"How emotional can politics be, Roland Inauen?"

The former Landammann of Appenzell Innerrhoden on women’s suffrage, standing firm and the influences that shaped him: part eight of the interview series on role models driving gender equality.

If you had to explain to young people today why women in Appenzell have only been able to vote for 35 years, how would you do it without it sounding absurd?

It’s hardly possible. The drama is a Swiss one, because it’s really 55 years. Women’s suffrage at the national level only came in 20 years before that. In Appenzell, the men feared that women’s votes could put the Landsgemeinde at risk. My mother and my grandmothers were innkeepers and worked in tourism. Other women worked in hand embroidery. In those cases, their role was more important than the men’s. My mother never went to the Landsgemeinde, but she told my father how to vote.

In a video from the 1990 Landsgemeinde, you’re the only one tearing your hair out …

I was horrified. We young people had hoped the third attempt would succeed. The mood was heated, and it felt like all of Europe was watching that square. The majority voted against women’s suffrage. Fortunately, the Federal Supreme Court stepped in and ruled the result unconstitutional.

You were 35 at the time and an assistant at the University of Basel. When did you first realise: I think differently from other men?

I grew up in a guesthouse, where it was discussed a lot, often very crudely. That bothered me even as a child.

For the first time, a woman is now serving as Landammann. Does that close the chapter?

It keeps catching up with us. Equality hasn’t been achieved yet. Women are usually underrepresented in decision-making bodies, and there are still gaps in pay, career choices and care work. We have to keep at it.

What have you learned from women that made you better at politics?

I got my sense of justice from my mother. She ran our guesthouse and handled the money. As children, we thought that was normal. Only later did we realise it wasn’t like that everywhere.