A historic majority of women in Switzerland's new cabinet
Switzerland's parliament has voted a new minister into the government, giving the cabinet a majority of women for the first time.
The election of Simonetta Sommaruga, 50, a Social Democrat, is a historic step in a country where women only got to vote on a national level in 1971.
Ms Sommaruga becomes the fourth female in the seven-member Federal Council.
One of the other posts in the Federal Council will be filled by another vote later in the day.
The seven members of the Swiss cabinet have recently always been drawn from the four leading parties.
Although it is highly unusual in Europe for women to hold a majority in a country's cabinet, it is not unique. The Spanish cabinet unveiled by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero after his re-election in 2008 included more women than men.
Finland, Norway and the Cape Verde Islands also have female majorities, according to the Inter Parliamentary Union.
Equality issues
"Symbolically, it is a rather powerful message from a country with a conservative reputation to have four or five women out of the seven seats in the government," said Pascal Sciarini, who heads the political science institute in the University of Geneva, to the AFP news agency....
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The election of Simonetta Sommaruga, 50, a Social Democrat, is a historic step in a country where women only got to vote on a national level in 1971.
Ms Sommaruga becomes the fourth female in the seven-member Federal Council.
One of the other posts in the Federal Council will be filled by another vote later in the day.
The seven members of the Swiss cabinet have recently always been drawn from the four leading parties.
Although it is highly unusual in Europe for women to hold a majority in a country's cabinet, it is not unique. The Spanish cabinet unveiled by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero after his re-election in 2008 included more women than men.
Finland, Norway and the Cape Verde Islands also have female majorities, according to the Inter Parliamentary Union.
Equality issues
"Symbolically, it is a rather powerful message from a country with a conservative reputation to have four or five women out of the seven seats in the government," said Pascal Sciarini, who heads the political science institute in the University of Geneva, to the AFP news agency....