“The function of Federal Councilor requires total commitment.” “This work is a privilege, but also very difficult.” “I just don’t have enough energy anymore.” On November 2, January 19 and February 15, three women leaders, at the same time as they threw in the towel of power, said the ultimate requirement of a political life at the top. The resignations of Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, Jacinda Ardern, now ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand, and her Scottish counterpart Nicola Sturgeon highlight the humanity behind the tailor.
Although surprising in their succession, should these departures also raise a gendered question? For Lorena Parini, political scientist and honorary professor at the University of Geneva, it is clear that the fact that these are three women is to be noted. “It hit me. It is rather rare to see a man being able to voluntarily leave his functions. However, Swiss history shows several precedents in the ranks of surprise departures for men. Let us remember Didier Burkhalter, withdrawn from the Federal Council in 2017 because he had “the need to write (…) a new page in (s) life”. Former Green State Councilors Philippe Biéler and François Marthaler, who left the Vaud executive in 2003 and 2012; the first evoking an “accumulation of fatigue” and the second the desire to devote oneself “to something else to influence the course of the world”. While in between, the socialist Jean Christophe Schwaab abandoned the National Council in 2017 to take care of his son suffering from a developmental disorder. Among other examples.
A “double responsibility” of women
So yes, each hasty departure is part of a unique political context and drawing comparisons or generalities is complicated. Still, for Lorena Parini, it should be noted that, in recent resignations, three women said out loud that they were at the end of what they might do. The doctor of political science explains: “They take more responsibility than men. If in power, women want to have 100% energy and skills to do their job, while men who don’t have that 100% aren’t going to see it as a problem. They feel less this “responsibility” aspect. And the honorary professor to go further: “I think that some should take the seed, because they always want to give the impression of mastering when in reality, they do not manage better than their female counterparts.”
The responsibility. Marie Garnier instinctively mentions it when commenting on the withdrawals of Nicola Sturgeon, Jacinda Ardern and Simonetta Sommaruga. The former Green State Councilor left the Friborg government in 2018, caught in the turmoil of a leak case in which she will then be definitively cleared. “I understand the choice of these women, because a politician almost always has a double responsibility: for her family and for politics. When we feel that the family is in danger, we have to make a choice. Me, I had no more energy for the two.
“I had to do three times better than the men”
Lorena Parini points out that, in an already highly stressful and competitive environment, women must, much more than men, show that they are “capable” of holding on. “They tell themselves that they have to prove that they deserve their place, while being more prone to guilt and torn regarding their privacy, because they have been socialized in a way that pushes them to take care of their loved ones.
Marie Garnier remembers the difficulty of an exhausting daily life with very intense hours and the tenacity necessary to “move projects forward and thwart attacks”. Just as she says the bitter memory of a “scandal-hungry press” and “tears in her eyes”. She adds a rough layer of gendered varnish: “As a woman from the minority left in Friborg and the first green in the government, I had to do three times better than men to be considered or for my work to be recognized.”
Power, masculinity and virility
Finally, if some have the feeling that female politicians have less difficulty letting go of the reins of power than male politicians, it is probably not that the former are less fond of power, says Lorena Parini. “I’ve seen some women cling to it, but that’s not the rule,” Marie Garnier also points out. It would simply be a question of internalized masculinity and virility, according to the political scientist, pushing men to define themselves as men through a range of powers – political, financial, seductive. In this context, leaving your costume, even publicly assuming your vulnerability, would be like losing a bit of the man you are.
To tend towards appeasement, our workers make a vow to strengthen the ties by what unites us, as a society. “Our weaknesses unite us more than our strengths”, poses Lorena Parini. While Marie Garnier dreams of a foolproof sorority.
