History

The SGGF was founded in 1997 as an association of gender researchers in Switzerland who had a keen interest in strengthening the content and institutional promotion of their field of research. In 2010, SAGS revised its statutes and since then has been increasingly committed to the concerns of gender studies at universities, in research, in science policy and in society. Thematic working groups of SAGS were founded at the “Research Workshop” networking conference in 2015. SAGS has been a member of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences since 2016. Also in 2016, the Brigitte Schnegg Prize was created, which is awarded at regular intervals for outstanding academic work in the field of gender studies. Since 2019, SAGS has edited the book series “Gender Issues,” which is published by Seismo. In 2022, the thematic working groups were redefined as research networks with the aim of highlighting them as an important component of SAGS’s substantive work.

Gender studies only became institutionalized in Switzerland at a late stage. In 1997, the first gender-themed professorship was created at the Department of History at the University of Basel, thus bringing the feminist movement into the academic world in Switzerland. Much has changed in the academic world from a gender perspective since this Chair of Women’s and Gender History was established, as gender studies have since become an independent field of research and is now anchored in a wide variety of disciplines and has also become highly diversified and specialized in terms of subject matter and theory.

Gender studies have been recognized as a forward-looking science for over thirty years. In science policy, the realization that gender studies should also be established as an innovative teaching and research discipline in Switzerland in the long term has prevailed. The Gender Studies CH network pursued this goal: the cooperation project of nine Swiss universities (Bern, Basel, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen and Zurich) financed by the Swiss University Conference (SUC) focused on the development of complementary courses and graduate programs in gender studies.

In the meantime, gender studies have not only differentiated itself but has also become an independent field of research and is anchored in a wide variety of disciplines. There is a wide range of BA, MA and doctoral programs in gender studies throughout Switzerland. In addition, networks of researchers have been created, such as PlaGe, and a nationwide internet platform “Gender Campus” provides information about activities in gender studies and the courses offered in gender studies at all universities.

Gender research in Switzerland is characterized by its inter- and transdisciplinary as well as theoretical diversity. In addition, it has developed in the individual parts of the country on the basis of different theoretical traditions. While there is a strong reference to French-language debates in French-speaking Switzerland, which are decisively influenced by the specialist journal “Nouvelles Questions Féministes,” gender researchers in German-speaking Switzerland are primarily present in German and Anglo-American discussions and publications – of course, the boundaries are sometimes blurred in view of the international nature of gender studies. For these reasons, a central concern of SAGS is to promote exchange across language barriers and theoretical traditions, in the conviction that this is where the innovative potential of Swiss gender research lies.