Provenance and early years Emma Kammacher was the daughter of Christian Kammacher who came from a
Bernese farming family, and of Catherine Émilie Desplands, originally from
Rougemont at the eastern end of the adjacent (and
francophone)
canton of
Vaud.
Women's rights In 1932 Kammacher became
de facto secretary of the , working alongside
Emilie Gourd to campaign for women's voting rights on a
cantonal level.
Emilie Gourd died in December 1946 and Kammacher took on the presidency of the Geneva association in 1947, serving in that position till 1955. Kammacher was in addition a member of the committee behind the monthly publication
"Le mouvement féministe" (renamed during 1960
"Femmes suisses").
1961: Grand Council of Geneva membership At that time (as now)
Geneva was among the more politically progressive of the (then)
25 cantons, and on 6 March 1960 it became just the third canton to legislate for the introduction of women's suffrage in cantonal elections. She stood as a candidate for the
"Parti socialiste suisse" (loosely but conventionally translated: "Social Democratic Party" / SP), which was the first party actually to include women on its candidates list. In 1961 Emma Kammacher was one of nine women elected to of the
"Grand Conseil de Genève" (cantonal legislature). More than 65% voted in favour of giving women the vote in national elections, and there was a majority in favour of the move in more than half of the cantons. Emma Kammacher had retired from active politics, but the battle in which she had for so long engaged was finally won. Kammacher also used her presidency to promote sex equality in canton-level legislation. She pressed for reform of the legal framework for marriage in ways which would eliminate gender bias and create the possibility of financial independence for married women. == Celebration ==