Pioneers of Democracy and Rearguard of Gender Equality. Swiss Reformed Women’s Long Path to the Pfarramt

Berlis, Angela (2021). Pioneers of Democracy and Rearguard of Gender Equality. Swiss Reformed Women’s Long Path to the Pfarramt. In: Schlarb, Cornelia; Schneider-Ludorff, Gury; Stradtner, Christine (eds.) Perspektiven Feministischer Theologie und Gender Studies. Internationale Forschungen in Feministischer Theologie und Religion: Vol. 11 (pp. 151-173). Berlin: Lit

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In October 1918, the first two reformed women were ordained in the city of Zurich. While the church council and the cantonal synod were in favour of them becoming the first female pastors in the Landeskirche (the reformed church is one of three privileged churches in the canton of Zurich), the law of the canton hindered the recognition of women in a public office as «Pfarrerin». The two women in Zurich and in other cantons had to remain «Pfarrhelferinnen» («female helpers of the congregation»). The next women in Zurich would be only ordained in 1963. At that time, the civil voting rights for women in Switzerland had still to come (in 1971), but times had begun to change. The contribution explore how civil law and church law in Switzerland were connected and how they hindered women on their way to their voting rights in church and state. The longstanding exclusion of women from voting rights in Switzerland both in church and state was not only due to antifeminism but to «a combination of structural and cultural factors» (B. Studer). These included a lack of dramatic political and historical changes such as those in neighbouring countries, which therefore did not function as a force to change Swiss democratic structures.

Item Type:	Book Section (Book Chapter)
Division/Institute:	01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Old Catholic Theology 01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Old Catholic Theology > Church History and Historical Theology, Liturgical Studies
UniBE Contributor:	Berlis, Angela
Subjects:	200 Religion 200 Religion > 230 Christianity & Christian theology 200 Religion > 270 History of Christianity 200 Religion > 280 Christian denominations
ISBN:	978-3-643-14914-5
Series:	Internationale Forschungen in Feministischer Theologie und Religion
Publisher:	Lit
Language:	German
Submitter:	Angela Karoline Hermine Berlis
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2022 09:18
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 16:15
Additional Information:	Festschrift für Renate Jost
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/167691