Emilie Lieberherr
Swiss politician (1924–2011)
Emilie Lieberherr (14 October 1924 – 3 January 2011) was a Swiss politician and women's rights activist. A leading figure in the movement for women's suffrage in Switzerland, she chaired the action committee behind the 1969 march to Bern and addressed the crowd of thousands who gathered on the Federal Square in Bern on 1 March 1969 to demand the right to vote.
A member of the Social Democratic Party, Lieberherr became the first woman elected to the city executive (Stadtrat) of Zürich in 1970, heading its Social Welfare Office until her resignation in 1994. She represented the Canton of Zürich in the Council of States from 1978 to 1983 and served as the first president of the Federal Office for Gender Equality. Over her decades in office, she became known for pioneering social policy, introducing advance payment of alimony in Zürich, co-initiating the medically supervised distribution of heroin to severe addicts that became part of Switzerland's four-pillar drug policy, and establishing care homes for the elderly, youth centers, and housing for the disadvantaged.
Early life and education
Lieberherr was born 14 October 1924 in Erstfeld, Switzerland, the second of three sisters, to Jakob Lieberherr (1881–1941), a machinist at the Swiss Federal Railways, and Theresia Lieberherr (née Dallabona; 1888–1969), into a middle class family.
Her paternal family was originally from Nesslau. Her maternal grandparents, Giovanni Dallabona and Lucia Dallabona (née Campini), where originally from Trodena in Trentino Alto Adige, and came to Switzerland to work as miners during the construction of the Gotthard Tunnel, later remaining in Uri and Zurich.
She attended Theresianum Igenbohl, a Catholic boarding school during her youth and graduated with a commercial diploma.
Professional career
After graduating, she worked as a secretary at the Swiss Bank Corporation in Zurich for three years.
The public source identifies “Emilie Lieberherr” as swiss politician (1924–2011). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Emilie, Lieberherr and Swiss.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1337334. VIAF identifies the subject as 309561509. The Library of Congress control number is n2019029978. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2011, 1969 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emilie Lieberherr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.