By Cecile Mantovani
GENEVA (Reuters) – Like many women across Switzerland on Wednesday, women’s rights activist Françoise Nyffeler joined a crowd of demonstrators and screamed at the top of her lungs in unison with others as part of a “feminist strike” protesting gender inequality in one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
“We did it to symbolize our anger and our rage at waiting, waiting and waiting,” she said surrounded by dozens of other women wearing purple who also chanted in central Geneva.
“The salary inequality continues, violence continues and… there are not at all enough measures to match the scale of what is happening.”
Despite its high quality of life, Switzerland lags other developed economies in terms of women’s pay and workplace equality.
Swiss women earn roughly a fifth less than men, better than 30 years ago when it was about a third less, but worse than in 2000, according to government data.
Female demonstrators staging strikes and protests across the country on Wednesday called for equal pay, an end to violence against women and the LGBT community, and greater recognition of their often-unpaid work to care for family members.
At 3:24 p.m., the time when women would technically begin working for free given wage discrimination, protesters began shouting at Geneva’s Pleinpalais square – a collective cry that lasted about a minute.
“I was hoping that this voice, this scream, could be heard far enough for people to stop and know what is going on,” said Geneva resident Vjollca Ahmeti.
“It’s a scandal that today, we still don’t have the same salaries as men,” added Karine, who resides in France but works in Geneva.
Many Swiss women hold an annual strike and protests on June 14, a day that marks the anniversary of a 1981 vote that enshrined the principle of equality in the constitution.
(Additional reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
