Lilian Uchtenhagen (7 September 1928 – 6 September 2016) was a Swiss politician and economist. She was one of the ten first women elected to the National Council, the Swiss Parliament's house and first women to be a candidate to the Federal Council, the Government of Switzerland.
Uchtenhagen was born in 1928 at Olten in the Canton of Solothurn, the daughter of a businessman.[1][2] She studied political science at the University of Basel and at the London School of Economics (LSE) and graduated in 1954 from the University of Basel.[2]
She was elected in to the Municipal Council of Zurich in 1970, from which she resigned in 1974.[3] After women gained the right to vote in national elections in 1971, Uchtenhagen joined the Social Democratic Party (SP),[3] and was one of the first ten women to be elected to the National Council, the Federal Assembly of Switzerland's Lower House.[2][4] She served in the National Council from 29 November 1971 to 24 November 1991.[2][1][3] As the first female candidate in history, she received the nomination from the Social Democratic Party to succeed Willi Ritschard in the Swiss Federal Council in 1983.[3] She lost her bid to Otto Stich also from her party;[5] but supported by the rivaling conservative parties.[3] The TIME magazine article "Ladies Last" states that she lost her bid because of male reluctance to allow for a woman to serve on the council.[1][6]
Lilian Uchtenhagen served as the president of Zürich's Coop retail chain from 1981 to 1997, and was president of the charitable organization Swissaid from 1998 to 2003.[2]
A resident of the Canton of Zürich and the wife of Ambros Uchtenhagen, a Swiss psychiatrist[7] credited with the initiating of the establishment of the national drug policy.[3] Uchtenhagen died on 6 September 2016, the eve of her 88th birthday.[8][4]
