Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten

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Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten (born September 24, 1952 in Saas Almagell ) is a Swiss politician ( SP ). On March 4, 2009 she was elected as the first woman to the Council of State (Government Council) in the canton of Valais . She is the head of the Department for Health, Social Affairs and Culture (DGSK).

family

Waeber-Kalbermatten was born in Saas Almagell in 1952 as the eldest daughter of the Walter and Albina Kalbermatten-Zurbriggen family. Due to her father's teaching profession, she grew up with her three siblings in Leuk -Stadt, Visp and Naters . Waeber-Kalbermatten has been married to Reinhard Waeber (former head physician at the Psychiatry Center Oberwallis, now retired) since 1977. She is the mother of three sons. Waeber-Kalbermatten lives in Brig-Glis and is entitled to reside in Saas Almagell and Saas-Balen .

education and profession

After compulsory schooling, Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten was one of the first girls who, after the opening of secondary schools in Valais for women , was allowed to graduate from high school at the Kollegium Spiritus Sanctus in Brig from 1967 . After the Matura type B in 1973, she studied pharmacy at the University of Bern and obtained the diploma in 1979 . dipl. Pharmacist . She then took on a deputy in several Officina pharmacies. Between 1985 and 1997, she also taught pharmaceutical assistants at the vocational schools in Brig and Bern. From 1993 until her election to the State Council in 2009, Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten ran her own pharmacy in Brig. Between 2002 and 2004 she also completed a postgraduate degree in gender management at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW in Olten.

Political career

In 1989, Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten was elected to the Valais cantonal parliament as SP substitute for the Visp district. This was followed by a total of twelve years (three legislatures) between 1993 and 2005 as an SP MP for the Brig district in the Valais Grand Council . Here she was involved in numerous parliamentary commissions, including a. six years in the finance commission and as vice-president in the thematic commission for institutions, families and foreign affairs.

In 1997, until her election to the Valais government, she was also a member of the municipal council of Brig-Glis, where she most recently headed the business and culture department, including in the energy city area. In their era, the renovation, expansion and extension took place with the addition of a modern dementia ward. Waeber-Kalbermatten, as head of the culture department, was also significantly involved in the fact that the former armory of the army in Brig-Glis was purchased by the township and converted into a cultural center.

Other mandates from Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten:

  • 1999–2005 the presidium of the cantonal equality council,
  • 2001–2005 Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Retirement and Nursing Home Englischgruss in Brig-Glis,
  • 2005–2009 president of the board of trustees of the English greeting home for the elderly and nursing home in Brig-Glis.

In March 2009, Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten was elected as the first woman to the State Council of the Canton of Valais, where she took over as head of the Department for Security, Social Affairs and Integration (DSSI). In 2012/13 she became the first district president of the canton of Valais.

In March 2013 she was re-elected as State Councilor and has since headed the Department of Health, Social Affairs and Culture (DGSK). In the elections in March 2017 she was confirmed for a third term of office with 53,990 votes.

Engagement in women's politics

Even as a high school student, Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten grappled with the gender issue and gender equality issues. As a student in Bern, as a result of her contact with women from the women's liberation movement, she submitted a motion for the creation of the Cantonal Equal Opportunities Office. From then on, gender equality policy became a focus of their political work, for example with the establishment of the cantonal gender equality office or with its definitive legal anchoring. Waeber-Kalbermatten's achievement is that the canton of Valais has a very progressive equality law. In addition, she was a member of the Cantonal Equal Opportunities Council, the advisory body of the Equal Opportunities Office, which she also chaired from 1999 to 2005. Among other things, the research project Paths to Poverty , which shows the situation of single parents who are dependent on social assistance, was developed in cooperation with the Valais University of Applied Sciences for Health and Social Affairs . In 2003, on her initiative, the Prix ​​Egalité was awarded for the first time in Valais .

Web links

Individual evidence

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