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'''Ersilia Fossati''' (25 March 1921 - 9 October 1999) was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[politician]] from the canton of [[Ticino]]. She was a member of the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland]] and a campaigner for [[women's suffrage]]. When Switzerland eventually granted women the federal vote on 7 February 1971,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women’s suffrage in Switzerland: 100 years of struggle |url=https://www.parlament.ch/en/über-da...women/conquest-of-equal-rights/women-suffrage |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=www.parlament.ch}}</ref> Fossati was one of the first eleven women elected to the [[Grand Council of Ticino]] in 1971.
== Early life and education ==
Ersilia Fossati was born on 25 March 1921 in [[Veneto]] near [[Piave (river)|Piave]], in Italy, where her father ran a cooperative. She was the eldest of eleven children born to Rosa (née Scala) and Andrea Fossati, an engineer from [[Carona, Ticino|Carona]]. Her father's family [[Place of origin|came from]] [[Meride]], in the [[canton of Ticino]], in Switzerland.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/060159/2022-11-21/}}</ref>
During her childhood, she was in regular contact with her Swiss relatives in [[Ticino]] and spent her summer holidays at her paternal family's house. In 1939, the imminence of the [[Second World War]] led to her family moving back from Italy to live in Meride in Switzerland.<ref name=":2" />
Ersilia Fossati attended primary and secondary school at the Ghislanzoni Institute in [[Milan]], in Italy run by the [[Ursulines]] of Saint Charles.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
She continued her studies at the teacher training college, the Magistrale di [[Locarno|Locarno,]] where she earned a teaching certificate in 1941.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
== Second World War ==
From 1941 to 1942, Fossati taught Italian at the Institute of the Sisters of [[Ingenbohl]], during which time she also learned German.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |last2=Anelli |first2=Boris |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. (French) |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/060159/2022-11-21/ |no-pp=y}}</ref>
In 1940, Fossati volunteered for the Frauenhilfsdienst (FHD), the Swiss Women's Army Auxiliary Service, in response to a national call from General [[Henri Guisan]].<ref name=":1" /> Although Switzerland remained neutral throughout the Second World War, the country was prepared to defend itself from a potential Nazi invasion through [[National Redoubt (Switzerland)#World War II|National Redoubt]] plans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=James |first=Helen |date=2020-04-23 |title=Swiss women didn't only cook during the second world war |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/histor...nly-cook-during-the-second-world-war/45711668 |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=SWI swissinfo.ch |language=en-GB}}</ref> The Swiss army was mobilised in September 1939, and women’s organisations stepped up in support and the FHD was founded. The Frauenhilfsdienst was officially recognised in April 1940, and its female volunteers worked for the army in communications, logistics, and as medical orderlies. Until the end of the Second World War, Fossati carried out administrative and assistance tasks as part of the FHD, first in [[Bern|Berne]] and then in [[Cugnasco]] for which she was later awarded an honour for her service during the war. She continued her membership of the FHD until 1978,<ref name=":1" /> from 1951 to 1964, whilst president of the Ticino section of the FHD, she ran refresher courses in both German and Italian.<ref name=":2" />
From 1941 to 1942, Fossati taught Italian at the Institute of the Sisters of [[Ingenbohl]], during which time she also learned German.<ref name=":0" />
== Career ==
Fossati had a varied work career before becoming an elected politician. Between 1942 and 1971, she worked on cataloguing dialect terms as part of the team run by [[:it:Silvio_Sganzini|Silvio Sganzini]], a Swiss linguist, teacher and lexicographer, who was director of the [[:it:Vocabolario_dei_dialetti_della_Svizzera_italiana|Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana]], an ongoing project recording and publishing the vocabulary of the dialects of Italian Switzerland.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
From 1963, she was in charge of the [[Folk high school|adult education college]] in [[Lugano]].<ref name=":0" />
