Tracing back our PWG founders

When you think of history, do you picture a big, dusty book filled with dates and facts? Or do you try to imagine the people who created it?

There is no history without the stories of those who lived it. Who are they? What were their challenges? And how did their achievements build the legacy of PWG?

Ethel celebrating her 80th birthday in 2007 with PWG originals (Photo credit: Lisa Belser)

Ethel Vogelsang (center, in white)

Originally from Hamburg, Ethel grew up in New York and studied in Bern, Switzerland where she met her Swiss husband. She followed him to India and enjoyed a privileged life with her family of four kids. 17 years later, in1972, she was thrown back into life as “just” a housewife and mother in Zurich, Ethel began searching for what it meant to be a woman…

Photo credit: Interview article by Silvia Day, for the PWG 30th reunion in 2013

Lisa Belser with her family In 1982

Lisa Belser moved from the USA to Zurich after college graduation and marrying her Swiss husband. Her immersion into the Swiss culture and office work made her realize she couldn’t make herself fit in the Swiss (female) mold.

She asked herself, ‘who could I talk to about it? I could never fit into the roles that were being presented to me. How could I get in touch with like-minded women? How did other non-Swiss women do it?’