Frauen Macht Politik (FraP!) on Women’s Representation in Swiss Politics.” Politics & Gender 16 (1): 48–77. 2020.

^[13] Bendix, John. “Women and Politics in Germany and Switzerland.” European Journal of Political Research: 157–176. 1994.

^[14] Glatthard, Jonas. “En politique Suisse, les femmes sont encore loin du but.” Swiss Info, January 28th 2021.

^[15] Yuval-Davis. “Nationalism, Feminism and Gender Relations.” 2001.

^[16] Walby, Sylvia. “Woman and Nation.” In Mapping the Nation, edited by Gopal Balakrishnan, 235–254. London: Verso. 1996.

^[17] Glatthard. “En politique Suisse, les femmes sont encore loin du but.” Swiss Info, 2021.

^[18] Confédération Suisse. “Stratégie Égalité 2030 – Augmentation de la Proportion de Femmes au sein de l’Armée.” Bureau fédéral de l’égalité entre femmes et hommes. 2024.

^[19] Ibid.

^[20] Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism (London: Sage, 1995)

^[21] Lloren, Anouk. 2019. “Switzerland: Direct Democracy and Women’s Political Participation.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights.

^[22] Gisler, Monika. “Historienne du féminisme en Suisse.” Musée national – Blog sur l’histoire suisse, August 2021.

^[23] Tamir, Yael. “Liberal Nationalism.” Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1993

^[24] Ipperciel, Donald. “La Suisse: Un cas d'exception pour le nationalisme?” Swiss Political Science Review 13 (1): 39–67. 2007.

^[25] Zimmer, Oliver. 2003. A Contested Nation: History, Memory and Nationalism in Switzerland.

^[26] Studer, Brigitte. “Citizenship as Contingent National Belonging: Married Women and Foreigners in Twentieth-Century Switzerland.” Gender History 13 (3): 622–654. 2001.

^[27] Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd edition. London: Verso. 1991.

^[28] Chollet, Antoine. “Switzerland as a ‘Fractured Nation.’” Nations and Nationalism 17 (4): 738–755. 2011.

^[29] Cusack, Tricia. “Janus and Gender: Women and the Nation’s Backward Look.” Nations and Nationalism 6 (4): 541–561. 2000.

^[30] Schmitt, Nicolas. “Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism as Essence of Federalism: The Swiss Example.” Il Politico: Rivista Italiana di Scienze Politiche, no. 231: 169–187. 2012.

^[31] Cusack. “Janus and Gender.” Nations and Nationalism. 2000.

^[32] Sidjanski, Dusan. “The Swiss and Their Politics.” Government and Opposition 11 (3): 294–321. 1976.

^[33] Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage. 1995.

^[34] Bader, Dina, and Véronique Mottier. “Femonationalism and Populist Politics: The Case of the Swiss Ban on Female Genital Mutilation.” Nations and Nationalism (ASEN). 2020.

^[35] Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly B. “The Women’s Movement Knocks on the Door,” Politics & Gender. 2020.

^[36] Bader and Mottier, “Femonationalism and Populist Politics,” 2020.

^[37] Wecker, Regina. “Women’s History in Switzerland.” In Writing Women’s History. London: 1991.

^[38] Gisler, Monika. “Historienne du féminisme en Suisse.” Musée national – Blog sur l’histoire suisse, 2021.

^[39] Wimmer, Andreas. “A Swiss Anomaly? A Relational Account of National Boundary-Making.” Nations and Nationalism 17 (4): 718–737. 2011.

^[40] Yuval-Davis. “Nationalism, Feminism and Gender Relations.” 2001.

^[41] Nagel, Joane. “Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21 (2): 242–269. 1998.

^[42] Racioppi, Linda, and Katherine O’Sullivan See. “Engendering Nation and National Identity.” In Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? London: Routledge. 2000.

^[43] Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage. 1995.

^[44] Bader, and Mottier. “Femonationalism and Populist Politics.” 2020.

^[45] Zimmer, Oliver. “‘A Unique Fusion of the Natural and the Man-Made’: The Trajectory of Swiss Nationalism, 1933-39.” Journal of Contemporary History 39 (1): 5–24. 2004.

^[46] Walby, Sylvia. “Woman and Nation.” In Mapping the Nation, edited by Gopal Balakrishnan, 235-254. London: Verso. 1996.

^[47] “Participation Politique: Les Femmes dans les Fonctions et Positions Politiques.” Histoire de l’Égalité en Suisse de 1848 à 2000. Accessed 10th October 2025.