“The modern Stauffacher woman”

In 1957, a group of cooperative members founded the Schweizerischen Bund der Migros-Genossenschafterinnen (SBMG) (Swiss Federation of Female Migros Cooperative Members) to improve conditions for Swiss women. This group registered as a non-profit organisation in 2000 and changed its name to Forum elle.

“It is time, when the male citizen hesitates, that the Stauffacher women begin to speak,” writes Gottlieb Duttweiler in the Brückenbauer in the autumn of 1951. Since the 1920s, Duttweiler has supported the introduction of voting rights for women, backed by his closest employee, Elsa Gasser. They are both of the opinion that if women had the right to vote, “quite a lot of things would turn out more human and understandable”.
In 1957, two years before women’s suffrage is put to the vote on a national level, Duttweiler establishes the Schweizerischen Bund der Migros-Genossenschafterinnen (SBMG) ) – the Swiss Federation of female Migros Cooperative members – with a small group of female Migros Cooperative members. Mary Paravicini-Vogel is elected as the first central president. She is ideal for the job: the experienced fighter for women’s voting rights is also a member of the Landesring and the Basel Migros Cooperative. They want, writes Paravicini-Vogel in the Brückenbauer, to cultivate the “comradely spirit” and “endeavour to improve the social and legal position of the Swiss woman”. But mainly they want to contribute towards the maturity of the female customers who “today more than ever, are dependent on a solid knowledge of the market situation, if they want to effectively protect the interests of the family”. Symbolically, the young organisation holds its first assembly of delegates on the premises of SAFFA, the second Swiss exhibition for female labour.
In 2000, the SBMG changes its name to Forum elle and registers as a non-profit organisation. Today, the approximately 10,000 members use the organisation as a “place to meet and discuss”.