Zurich guild ends historic ban on women members

Women will no longer be purely ceremonial at one of Zurich's largest guilds. Keystone / Ennio Leanza

A major upheaval has just shaken the centuries-old traditions of Zurich's guilds: the largest and most prestigious of the medieval corporations has decided to open its doors to women.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Earlier this month, the Zunft zur Meisen, the guild of wine merchants, cellarers and painters (The Innkeepers), voted in favor of integrating women, with 88% support. Since 2022, the daughters of current members of the Zurich guilds have had access to them as guests. For the rest of the activities, the brotherhoods had remained entirely reserved for men.

+ How women made their Sechseläuten debut

This means that women of the guild can play a full part in the Sechseläuten spring festival this year.

Every third Monday in April, 26 guilds representing various trades parade through the city streets during the traditional festival. The very idea that a woman could become a permanent member of a Zurich guild seemed inconceivable until recently.

Until the 19th century, men were the political representatives of the family and women were excluded from the public sphere, François Guex, art historian and member of the Tailors guild, told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

The Zunft zur Meisen , in particular, has always been a wealthy and influential guild. With over 200 members, it is also the largest. “It was the richest in the late Middle Ages, and its members held important political positions. Because you had to be rich to have the time to be an ambassador or go to the assembly of cantons in Baden. A tailor, for example, did not have the means,” said Guex. Although women have always been present in workshops and shops, they have never had access to corporations.

Women-only guild

In 1989, a group of women founded their own guild, the Fraumünster, to participate in the Sechseläuten. Although their participation was initially restricted to 20 minutes before the official parade, the Fraumünster has been a permanent invitation since 2014, although this invitation is limited to a period of 25 years.

+ Discover five bizarre Swiss traditions

The Zurich guilds are independent associations, each deciding its own future, said Guex, who has been commentating on Sechseläuten for around 20 years on RTS.

After the Zunft zur Meisen , other guilds could follow suit. The guild of Höngg , a district of Zurich, has already announced that it will adopt a similar policy of openness to women, with a transition period of five years. The guild of the Three Kings has allowed women to actively participate in the Sechseläuten parade.

However, Guex tempers the enthusiasm surrounding this development. “This is not the end of a male bastion,” he warned. Each guild evolves at its own pace, and some could refuse this change. It is possible that members will choose to leave the institution as soon as women are admitted. Others, on the contrary, could consider this as a positive development.

Adapted from French by DeepL/mga

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].