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At the Meisen-Zunft, women are now also allowed to attend parades and events. Before that, they were only allowed as guests or flower girls. But gender equality remains a sensitive issue.
The Zurich Sechseläuten is almost exclusively a male event. Women are only allowed here as guests of honor or as flower girls. And even Böögg is male.
Times are changing and we want to move with the times.
The Zunft zur Meisen, Zurich’s largest guild, now wants to change this, in keeping with the times, as guild master Gustav von Schulthess says: “Times are changing and we want to keep up with the times.” Women are on the rise everywhere. That’s why his guild also wants to go in this direction, says von Schulthess. “Equality is popular everywhere.”
76 percent agreement
From the next Sechseläuten, daughters of the Meisen guild members and other women can be present as permanent guests at the parade and at all other events. On Friday, 76 percent of the guild members agreed to this change in a postal vote. It should initially be valid for a probationary period of up to 5 years.
But women in Zurich’s guilds remain the exception – and equality is a sensitive issue. For a few years now, the Fraumünster Society has been the first women’s guild to take part in the Sechseläuten as a kind of permanent guest.
Women were not wanted earlier on the Sechseleuten
What is now accepted used to be a hot topic. The participation of women was clearly rejected by men 30 years ago. One man said in an interview with SRF in 1992 that women should at least let the men do the six-person procession. Another said he would like to be given flowers, but he didn’t see a women’s guild running with them.
We will do what we think is right when the time comes.
Even today, the Constaffel Society, one of the most prominent in Zurich, is still cautious about the women’s issue. Constable Herr Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg emphasizes that each guild has its own rules. “We will do what we think is right when the time comes. And only then and only what we think is right.” Discussions are an internal matter for Constaffel.
Legend:
The female members of the Fraumünster guild were already tolerated in the official parade on the 2010 Sechseläuten. Now women should also be allowed to run in the largest Zurich guild.
Keystone/Gaetan Bally
It sounds similar with the only women’s guild, the Society of Fraumünster. “The time must be right,” says Margrit Huser, high Fraumünster woman. “You shouldn’t rush it, it has short legs.” The high level of approval from the Meisen guild is remarkable. Other guilds might now also think about it, says Huser. “But each guild is independent.”
The tit guild doesn’t want to rush anything either. First there is a trial period. It will probably be a few more years before women become members of the guild and actually have equal rights with men in the guild.