Fireworks, Finance, and Literary Women, Revisited

We celebrated our holiday of national independence with a young professor who simply oozed delight in his subject: the history of finance. Boris Lachat’s 2 hour presentation on the history and characteristics of the Swiss banking system, again a subject normally likely to induce siesta, brought a greater awareness of this unique country and a deeper understanding of the culture and the people.

In a long line of bizarre coincidences, today’s was pretty high: during the break in this presentation I called JPMorgan Suisse seeking a notary for the Power of Attorney document required by my lender: JPMorgan Chase Bank. I ended up in conversation with their attorney, Fabienne Richard, who assured me I would not find an American notary in Geneva on the 4th of July (Consulate was closed). She recommended I try Monday in Belgium. I have my doubts, but will it my Scouting best effort. Anyway, I returned to the lecture having had my chat with a private Swiss bank. I take my schoolwork seriously.

After class Boris called his mom to get the name and number of the best notary office here – talk about having connections – but their office closed at noon, so I will indeed have to look for a Belgian American notary. Right.

After lunch we took a walking tour of the city from a different point of view, that of notable Genevoise women, led by German born historian Sabine Lorenz. We began at the Convent of Clarisse and Ste Colette de Corbie and the good sisters confrontation with the reformers, which led to their departure.

Our second stop was in front of this auberge, a restaurant and hotel run by Aimée LaCroix and her husband Pierre. A portrait has survived since the 1830s of this working woman, who though originally listed as a cook in the city rolls later had no job title attached to her name.













Amélie Munier-Romilly sought the right to study art, but was constrained by her mother’s limits during her studies in Paris. It was only later that the artist was able to transgress the barriers to her gender accessing models for corporal studies. Women generally were restricted to portrait painting if allowed to work at all. Amélie married a young pastor who agreed to her workshop outside the home ,which allowed her to continue painting while raising her four children. All three of her sons died, so it is particularly poignant to see the love poured into the portrait of her grandson.







Mme Albertine Necker de Saussure, wife of Madame de Stael’s cousin Jacques, named after his uncle, the famous treasurer of France, worked as a writer after a complex education in an erudite family with a father devoted to her travels and intellectual development. It seems she was fairly hot-tempered and outspoken, writing insightful observations even as a teenager. Yes, I see the parallel with another young lady dear to me. Albertine raised four children, observing their learning traits and writing detailed notes which later beca.me her Study of the Life of Women. I have not been able to verify the connection, but it seems quite likely that the death of her beloved teenage daughter which so moved her out of writing and into mourning might well have been the same 15 year old Augusta whose bust so moved me at Coppet. Albertine was the translator of Schlegel’s book into French, so they would have worked closely and met often at Coppet when de Saussure often participated in the Madame de Stael salons. I took these photos of the de Saussure home thinking of Augusta and reaching into the deep well of maternal grief.

Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin, born into a clock-making family whose politics were very progressive, only had 5 years of formal education, but was self-taught and grew into a respected voice for progressive politics. She helped start the League of International Peach and Freedom and in 1872 petitioned for and succeeded in establishing the right of young women to attend the university.

In Switzerland women did not win the right to vote until1959 in Vo, 1960 in Geneva, and 1971 in Federal elections. It was a feminist strike forcing a federal mandate that gave women in the last canton the right to vote in 1991. Imagine! Still women take home almost 20% less salary for the same job done by a man despite the constitutional equality under the law.

After dinner we hosted an unusual speaker, an American doctor and lawyer who specializes in pharmaceutical finance, in Switzerland where he lives with his Slovakian wife. He tackled the after dinner speaking assignment in French, addressing the Swiss in Europe question as well as the nature of the Swiss people and their relationships with outsiders. He works for Johns Hopkins and Columbia as well as consulting or sitting on the board for a number of companies. He talked about inventiveness and the need to keep Swiss entrepreneurs at home, since many of them found more risk-taking possibilities outside the cautious local business environment. It was an interesting visit, a different point of view to our week.