Although politically aware since her childhood, Alice Rivaz had to wait until the age of 70 before she could become a full-fledged citizen of her country. In November 1945, when Geneva issued a cantonal vote on women’s right to vote, she wrote this incisive article on the hypocritical resistance of men regarding women participating in politics.

The poet Jean-Georges Lossier (1911-2004) was a loyal friend to Alice Rivaz. He actively contributed to the publication of La Paix des ruches and, during her long crossing of the desert between 1947 and 1959, he encouraged her to never give up writing, “your real job”.

The reaction of the Vaudois author Paul Budry is representative of a caddish sense of male legitimacy, which often stifled the feminist debate in the 20th century. C.F. Ramuz did not understand La Paix des ruches any more than Albert Mermoud did. However, he admitted that he had never thought about the female condition while discovering the difference between ‘Mann’ (man) and ‘Mensch’ (human), which the French ‘homme’ conceals.

In 1948, the Servir newspaper used La Paix des ruches as the basis for an overview of the relationship between men and women in Switzerland. The reactions to the novel revealed a difference in interpretation based on gender. The empathy expressed by female readers suggested their longing to see society change, while the male readers simply pointed to Jeanne as solely responsible for her own dissatisfaction.