Using prams as an aesthetic vehicle, people gathered in Bern on January 21, 1980, to publicly mark the handing in of the initiative “For an effective protection of motherhood.” The momentous initiative aimed not only to extend paid leave for mothers but also to introduce a minimum 9 months-long paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers. The inclusion of fathers was one of the reasons the Swiss government ultimately didn’t pass the proposal. Image: Helga Leibundgut (Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, F 5110-Fc-034)

Fellow Project 2025–2026

Family Matters

Project by

Tatiana Crivelli
Sabbatical-at-Home Fellow 2025–2026

In collaboration with

Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina
Associate Fellow

The project Family Matters aims to develop an interdisciplinary reflection on a topic at the center of ongoing public debate: the relation between family, gender equality, and social norms. By bringing feminist literary perspectives into dialogue with historical and legal approaches to family legislation, the project connects disciplines and national contexts, bridging Switzerland and Italy, and highlighting the value of cross-disciplinary and international exchange.

This project is a collaboration by Sabbatical-at-Home Fellow Tatiana Crivelli, professor of italian literature at the University of Zurich, and her Associate Fellow Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina, associate professor of legal history, contemporary legal history, and history of international law and comparative law at the University of Zurich. Sharing a strong interest in women’s presence and intellectual contribution to academia and society, their research sits at an intersection to which each brings a different disciplinary angle.

In Family Matters, they will bring two of their current projects into conversation. Tatiana is currently co-leading an SNF digital edition project on the Swiss writer Alice Ceresa (1923–2001), a feminist and experimental author whose work critically examines the notion of family and the social norms regulating relations between the sexes. Meanwhile, Elisabetta leads the student-oriented project “Schweizer Juristinnen und Frauenrechte in der Schweiz seit 1971,” which explores the history of gender equality in Switzerland through interviews with women lawyers and politicians.