Verena Conzett

Verena Conzett was a Swiss magazine publisher, labor activist, and women's rights activist. She became the first president of the Swiss Women Workers' Union in 1890. Her own experience as a child factory worker led to her lifelong advocacy for insurance protection and shorter working hours. Following the death of her husband in 1897, Conzett took over his print shop, narrowly escaping bankruptcy. A decade later, she acquired a Linotype typesetting machine and expanded the business into the Conzett & Huber publishing house. In 1908, Conzett launched the illustrated magazine In freien Stunden, and established herself as a successful entrepreneur. Subscriptions to the magazine included accident insurance, which had not yet been mandated by law in Switzerland. Her autobiography, Erstrebtes und Erlebtes, was first published in 1929. Now in its third edition, it has been called "the longest and most literate" of the autobiographies of late 19th-century working-class women written in German. Verena-Conzett-Strasse in Zürich is named after her.