Ruth Dreifuss
| Ruth Dreifuss | |
|---|---|
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| President of Switzerland | |
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In office 1 January 1999 – 31 December 1999 |
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| Vice President | Adolf Ogi |
| Preceded by | Flavio Cotti |
| Succeeded by | Adolf Ogi |
| Vice President of Switzerland | |
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In office 1 January 1998 – 31 December 1998 |
|
| President | Flavio Cotti |
| Preceded by | Flavio Cotti |
| Succeeded by | Adolf Ogi |
| Minister of Home Affairs | |
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In office 10 March 1993 – 31 December 2002 |
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| Preceded by | Flavio Cotti |
| Succeeded by | Pascal Couchepin |
| Member of the Swiss Federal Council | |
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In office 1 April 1993 – 31 December 2002 |
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| Preceded by | René Felber |
| Succeeded by | Micheline Calmy-Rey |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
9 January 1940 St. Gallen, Switzerland |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | University of Geneva |
| Religion | Judaism |
Ruth Dreifuss (born 9 January 1940 in St. Gallen) is a Swiss politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. She was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1993 to 2002, representing the Canton of Geneva.
She was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 10 March 1993 as the 100th member elected since the foundation of the federal state, the second woman to be elected to the council, and the only councillor with a Jewish background so far. She was the President of the Confederation in 1999, the first woman to hold this position.
Dreifuss belongs to one of the oldest Jewish families in Switzerland. Her father was a merchant and both Ruth and her older brother went to school. After business education Ruth worked as a secretary and a social worker and was a journalist at Cooperation from 1961 to 1964. She joined the Socialist Party (SP) in 1964. In 1970 she obtained a Master of Economics of the University of Geneva and was an assistant at the university from 1970 to 1972. Then she became scientific expert at the Federal Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation between 1972 and 1981. She was then elected Secretary of the Swiss Trade Union, where she dealt with questions related to social insurance, labor law and women's issues, until her election to the Swiss Federal Council in 1993.
Dreifuss was a social-democratic member of the City of Bern's Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 1992. She missed out the election to the National Council of Switzerland in 1991.
She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former female leaders whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.
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