Gertrud "Trudy" Späth-Schweizer (6 December 1908 – 19 October 1990)[1] was the first woman to hold a political office in Switzerland.
After marrying Ernst Schweizer, a master carpenter, in 1932, she remained a housekeeper and assisted her husband in his workshop.
Späth-Schweizer, by then a mother of two and well-regarded in the local community, did not initially intend to enter politics.
[2] The apparent irregularities of the vote – more votes were cast than there were people in the room – do not appear to have bothered anybody at the time, and the first election of a Swiss woman to political office was widely reported in the media, including even by the New York Herald Tribune.
She was a very popular politician, concerned mainly with social issues, and was often asked for advice by her male colleagues.