'Lay experts': Women's social purity groups and the politics of sexuality in Switzerland, 1890-1915

Women's History Review

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 585-610

  Gerodetti, Natalia ^a  

^a Institute of Politics and International Relations   (Switzerland)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34247659098     PISSN: 09612025     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09612020400200412     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. For a discussion of the English social purity movement, see Lucy Bland (1995) Banishing the Beast: English feminism and sexual morality 1885-1914 (London: Penguin)
2. Sheila Jeffreys (1985) The Spinster and Her Enemies: feminism and sexuality 1880-1930 (London: Pandora)
3. Judith Walkowitz (1980) Prostitution and Victorian Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
4. as well as Jeffrey Weeks (1985) Sexuality and Its Discontents: meanings, myths and modern sexualities (London and New York: Routledge) for a discussion of the construction of sexualities and their historiography. For Germany, sources to consult are Isabell Lisberg-Haag (2002) 'Die Unzucht - das Grab der Völker': die evangelische Sittlichkeitsbewegung und die 'sexuelle Moderne' 1870-1918 (Hamburg: Münster) or Johanna Geyer-Kordesch & Annette Kuhn (Eds) (1986) Frauenkörper, Medizin, Sexualität: Auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Sexualmoral (Düsseldorf: Schwann). For Switzerland, Dominique Puenzieux & Brigitte Ruckstuhl (1994) Medizin, Moral und Sexualität: Die Bekämpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten Syphilis und Gonorrhöe in Zürich 1870-1920 (Zürich: Chronos) and Beatrix Mesmer (1988) Ausgeklammert - Eingeklammert: Frauen und Frauenorganisationen in der Schweiz des 19. Jahrhunderts, pp. 157-162 (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn) remain the best sources to consult
5. Frank Mort (1987) Dangerous Sexualities: medico-moral politics in England since 1830 (London: Routledge)
6. Anne-Marie Käppeli (1990) Sublime croisade: Ethique et politique du féminisme protestant, 1875-1928 (Genève: Editions Zoé)
7. Federal Swiss legislation has to undergo a lengthy pre-parliamentary phase called 'process of consultation' during which interest groups can submit their written considerations. This is an integral part of the principle of consensus politics which operates in Switzerland, which is based on democratic rights given to the electorate through the mechanisms of the referendum (introduced 1874) and the initiative (introduced 1891). In ongoing legislation, the threat of a referendum was particularly poignant as it could, upon submission of 30,000 signatures (at the time), jeopardise years of preparation through a public vote. See Hanspeter Kriesi (1998) Le Système Politique Suisse, ch. 1 (Paris: Economica)
8. Puenzieux & Ruckstuhl, Medizin, Moral und Sexualität, pp. 33-49
9. Mesmer, Ausgeklammert - Eingeklammert, pp. 158-168
10. Anne-Marie Stalder & Brigitte Schnegg (1986) Von der Entstehung der Frauenorganisationen bis zum 1. Weltkrieg, in Elisabeth Joris & Heidi Witzig (Eds) Frauengeschichte(n), Dokumente aus zwei Jahrhunderten zur Situation der Frauen in der Schweiz, pp. 441-458 (Zürich: Limmat Verlag)
11. Käppeli, Sublime croisade, pp. 163-169
12. The former position is presumed by Mesmer, Augeklammert - Eingeklammert, the latter by Annette Frei (1987) Rote Patriarchen: Arbeiterbewegung und Frauenemanzipation in der Schweiz um 1900 (Zürich: Chronos)
13. Regula Stämpfli (1994) Direct Democracy and Women's Suffrage: antagonism in Switzerland, in Barbara Nelson & Najma Chowdhury (Eds) Women and Politics Worldwide, pp. 690-704 (New Haven: Yale University Press)
14. Beatrix Mesmer (1991) Familienformen und gesellschaftliche Strukturen, in Thomas Fleiner-Gerster, Pierre Gilliand & Kurt Lüscher (Eds) Familien in der Schweiz, pp. 31-58 (Fribourg: Universitätsverlag Fribourg)
15. Nadescha Suslowa was the first women to get a doctorate from Zürich University in 1867 but women were allowed into the auditoriums of the University of Zürich from the early 1860s. It was upon a petition of Swiss mothers, amongst them Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin, that women were allowed to graduate from Swiss universities from the 1870s onwards, albeit with massive resistance from some universities such as Basel. However, restrictions remained in place as to the professional possibilities of these women. Joris & Witzig, Frauengeschichte(n), pp. 335-342
16. Carl Stooss (1893) Motive zu dem Vorentwurf eines schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuches (Basel: Verlag Georg & Co)
