Iris von Roten (1917–1990)

Iris von Roten was born in Basel, Switzerland. She was one of the few women of her time who studied at Bern, Geneva, and Zurich and received a doctorate in law. In 1946, she married Peter von Roten, an aristocrat who later became a national politician. She was her husband’s partner in their law firm and served as the editor of the women's paper Schweizer Frauenblatt in 1943–1945. She became a well-known feminist and her most famous work was Frauen im Laufgitter (Women in the Playpen), published in 1958, inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Women in the Playpen was a pioneering economic and legal analysis of discrimination against women in the areas of property and legal rights. In it, von Roten demanded women’s full professional, economic, and sexual independence, and advocated for maternity insurance. The book was received with extreme hostility and harsh criticism and von Roten was personally blamed for the failure of a Swiss women's suffrage referendum the following year. She took a break from her feminist activities and traveled alone by automobile to Turkey for a six-month stay. After she returned to Switzerland, her memoir of her travels was rejected by publishers.