Swiss men and women increasingly at odds politically

Different opinions: men and women are drifting apart in many democracies around the world. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

In Switzerland, as in many other countries, women and men are drifting apart politically. Experts reckon the explanation lies in a different female perspective on social and environmental issues.  

The political opinions of men and women are drifting apart. This is a worldwide trend to a greater or lesser degree, but it is most apparent in the younger age bracket. The US presidential election illustrated this polarisation between young male and female voters. The GuardianExternal link reported that 58% of women between 18 and 29 voted for Kamala Harris, while 56% of men of the same age supported Donald Trump. 

These divisions seem even more pronounced outside the Western world, says the Financial TimesExternal link, which recently analysed data from various countries. “In South Korea there is now a yawning chasm between young men and women, and it’s a similar situation in China,” the article said. “In Africa, Tunisia shows the same pattern.”

The newspaper speaks of a “global gender divide” affecting every continent. 

Differences in voting patterns

Switzerland is no exception. Here, the gender divide is becoming more and more pronounced as time goes by in voting patterns at federal level. The phenomenon could be clearly seen in the popular votes in November 2024, when women turned down all four proposals, whereas men accepted them.  

Women voters torpedoed the extension of the motorway network proposed by the government. The gender gap was a full 19 percentage points, according to a post-vote analysis by the polling institute gfs.bern. It’s one of the biggest such gaps ever recorded. Men voted 57% for the plan, while only 38% of women did. 

The biggest ever male-female gap observed so far – 27 percentage points – was in 2022 when there was a nationwide vote on a reform of the old age pension scheme, as shown in the chart below. Nearly two-thirds of men backed the idea of raising the retirement age for women, while two thirds of women were against. In that particular case, though, the male vote was enough to push the government’s plan through. 

But “votes where there is a gap between men and women remain the exception and not the rule”, according to political scientist Martina Mousson.

In fact, such a gender divide appeared in only 70 of a total of 410 issues put to voters since the VOX systematic analysis of decisionsExternal link started in 1977. Women tipped the scales most of the time – in fact, 16 times, compared to 11 times for men. In three cases, the issues were rejected because they didn’t win a majority of cantons, so that was what decided the results and not any supposed battle of the sexes. The data available do not permit any conclusion as to whether the voting pattern among the Swiss Abroad was any different from the domestic vote.  

Yet since 2020, the gender gap is more noticeable and seems to be increasing in size. Of the ten nationwide votes where the gap was biggest, six happened in the last four years.  

For Mousson, that has mostly to do with the topics being voted on. “We know that women tend to vote differently on particular issues, which happened to be front and centre in the referendums held in the past few years – especially environmental topics,” she says.   

Women, Mousson finds, tend to vote in favour of environmental protection, but also in support of old age pensions, minorities and vulnerable groups, prevention as part of health care, the public service sector, and against the military. “They defend their interests when it comes to topics that affect them directly, like the vote on raising the legal retirement age,” Mousson adds.  

She also has another explanation. “There is a new political awareness among women,” she finds. The one-day nationwide “women’s strike” in 2019 was a chance for them to take stock of their own political strength and see that they have a consensus on a range of topics. “Women today are more comfortable with the idea of thinking differently from men,” she says. 

Women vote more left

The gap between men and women goes beyond popular votes. It is also to be seen in elections: women are more likely to vote for candidates on the left than men.  

In the federal elections, men tend to go for parties to the right of centre, whereas women are more likely to go for Social Democrats and Greens. That was apparent in the 1990s, as can be seen in the chart below based on the Swiss Elections Study SelectsExternal link which has been published by the University of Lausanne since 1995. 

Yet when women finally got the vote in Switzerland in 1971, the picture was very different. Women were further to the right on the political spectrum than men were. There was a saying at the time that they voted like the local clergyman. “This has turned around since 1987,” says political scientist and head of Selects, Anke Tresch. The tendency can be traced in elections in the years following. 

“Secularisation has contributed to this change of attitudes. In the 1970s, women were more religious and likely to be involved in their church,” explains Tresch. Improvement in the status of women generally is part of the explanation too, she thinks. “They are more involved in the workforce now and have an educational level higher on average than men.” 

She finds that women’s rights and minority rights are what draw them to the left of centre parties. “They tend to be very much aware of these issues,” she notes. 

The male-female divide could well increase in the coming years, as it is very apparent among the younger generation. At the last federal general elections, the Social Democrats were the leading party with women between the ages of 18 and 24, while men of the same age group were more likely to go for the right-wing People’s Party, SelectsExternal link found. “These differences are getting more pronounced in the younger generation,” Tresch concludes.  

Not yet a complete break-up

In the final analysis, however, the political gap between men and women does not impress these political scientists much. “There are always differences to be seen between different population groups. In the past, religious affiliation was a source of conflict. Today, this ‘gender gap’ is becoming a bit more significant,” finds Tresch. 

Yet she does point out that the studies show young women are more and more aware of political viewpoints when choosing a partner. “If that becomes a general trend, it could have an impact on society,” she says. 

Mousson takes an optimistic view. “I don’t think women and men will stop talking to each other in political life, or in everyday life for that matter,” she says. 

Passing trend or underlying issue?

In the political parties, the gap between men and women seems to bother those on the left more than those on the right. “I don’t think there is an unbridgeable chasm there,” says one politician to the right of centre, Radical-Liberal senator Johanna Gapany. She thinks differences have just to do with particular issues. 

Green party parliamentarian Delphine Klopfenstein believes that the gender gap in popular votes reflects the under-representation of women in parliament. “Since they don’t get their views reflected enough in the decisions of parliament, they let them be known in their referendum voting,” she says.  

Edited by Samuel Jaberg; adapted from French by Terence MacNamee/ds