From 1971 to 1975, Fossati worked as a secretary at [[Fidinam]], a private consultancy company. After this, she worked for the homecare service in Lugano and the surrounding area until 1983. During this time, she succeeded in tripling the number of partner municipalities.<ref name=":2" />
== Political career ==
Ersilia Fossati became involved in politics in 1962, when she joined the Ticino Association for Women's Suffrage. At this point, women in Switzerland did not have the vote, despite demands being made since the later nineteenth century. In February 1959, a referendum of all male voters had voted 66.9% to 33% against granting female suffrage in all but three [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women’s suffrage in Switzerland: 100 years of struggle |url=https://www.parlament.ch/en/über-da...women/conquest-of-equal-rights/women-suffrage |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=www.parlament.ch}}</ref> Fossati became involved in campaigning for [[women's suffrage in Switzerland]], speaking at conferences organised in various communes prior to the successful 1969 cantonal and 1971 federal votes which eventually granted women's suffrage.<ref name=":2" />
In 1964, Fossati founded the [[Lugano]] branch of the [[Zonta International]] club. She was president from 1964 to 1966, and again from 1970 to 1971.<ref name=":1" /> From 1987 to 1990, she was a member and then cantonal president of the Catholic association Pro Filia, supporting young people in educational and people of all ages in need of help.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
She is also a member of the foundation board of the Pro Senectute (de) section, which includes the canton of Ticino and the district of Moesa.<ref name=":1" />
Fossati was a member of the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland]] (PDC), she was one of the first eleven women elected to the [[Grand Council of Ticino]] in 1971, when Switzerland eventually granted women the vote. She served until 1983. During the 1970s, she also chaired the Lugano PDC women's group and became the first treasurer of the cantonal PDC women's association, founded in 1985.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/060159/2022-11-21/}}</ref>
As a [[legislator]] and [[member of parliament]], she campaigned for the establishment of a teacher training college for kindergarten teachers in [[Lugano]] and [[Locarno]], fought against the abolition of maintenance payments in the event of the insolvency of a former spouse, and opposed the mining works of Saceba SA in [[Balerna]] on environmental grounds.<ref name=":0" />
== Death and commemoration ==
Ersilia Fossati died in [[Lugano]] on 9 October 1999.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
In 2021, the commune de [[Mendrisio]] named a road in the Meride area in Fossati's honour.<ref name=":2" />
== Publications ==
* {{Cite journal |last=Fossati |first=S Ersilia |date=1981 |title=1941-1981 quarantesimo di fondazione del Servizio Complementare |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=rmi-002:1981:53::521 |format=pdf |journal=Rivista militare della Svizzera italiana |language=it |volume=53 |issue=6 |page=18}}
== References ==
<references />
=== Bibliography ===
* {{Cite book |last=Susanna Castelletti |title=Donne in movimento |last2=Lisa Fornara |publisher=FAFT |year=2007 |location=Massagno}}
* Association des Archives Unies des Femmes Tessin (AARDT), [[Melano]], [https://www.archividonneticino.ch/fossati-ersilia-1921-1999/ Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999)].
{{Portal|femmes|politique suisse|Tessin|
}}
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Swiss feminists]]
[[Category:Swiss women in politics]]
[[Category:Swiss lexicographers]]
[[Category:Secretaries]]
[[Category:Swiss politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Swiss politicians]]
[[Category:Swiss Catholics]]
[[Category:Wikipedia requested images of politicians and government-people]]
Okumaya devam et...
'''Ersilia Fossati''' (25 March 1921 - 9 October 1999) was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[politician]] from the canton of [[Ticino]]. She was a member of the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland]] and a campaigner for [[women's suffrage]]. When Switzerland eventually granted women the federal vote on 7 February 1971,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women’s suffrage in Switzerland: 100 years of struggle |url=https://www.parlament.ch/en/über-da...women/conquest-of-equal-rights/women-suffrage |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=www.parlament.ch}}</ref> Fossati was one of the first eleven women elected to the [[Grand Council of Ticino]] in 1971.
