Swiss exhibition for women's work

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The Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work (SAFFA) took place in Bern in 1928 and in Zurich in 1958 . The exhibition was organized by the major national women's organizations, the Federation of Swiss Women's Associations (BSF) , the Swiss Women's Trade Association , the Swiss Catholic Women's Association (SKF) and 28 other associations.

SAFFA 1928

The Saffa in Bern, photo Walter Mittelholzer

The aim of the exhibition on the Viererfeld (today Länggasse-Felsenau ), which took place from August 26 to September 30, 1928, was to show the importance of the “female part” in social and economic work in Switzerland. Women's work - especially housekeeping and family work - was, in the opinion of the organizers, too little appreciated and they demanded more recognition for the achievements of women. In the long term, this recognition should lead to political equality ( women's right to vote ) and the right to gainful employment.

One of the leading architects at SAFFA was Lux Guyer from Switzerland . In 1928, SAFFA also attracted a great deal of attention from an architectural point of view. In axially arranged hall buildings topics from agriculture, industry, housework, gainful employment, science, education and art were presented.

SAFFA 1958

Saffa Zurich under construction, aerial photo from May 8, 1958
The Saffa Island in Zurich- Wollishofen named after the exhibition

The second SAFFA took place from July 17 to September 15, 1958 on the Landiwiese in Wollishofen . It was organized by the BSF as well as around a hundred women's associations and women's centers . The motto of the second SAFFA was “Women in the family, work and state”. In line with the image of women in the conservative 1950s, the exhibitors represented a life model in three phases: vocational training and employment until marriage, then being a housewife and returning to work after the children have grown up. The role of women as the sole responsibility for the family as a “refuge of security” in the ever faster changing social and economic environment was not called into question.

At SAFFA 1958, Elisabeth Pletscher , who played a key role in the introduction of women's suffrage in 1989 in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden , was decisively shaped for her further political commitment, as she was fully aware of the importance of women in the world of work. She described the key experience for her future work with women as follows:

“What shaped me was the 1958 SAFFA in Zurich, the second Swiss exhibition for women's work. I was just 50 years old. The professional association of "medical laboratory assistants", of which I was president at the time, ran a laboratory at SAFFA. We were involved in the planning, organization and implementation of this exhibition, and I saw first hand what women achieve - without ever receiving recognition for it. Even after the Second World War, I found it shocking how many tasks and duties women had taken on during the war without being granted corresponding rights. Back then, after the war, we took it for granted that women would now also get their political rights. But that didn't happen automatically at all. And at SAFFA, fifteen years later, so many women again showed what they can do. [...] At the time, I was also impressed by the commitment and the tremendous performance of the pioneers for women's concerns. [...] Since I was very busy professionally, I was never able to commit myself to the same extent as other women. So during the second SAFFA I decided never to say 'No' if someone asked me to stand up for something: What I can do, I do. [...] I do it out of gratitude and solidarity with the pioneers for women's rights and the concerns of women, as a small personal tribute for all that these women have to endure and endure. "

SAFFA 1958 was remembered primarily for its architectural achievements, beginning with the filling of the Saffa Island, named after the occasion, near the Landiwiese. Oral tradition says that the excavation from the construction site of the Freudenberg schoolhouse was also used by Jacques Schader for the island. Under the direction of the Zurich architect Annemarie Hubacher-Constam , architects such as Beate Schnitter , Verena Fuhrimann , Jetti Judin , landscape architects such as Verena Dubach and designers from many fields worked on the ambitious project. The cylindrical tent structures and the walk-in residential tower were built from industrial components such as bolted profile steel so that they could be reused after the exhibition. Verena Dubach's fountain sculpture, which accompanied the SAFFA exhibition pavilions on the landside in 1958, is to be restored in 2020.

During the 2nd SAFFA, Iris von Rotens book Women in the Playpen appeared. The demands formulated therein went far beyond women's concerns about the goodwill shown by the press and men. But neither SAFFA's 1958 proof of achievement nor Roden's provocative book were enough to win the vote for national women's suffrage in 1959 .

Third SAFFA

On August 1, 2007, the first Swiss national holiday since the signing of the Optional Protocol as an addition to the Women's Convention in February 2007 by the Swiss Federal Council on the legal and formal recognition of the full human rights of women in Switzerland, the idea sparked: The Swiss women Priska Lenherr, Franziska Demarmels and Lisa Gwerder, board members of the internet platform frauennet.ch, decided to organize a third SAFFA on the occasion of their women's picnic brunch on the Saffa Island in Zurich on the Swiss National Day.

In 2016, the créatrices association was formed , which in September 2018, in cooperation with various organizations, including Lares, frau and sia and the ETH Zurich, carried out a homage to SAFFA in the form of a thirteen-part series of events on Saffa Island.

The third SAFFA is now a project of the umbrella organization alliance F, which founded the association in 2020 for this purpose . The project is divided into three phases (preliminary project, concept and implementation) and is picking up speed.

See also

literature

  • Gaby Plüss: Paula von Arx's unique dollhouse. In: Oltner Neujahrsblätter , Vol. 41, 1983, pp. 58-59.
  • Marie-Louise Barben, Elisabeth Ryter: darned and sewn up. Vocational training for women - gainful employment 1888–1988. Bern 1988, ISBN 3-905278-33-2 .
  • M. Beyeler: La SAFFA (Swiss. Exhibition for women’s work) de 1958 à Zurich: son architecture et ses architectes. Dissertation. Lausanne 1999.
  • Sibylle Brändli: The supermarket in the head: Consumer culture and prosperity in Switzerland after 1945. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99264-4 .
  • Karin Dangel: Saffa 1958 - Expo 2001: Exhibition architecture then and now. In: Tec21 , 115 (1997), No. 46, pp. 940-946.
  • Dorothee Huber: The virtue of need. To the two historical exhibitions for women's work (SAFFA 1928 and 1958). In: Petra Stojanik (Ed.): Exhibitions - Representations, Contributions to the Diploma Elective "Women in the History of Building". Volume 3, ETH, Zurich 1996.
  • Yvonne Voegeli: Saffa. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

Commons : Swiss exhibition for women’s work  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The buildings of SAFFA and Swiss women's art In: Architektur und Kunst , Vol. 15, Issue 8, 1928, pp. 225–271
  2. ↑ Jakob Tanner : History of Switzerland in the 20th century. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68365-7 , p. 205.
  3. ↑ Hanspeter Strebel, Kathrin Barbara Zatti: There are things that need time - Elisabeth Pletscher, contemporary witness of the 20th century. Appenzeller Verlag, Herisau 2005, ISBN 3-85882-410-0 , pp. 20/21.
  4. ↑ Karin Dangel: Saffa 1958 - Expo 2001: Exhibition architecture then and now. In: Tec21, 115 (1997), No. 46, pp. 940-946.
  5. ↑ creatrices.ch
  6. ↑ frau.sia.ch