Marthe Gosteli

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Marthe Gosteli
Worblaufen, Switzerland
Died7 April 2017(2017-04-07) (aged 99)
Muri bei Bern
, Switzerland
NationalitySwiss
Occupation(s)archivist and suffrage activist
Years active1940–2014
Known forcreating the Swiss women's history archive

Marthe Gosteli (22 December 1917 – 7 April 2017) was a Swiss suffrage activist and archivist. For thirty years, she led the fight for women's right to vote in Switzerland and then focused her attention on preserving the history of Swiss women. Creating an archive of women's biographies and history, Gosteli's work was recognized by many honours and awards, including the 2011 Swiss Human Rights Award.

Biography

Marthe Gosteli was born on 22 December 1917 in

Worblaufen, (now known as Ittigen) Switzerland to Johanna Ida (née Salzmann) and Ernst Gosteli. She completed commercial training and took language courses in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and in London.[1] Gosteli's father died, leaving his wife in charge of the estate. With the help of her daughters, the women managed to hold on to and maintain the family farm, but Gosteli recognized how inequality affected them[2] and joined the feminist movement in 1940.[3]

During

Federation of Swiss Women's Associations (German: Bund Schweizerischer Frauenorganisationen) (BSF), and known now as Alliance F.[4]
Gosteli became chair of the working group of the BSF for the Political Rights of Women in 1970[4] and the women targeted the 1971 referendum, participating in various commissions[1] and debates. Finally, on 7 February 1971,[3] two-thirds of the voting men in Switzerland granted women the right to vote at the national level.[2]

Quickly the fight then turned toward other inequalities: the right to manage their own bank accounts, equal pay, maternal leave and other women's issues.[2] Gosteli focused her attention on preserving the history of the movement, but her first attempt at establishing an archive of women's history failed. In 1982, she succeeded in establishing the Gosteli Foundation, to preserve and protect the history of Switzerland's women. Starting with a government collection of 19th-century works including books, brochures and magazines, Gosteli added to the collection with private donations from organizations and individuals. Cataloguing and adding the data to the information network of the German-Swiss archive Informationsverbund Deutschschweiz (IDS),[3] the collection grew into an extensive library, which includes historic and biographical material about pioneers and organizations.[4] In January 2014, at the age of 96, Gosteli retired from the archive.[5]

She died on 7 April 2017 at the age of 99.[6]

Awards and honors

Gosteli received many awards and honours. In 1989 she received the Trudy-Schlatter Prize and in 1992 was honoured with the Medal of the Community of Bern. Gosteli was granted an Honorary doctorate from the University of Bern.[1] In 2008, Gosteli received the Silver Medal of Merit from the Economic and Charitable Society of Bern[7] and in 2011 she was granted the Swiss Human Rights Award.[8]

Selected works

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Ludi 2005.
  2. ^ a b c d Gatten 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d Hettinger 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e Berthoud 2011.
  5. ^ Fehlmann 2013.
  6. ^ Christ 2017.
  7. ^ OGG Bulletin 2008.
  8. ^ Berner Zeitung 2011.

Sources

External links

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