17. Ursi Blosser & Franziska Gerster (1985) To7die;chter der guten Gesellschaft: Frauenrolle und Mödchenerziehung im schweizerischen Grossbürgertum um 1900, pp. 13-23 (Zürich: Chronos). The normative content of this even lies in the expression, I would argue, for the German term for proper is 'anständig' which has its root in 'Stand' commonly translated as 'class'. Behaviour appropriate to one's class, or as the middle-class ideology became more widespread during the nineteenth century, only behaviour conforming to the middle-class standard, came to be seen as 'proper'
18. David Gugerli (1991) Das bürgerliche Familienbild im sozialen Wandel, in Thomas Fleiner-Gerster, Pierre Gilliand & Kurt Lüscher (Eds) Familien in der Schweiz, pp. 59-74 (Fribourg: Universitätsverlag Fribourg)
19. See also Elisabeth Joris (1990) Die Schweizer Hausfrau: Genese eines Mythos, in Sebastian Braendli, David Gugerli, Rudolf Jaun & Ulrich Pfister (Eds) Schweiz im Wandel: Studien zur neueren Gesellschaftsgeschichte (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn)
20. Stenographisches Bulletin der Bundesversammlung (1929) Nationalrat. Frühjahrs-Session, p. 161
21. Stenographisches Bulletin, Nationalrat, p. 185
22. Climate theories originated within the field of physical anthropology during the second half of the nineteenth century and enjoyed some popularity at the time. See Niklas Stehr & Hans von Storch (1999) Climate Works: an anatomy of a disbanded line of research, in Heidrun Kaupen-Haas & Christian Sailer (Eds) Wissenschaftlicher Rassismus: Analysen einer Kontinuität in den Human- und Naturwissenschaften, pp. 137-185 (Frankfurt: Campus). They were based on the idea that the natural climate is an environmental force that accounts for different manifestations of human characteristics. In Italy, Cesare Lombroso supported the view that the Italian Criminal law ought to take into account anthropological differences with regard to sexual mores, procreation and sexual maturity, rather than eradicate them (personal communication with Bruno Wanrooij). Equally, Russia followed a similar pattern, although this north-south axis can also be thought of in terms of a 'civilised' versus 'primitive' dichotomy (personal communication with Dan Healey)
23. Emil Zürcher (1908) Schweizerisches Strafgesetzbuch. Erläuterungen zum Vorentwurf vom April 1908 (Bern: Stämpfli). This provoked, not surprisingly, debates as to whether women needed to be of 'intact integrity' or whether 'fallen women' should also be protected. Despite the disputes no such qualificatory ground found its way into the law, which upheld that its purpose was to protect women's 'sexual freedom' that is, the 'freedom of an individual to decide over her sexual honour'. Stenographisches Bulletin, Nationalrat, p. 185
24. Jeffrey Weeks (1991) Against Nature: essays on history, sexuality and identity (London: River Oram Press)
25. Zürcher, Schweizerisches Strafgesetzbuch, p. 221
26. Some legislators, mainly German-speaking speaking Catholic-conservatives such as Hoppeler, used the women's argumentation by pointing out the discrepancy between protecting male adolescents against same-sex offences until twenty years while young women were only protected until eighteen years. Stenographisches Bulletin, Nationalrat, p. 174
27. Swiss Criminal Law distinguishes between 'crimes of complaint' and 'crimes of office'. For the first group a complaint must be lodged with the police authorities by the victim or her/his legal representative. Crimes by office, such as rape, sexual abuse of children or same-sex offences, are prosecuted ex officio which means that prosecution can take place without complaint or consent of the victim, its legal representative, or a certain institution or organisation. Furthermore, the principle of legality means that police authorities are obliged to investigate, prosecutors to prosecute, and courts to convict and no discretion is attributed to them. No other state has legislation as strict as this, according to Helmut Graupner (2000) Sexual Consent: the criminal law in Europe and overseas, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 29(5), pp. 415-461
28. APM Swiss-German 1908 and six other big women's associations. FA E4410 (A) -/42 Bd. 31. Also, for a discussion of the overlaps between social purity and social hygiene in the British context, see Lucy Bland (1982) 'Guardians of the Race', or 'Vampires upon the Nation's Health'? Female Sexuality and its Regulation in Early Twentieth-Century Britain, in Elisabeth Whitelegg (Ed.) The Changing Experience of Women (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)