Women's strike legend: Christiane Brunner

Interview with Christiane Brunner who told us how she organised the first Swiss women's strike in 1991. Around half a million women stopped work for one day to take part.

"In 1991, we came up with the idea of starting a women's strike. We were among women colleagues from the watch industry in the Vallée de Joux because I own a small chalet there. It was the women watch workers who said: 'We have to do something, nothing is happening. Equality has not been achieved and we should go on strike.' I took up the idea. Why not organise a strike? And so we started the women's strike movement.

My male colleagues told me: 'You can't do that', that a strike is something sacred, that I can't use the word strike for women. 'You can't do that', they said, 'you can't have a women's strike!' I gradually convinced the trade unions. One woman in German-speaking Switzerland made me laugh particularly: she said (to her husband): 'On that day you will eat cold!'

That's how the women's strike finally got big and we had a very nice day in 1991.

FIGHT ON! There is still work to be done so that women can take their true place. And this June 14 and the next June 14 allow us to rekindle the flame. If we stop fighting, we are already beaten. So we have to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. The June 14 movement is really a wonderful initiative to achieve equality."