Pl. Lise Girardin

Lise Girardin, a French teacher by training, is a Radical Democratic Party politician. Mayor of Genève in 1968, 1972 and 1975, she was the first woman in Switzerland to hold this position. From 1971 to 1979, she was also the first woman elected to the Council of States

In 1961, she was elected to the Geneva Grand Council under the Radical-Democratic Party. She then became the first woman member of the Administrative Council of the city of Geneva, in charge of the Department of Culture and Fine Arts. In 1968, she was the first woman mayor of Switzerland, and obtained two more mandates in 1972 and 1975. In 1971, Lise Girardin was also elected to the Council of States, the country's legislative body at the federal level, where she served until 1979. She was also the first woman in Switzerland to hold this position

She fought for the cause of women, especially for the decriminalization of abortion. Yet she never called herself a feminist, praising what she called a quiet revolution, making her future day by day. After her retirement in 1992, she took a stand for Switzerland's entry into the European Union and publicly committed herself to the development of maternity leave.