“Boarding Girls”: Female Emigration and Industrial Boarding Schools in Switzerland at the Beginning of the 900th Century

La Monte Verità Foundation will host, on Friday 20 September at 18 pm, the presentation of the book Boarding School Girls. Female Emigration and Industrial Boarding Schools in Switzerland (Armando Dadò Editore, 2024) written by Yvonne Pesenti Salazar. The event – ​​which will be held in the Auditorium Monte Verità – will feature several prominent figures in Ticino politics and culture, including the Hon. Marina Carobbio Guscetti, director of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport of the Republic and Canton of Ticino, director Werner Weick and journalist Roberto Antonini.

The book explores a page, if not forgotten, at least very little known in the history of female emigration to Switzerland, focusing on the phenomenon of women who, between 1890 and 1950, moved from southern cantons such as Ticino and Italian Grisons and from the poor regions of Northern Italy, to the industrialized areas of central and eastern Switzerland. Often very young, these girls emigrated alone or in small groups, but always without family, to look for work in textile factories. In fact, the Swiss manufacturing industry was already suffering from a deep-rooted shortage of personnel at the end of the XNUMXth century and needed to find low-cost workers. It therefore turned to Ticino and Italy to recruit female labor.

Industrial boarding schools: between control and isolation

Young female workers, mostly minors and Catholics, were placed in industrial boarding schools, large structures built by manufacturers near their factories. These schools were run by Catholic religious congregations, particularly the Sisters of the Holy Cross of Menzingen. The facilities were not simply lodgings, but actual places of isolation, where the girls lived under strict supervision, far from outside influences and subject to a rigid disciplinary regime that prevented them from having any contact with their surroundings. Under these conditions, the lives of the young migrants revolved almost exclusively between factory work and confinement in the boarding schools, with binding contracts obliging them to remain for at least three years.

Women's Work: Invisibility and Exploitation

Migrants were often employed at the lowest levels of the corporate and wage hierarchy. Despite being skilled and productive workers, their social status was severely limited by the isolation they lived in and the lack of recognized rights . Yvonne Pesenti Salazar, through a careful analysis of historical sources and collected testimonies, offers a powerful narrative of these often forgotten lives.

“I wanted to give voice to these young women,” explains the author, “who with their sacrifices contributed not only to the sustenance of their families, but also to the success of the Swiss textile industry.”
Pesenti Salazar began his research during the production of the documentary Boarding school girls directed by Werner Weick and produced by Swiss Radio and Television (RSI) in 1988.

A chapter of history to be rediscovered

The history of industrial boarding schools has long been neglected by historiography, especially with regard to their impact on women's lives. Yvonne Pesenti Salazar, already the author of important studies on women's work and women's conditions in Switzerland, manages to highlight this singular migratory phenomenon through rich and detailed documentation. The testimonies collected, some of which date back to the early twentieth century, were fundamental to reconstructing this reality. The narrative that emerges highlights the value codes and stereotypes that influenced entire generations of women, in a context in which women's work was closely linked to discipline and obedience.

The presentation of the book and the screening of the documentary

The book presentation will be followed by a screening of the documentary " Runway Girls ," offering the public a unique opportunity to further explore this little-known chapter in Swiss history. The evening will conclude with a complimentary aperitif, during which guests and the author will be able to discuss the matter. The event is open to the public with free admission.