“Women in the Playpen”. Female Role Models and Swiss Voca­tio­nal Education

A small but fine exhibition on Swiss author Iris von Roten at the Strauhof Literature Museum in Zurich, raises questions about inclusion and gender in Swiss vocational education - then and now.

Iris von Roten (1917–1990) was a trained lawyer and a feminist of the pre-68 era. Among other things, she cam­pai­gned for women’s suffrage, which was intro­du­ced in Switz­er­land — believe it or not — in 1971. From today’s point of view, it is difficult to under­stand why it still took a decade until equality between men and women was enshrined in the Swiss Federal Con­sti­tu­ti­on. After a tough but suc­cess­ful refe­ren­dum campaign in 1985, a new marriage law was intro­du­ced, finally in 1988, which no longer con­si­de­red the man as the head of the family. Until then, wives had no con­trac­tu­al rights, they were not allowed to open a bank account, and could not engage in gainful employ­ment without their husbands’ consent.

The role of women was thus bound by clear limits, in the workplace and in society. The atmo­s­phe­re and dis­cus­sion sur­roun­ding the intro­duc­tion of women’s suffrage is also aptly reflected in the suc­cess­ful and witty feature film “Die göttliche Ordnung” (The Divine Order) (2017) by Petra Volpe. The movie brings a younger genera­ti­on closer to the disputes of that time, which seem to be far in the past.

To break up this hemmed-in image of women was Iris von Roten’s ambition with her book “Frauen im Lauf­git­ter” (Women in the Playpen/“Babyjail”), published in 1958. The book was con­si­de­red scan­da­lous and brought her fierce reactions, today one would say a downright “shitstorm”. The ques­tio­ning of a specific otherness of women, for whom only a segre­ga­ted sphere away from politics and the public was foreseen, while also being excluded from a large part of the working world, was seen as an outra­ge­ous attack. In addition to topics such as “Women and Love,” “Mother­hood”, “The Household”, according to the titles of the indi­vi­du­al chapters, she then devotes a large chapter to female gainful employ­ment and pro­fes­sio­nal life in a Man’s World titled “People of Brothers without Sisters”.

What career paths were open to women in the 1950s? Actually, only the pro­fes­si­ons and acti­vi­ties that were of no interest to men and that did not challenge the sub­ser­vi­ent role of women. Women were supposed to be women doing housework. If they did work, however, they were expected to work primarily in three occup­a­ti­ons, namely as

the “maid”,
the “nurse”,
or the “office maid”, or as
the clerk in the Federal Palace in Bern barred from marriage.

The job situation of women, for­mu­la­ted by the author with powerful language, was presented and visua­li­zed in detail in the first exhi­bi­ti­on space in the Strauhof. The assigned occup­a­ti­ons are described verbatim in detail by four actresses on screen (curated by Mass&Fieber). With the filmed state­ments, the job situation and position in the working world of women at that time can be recon­struc­ted in a per­for­ma­ti­ve way, and one invol­un­ta­ri­ly asks oneself about the situation of today.

All these roles of serving, caring and con­fir­ming the male hegemony were prac­ti­cal­ly until recently one of the few pos­si­bi­li­ties available to women to earn extra income  — of course far below the wages of men. Iris von Roten also points out, for example, that the Kauf­män­ni­sche Verband Schweiz (Swiss Com­mer­cial Asso­cia­ti­on) did not accept women working in the same pro­fes­si­on until 1905 as members, years after its estab­lish­ment in 1873.

Until the 1960s, the incre­a­sing pro­por­ti­on of women in com­mer­cial pro­fes­si­ons was viewed cri­ti­cal­ly. On the occasion of the pre­pa­ra­ti­on of a cantonal law con­cer­ning the execution of the federal law on voca­tio­nal training (of December 3, 1967), the Zurich Depart­ment of Economic Affairs noted with some concern that a “trend” was becoming incre­a­singly apparent “that the pro­por­ti­on of female appren­ti­ces was growing”. Indeed, the pro­por­ti­on of female students entering com­mer­cial voca­tio­nal schools had risen to 60%, and in some voca­tio­nal schools the pro­por­ti­on was two-thirds. The new draft of the federal standard cur­ri­cu­lum “therefore provides for a division of the com­mer­cial appren­ti­ce­ship into an accounting/calculating and into a lin­gu­is­tic/of­fice-admi­nis­te­ri­al direction. The latter training option is intended primarily for the next genera­ti­on of women, who have to deal mainly with cor­re­spon­dence and secre­ta­ri­al work” (Direktion der Volks­wirt­schaft 1967, p. 186).

In voca­tio­nal education, too, women have often had to forge their place against much resis­tance. It was precisely the rise of regular voca­tio­nal training in the con­ti­nuing economic boom, and the expansion of education, that helped to make women more “visible” in the world of work and in the public eye. However, I wonder if we are really that much further along today, and if the occup­a­tio­nal narrative of serving, nurturing, and caring doesn’t pervade into today’s occup­a­ti­ons as a sort of subtext, despite the progress towards non-gendered language. After all, most pro­fes­si­ons with a strong female presence are, as they have always been, in care, sales and com­mer­cial acti­vi­ties. Signi­fi­cant­ly, to this day, wages in these former and current “female” pro­fes­si­ons are also at the lower end of qualified training.

Whereas for some occup­a­ti­ons there was the alleged danger of too many female app­li­cants, today there is concern that too few young women are expres­sing interest in careers other than academic pro­fes­si­ons. The debate that has been emerging for some years regarding a lack of skilled workers in the STEM (Sciences, Tech­no­lo­gy, Engi­nee­ring & Mathe­ma­tics) sector is leading to the con­si­de­ra­ti­on of new paths and pro­vi­si­ons, whether in voca­tio­nal training or in gymnasia.

The question is how can “gender-typical” subject-related choices and later pro­fes­sio­nal and career decisions be adjusted. In this context, the decision-making behaviour of young women is of par­ti­cu­lar interest, because the pro­por­ti­on in engi­nee­ring pro­fes­si­ons is far too low, espe­cial­ly in com­pa­ri­son with the pro­por­ti­on of female engineers in other countries (see Gonon 2023: Studying a Craft, p. 183 ff.). The sector seems to be “under­man­ned” when women are asked today to please consider computer science and engi­nee­ring more strongly as a career prospect. The assign­ment and attri­bu­ti­on of a pre-deter­mi­ned image to the pro­fes­si­on of women, as impres­si­ve­ly shown in the video sequences, prove to be a barrier that cannot be justified in any way. We owe to Iris von Rotten’s stirring pre­sen­ta­ti­on — visua­li­zed in the Strauhof — for having encou­ra­ged such a mental unlea­shing with an appeal to break women out of the playpen.

Philipp C. Gonon is professor emeritus of voca­tio­nal education at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich with a focus on inter­na­tio­nal com­pa­ra­ti­ve education policy and his­to­ri­cal education research, as well as a film buff.

Refe­ren­ces:
Roten I. (2020). Frauen im Lauf­git­ter. Zürich eFeF Verlag
Gonon, P. (2023) Ein Handwerk studieren. Bern: hep
Zürcher Volks­wirt­schafts­di­rek­ti­on (1967). Geschäfts­be­richt – Beruf­li­ches Bil­dungs­we­sen, S. 183–189. Zürich