Emma Kammacher was a Swiss human rights lawyer, activist and politician.
21 Facts About Emma Kammacher
2.
Emma Kammacher was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and served as a member of the Grand Council of Geneva.
3.
Emma Kammacher was the daughter of Christian Kammacher who came from a Bernese farming family, and of Catherine Emilie Desplands, originally from Rougemont at the eastern end of the adjacent canton of Vaud.
4.
Emma Kammacher was educated at the College Calvin in Geneva and she then went on to study law at Bern.
5.
Emma Kammacher then moved back to Geneva, where she passed her bar examination in 1932.
6.
Emma Kammacher was now able to work on behalf of clients.
7.
In 1932 Emma Kammacher became de facto secretary of the Association genevoise pour le suffrage feminin, working alongside Emilie Gourd to campaign for women's voting rights on a cantonal level.
8.
Emilie Gourd died in December 1946 and Emma Kammacher took on the presidency of the Geneva association in 1947, serving in that position till 1955.
9.
Emma Kammacher was in addition a member of the committee behind the monthly publication "Le mouvement feministe".
10.
At her investiture address as she took over the presidency of the "Grand Conseil de Geneve" from Yves Maitre, Emma Kammacher delivered her reply to anyone who still wondered if the introduction of women to participation in mainstream [canton-level] politics might be reversed:.
11.
Emma Kammacher launched herself into the world of cantonal politics.
12.
Emma Kammacher stood as a candidate for the "Parti socialiste suisse", which was the first party actually to include women on its candidates list.
13.
In 1961 Emma Kammacher was one of nine women elected to of the "Grand Conseil de Geneve".
14.
Emma Kammacher argued that the voting rights and eligibilities accorded by the constitution nationally were based on the same rights as those accorded in the canton of a citizen's domicile.
15.
Emma Kammacher had retired from active politics, but the battle in which she had for so long engaged was finally won.
16.
Emma Kammacher pressed for reform of the legal framework for marriage in ways which would eliminate gender bias and create the possibility of financial independence for married women.
17.
Emma Kammacher campaigned against the different prices paid for sickness insurance by women, and against the absurdity whereby employees were forced to accept unpaid "maternity leave", rather than being able to benefit from a system of "maternity insurance".
18.
Emma Kammacher helped many people with housing problems or difficulties accessing appropriate educational opportunities for their children because they were socially disadvantaged - on low wages or ethnically different from mainstream populations in a village or municipality.
19.
Ten years after the referendum that ushered in universal adult suffrage on the national level Emma Kammacher died in Le Grand-Saconnex at the age of 76.
20.
Emma Kammacher had continued to practice law until a few months before her death.
21.
Emma Kammacher is buried in a family grave at the cemetery of Meyrin-Village.