Elisabeth Kopp, first woman in Swiss Cabinet, dies at 86

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss federal chancellery says that Elisabeth Kopp, an advocate of equal rights and the environment who was the first woman elected to Switzerland’s seven-member executive branch, has died. She was 86. Kopp died on April 7 in Zumikon, southeast of Zurich, from complications related to an unspecified “long illness.” Once one of Switzerland’s leading figure skaters, Kopp was inspired to work on behalf of refugees, human rights and democracy after seeing the Communist government of Hungary lead a violent repression against a popular uprising in 1956. Koop made history on Oct. 2, 1984, when parliament chose her to join the seven-member Swiss executive branch, known as the Federal Council.