Although Switzerland is one of the oldest democracies in the world, it was the last one in Europe - apart from Liechtenstein - to give women the vote. Women have only been allowed to participate in federal elections since 1971.

In November 2007 the Interparliamentary Union ranked Switzerland 22nd in the world for the proportion of women in parliament. In the same table the United States was 65th, and the United Kingdom was joint 51th(with the Dominican Republic). The list is headed by Rwanda.

When the Swiss Federal Council came up for election before the new Federal Assembly chosen in the parliamentary elections of 2003, one of the two women members, Ruth Metzler, was not reelected. Failure to replace her with another woman led to protest demonstrations.

However, in 2006, when Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss of the Christian Democrats stepped down in mid-term, the party submitted only one candidate, Doris Leuthard, to replace him, ensuring that from August 2006 there would again be two women in the council.

Switzerland had its first woman president in 1999, when Ruth Dreifuss held the office. The Federal Chancellor is also a woman, Annemarie Huber-Hotz.

Another breakthrough came in April 2003, when four women were elected to the seven-member Zurich cantonal government, making Zurich the first canton to have more women than men in its administration.