Iris of Roten

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Iris von Roten (born April 2, 1917 in Basel as Iris Meyer ; † September 11, 1990 there ) was a Swiss lawyer , journalist and suffragette .

Life

Iris von Roten came from a middle-class and well-off family. As one of the few women of her time, she studied at the universities of Bern , Geneva and Zurich and received her doctorate in law .

In 1946 she married Peter von Roten , an aristocrat and councilor , later a national councilor from the canton of Valais . They had a daughter with him, Hortensia. Iris von Roten was terrified of the idea of ​​"just" being a housewife and mother. She became her husband's partner in a joint law firm. In her marriage, she insisted on self-determination . Through the negative experiences during her work - she was constantly mistaken for the secretary - she became a committed feminist .

From 1943 to 1945 she worked as an editor for the magazine Schweizer Frauenblatt . After the publication of Simone de Beauvoir's work The Other Sex , she began to write her own book, which was published in 1958. Iris von Roten made women in the playpen overnight the most criticized person in Switzerland of her time. The book caused such a scandal that “the emancipation of Switzerland” was ostracized by women who did not hold Swiss men eligible to vote, but rather them responsible for rejecting the first referendum on women's suffrage in Switzerland in February 1959.

«Iris von Roten rightly felt completely misunderstood», summed up Susanna Woodtli in the foreword of her biography: «In the following year - after the massive rejection of women's suffrage - she still wrote the clever and less drastic women's suffrage breviary" / .. ./, which brought her some sympathy again. Then she turned away from the feminist topic, disappointed. "

Iris von Roten couldn't handle the harsh criticism. After women's organizations also ostracized her, she withdrew and traveled to Turkey in 1960 alone with her car for six months. When she returned, she wrote a book about this trip, which was initially not accepted by any publisher. Again she went on long journeys, this time to the Middle East, the Maghreb, Sri Lanka and Brazil. In the 1970s she began not only to write about her travel experiences, but also to paint.

More and more, Iris von Roten was plagued by health problems. Her eyesight continued to deteriorate and she had severe trouble sleeping . When she could no longer paint, she decided meticulously planned suicide to commit. "Just as a guest must know when it is time to leave, so you should get up from the table of life in good time ," she said in an interview shortly before her death. She ended her life on September 11, 1990.

Women in the playpen

In her work Frauen im Laufgitter , published in 1958, Iris von Roten analyzed the situation of women in Switzerland. She radically called for equality for women in all areas. She also discussed sexual-erotic questions and demythologized so-called traditional-female values.

Above all, von Roten demanded full economic independence for women so that they can really freely decide over their lives: “The 'beg, hunger, die!' With which the father in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet deprives the daughter of her livelihood because of her love By pushing her out of the house, a Julia of the present and future should no longer be able to plunge into ruin. In principle, however, the young girl is only protected from this if she stands economically on her own two feet. "

In addition to the full employment of women, von Roten called for the externalization of housework and family work: day nurseries, day-care centers and day schools as well as trades specialized in housework. "For the private atmosphere of family life, it is not necessary that the 'wife and mother', as the woman's natural lot, clatter with dishes for hours and waving dust."

These feminist demands, which are still current today, went far too far in the late 1950s - even for progressive women. The 3000 copies of women in the playpen were sold out in just eleven weeks. A second edition appeared in 1959, followed by a new edition in 1991 , which was a great success and helped Iris von Roten posthumously to the esteem she had always sought.

reception

  • Enemies in love . Documentary, directed by Werner Schweizer and Katja Früh. With Mona Petri , Fabian Krüger et al., Switzerland 2012, 108 min.

Works

  • Women in the playpen. Open words about the position of women . Hallwag, Bern 1958.
  • Women's suffrage area. From the Swiss patent means against the right to vote for women, the means against the patent means, and how it still comes with or without it . Frobenius, Basel 1959.
  • From the Bosporus to the Euphrates. Turks and Turkey . Goverts, Stuttgart 1965.
    • New edition: From the Bosporus to the Euphrates. A trip through Turkey. eFeF, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-905493-49-7 .
  • Flower looks . Art book (text: Hortensia von Roten). eFeF, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-905493-50-0 .

literature

  • Yvonne-Denise Köchli : A woman comes too early. The life of Iris von Roten . Weltwoche-ABC, Zurich 1992.
  • Eleonora Bonacossa: The feminine sense in the world: Iris von Roten. New aspects from the perspective of the gender difference. Helmer, Königstein im Taunus 2003, ISBN 3-89741-128-8 .
  • Wilfried Meichtry : Enemies in love. Iris and Peter von Roten. Ammann, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-250-10487-2 (new edition: Nagel & Kimche, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-312-00524-6 ).
  • Elisabeth Joris , Patricia Purtschert, Heidi Witzig : Open words. On the topicality of Iris von Rotens “Women in the Playpen” . Olympe. Feminist Political Workbooks, 2009, No. 28, ISSN 1420-0392.
  • Vojin Saša Vukadinovic : Public Nuisance: Feminist. To the scandal about Iris von Rotens “women in the playpen” . In: Traverse. Zeitschrift für Geschichte / Revue d'histoire , No. 3/2015, pp. 87–101.

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Susanna Woodtli in: Yvonne-D. Köchli, "A woman comes too early. The life of Iris von Roten. Zurich 1992, p. 9.
  2. ^ Indictment against the Patriarchate , NZZ, October 1, 2018, page 11, title of the print edition
  3. ↑ The woman beyond the playpen , review by Barbara Schweierhoff in taz from May 2, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Red, Iris of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Iris (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer, journalist and women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1990
Place of death Basel