== Early life and education ==
Ersilia Fossati was born on 25 March 1921 in [[Veneto]] near [[Piave (river)|Piave]], in Italy, where her father ran a cooperative. She was the eldest of eleven children born to Rosa (née Scala) and Andrea Fossati, an engineer from [[Carona, Ticino|Carona]]. Her father's family [[Place of origin|came from]] [[Meride]], in the [[canton of Ticino]], in Switzerland.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/060159/2022-11-21/}}</ref>
During her childhood, she was in regular contact with her Swiss relatives in [[Ticino]] and spent her summer holidays at her paternal family's house. In 1939, the imminence of the [[Second World War]] led to her family moving back from Italy to live in Meride in Switzerland.<ref name=":2" />
Ersilia Fossati attended primary and secondary school at the Ghislanzoni Institute in [[Milan]], in Italy run by the [[Ursulines]] of Saint Charles.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
She continued her studies at the teacher training college, the Magistrale di [[Locarno|Locarno,]] where she earned a teaching certificate in 1941.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
== Second World War ==
From 1941 to 1942, Fossati taught Italian at the Institute of the Sisters of [[Ingenbohl]], during which time she also learned German.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |last2=Anelli |first2=Boris |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. (French) |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/060159/2022-11-21/ |no-pp=y}}</ref>
In 1940, Fossati volunteered for the Frauenhilfsdienst (FHD), the Swiss Women's Army Auxiliary Service, in response to a national call from General [[Henri Guisan]].<ref name=":1" /> Although Switzerland remained neutral throughout the Second World War, the country was prepared to defend itself from a potential Nazi invasion through [[National Redoubt (Switzerland)#World War II|National Redoubt]] plans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=James |first=Helen |date=2020-04-23 |title=Swiss women didn't only cook during the second world war |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/histor...nly-cook-during-the-second-world-war/45711668 |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=SWI swissinfo.ch |language=en-GB}}</ref> The Swiss army was mobilised in September 1939, and women’s organisations stepped up in support and the FHD was founded. The Frauenhilfsdienst was officially recognised in April 1940, and its female volunteers worked for the army in communications, logistics, and as medical orderlies. Until the end of the Second World War, Fossati carried out administrative and assistance tasks as part of the FHD, first in [[Bern|Berne]] and then in [[Cugnasco]] for which she was later awarded an honour for her service during the war. She continued her membership of the FHD until 1978,<ref name=":1" /> from 1951 to 1964, whilst president of the Ticino section of the FHD, she ran refresher courses in both German and Italian.<ref name=":2" />
From 1941 to 1942, Fossati taught Italian at the Institute of the Sisters of [[Ingenbohl]], during which time she also learned German.<ref name=":0" />
== Career ==
Fossati had a varied work career before becoming an elected politician. Between 1942 and 1971, she worked on cataloguing dialect terms as part of the team run by [[:it:Silvio_Sganzini|Silvio Sganzini]], a Swiss linguist, teacher and lexicographer, who was director of the [[:it:Vocabolario_dei_dialetti_della_Svizzera_italiana|Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana]], an ongoing project recording and publishing the vocabulary of the dialects of Italian Switzerland.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
From 1963, she was in charge of the [[Folk high school|adult education college]] in [[Lugano]].<ref name=":0" />
From 1971 to 1975, Fossati worked as a secretary at [[Fidinam]], a private consultancy company. After this, she worked for the homecare service in Lugano and the surrounding area until 1983. During this time, she succeeded in tripling the number of partner municipalities.<ref name=":2" />
== Political career ==
Ersilia Fossati became involved in politics in 1962, when she joined the Ticino Association for Women's Suffrage. At this point, women in Switzerland did not have the vote, despite demands being made since the later nineteenth century. In February 1959, a referendum of all male voters had voted 66.9% to 33% against granting female suffrage in all but three [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women’s suffrage in Switzerland: 100 years of struggle |url=https://www.parlament.ch/en/über-da...women/conquest-of-equal-rights/women-suffrage |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=www.parlament.ch}}</ref> Fossati became involved in campaigning for [[women's suffrage in Switzerland]], speaking at conferences organised in various communes prior to the successful 1969 cantonal and 1971 federal votes which eventually granted women's suffrage.<ref name=":2" />
In 1964, Fossati founded the [[Lugano]] branch of the [[Zonta International]] club. She was president from 1964 to 1966, and again from 1970 to 1971.<ref name=":1" /> From 1987 to 1990, she was a member and then cantonal president of the Catholic association Pro Filia, supporting young people in educational and people of all ages in need of help.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
She is also a member of the foundation board of the Pro Senectute (de) section, which includes the canton of Ticino and the district of Moesa.<ref name=":1" />
Fossati was a member of the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland]] (PDC), she was one of the first eleven women elected to the [[Grand Council of Ticino]] in 1971, when Switzerland eventually granted women the vote. She served until 1983. During the 1970s, she also chaired the Lugano PDC women's group and became the first treasurer of the cantonal PDC women's association, founded in 1985.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ersilia Fossati - Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/060159/2022-11-21/}}</ref>
As a [[legislator]] and [[member of parliament]], she campaigned for the establishment of a teacher training college for kindergarten teachers in [[Lugano]] and [[Locarno]], fought against the abolition of maintenance payments in the event of the insolvency of a former spouse, and opposed the mining works of Saceba SA in [[Balerna]] on environmental grounds.<ref name=":0" />
== Death and commemoration ==
Ersilia Fossati died in [[Lugano]] on 9 October 1999.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sciortino |first=Roberta |date=2014 |title=Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999) |url=https://mendrisio.ch/ersilia-fossati-1921-1999/ |url-access= |access-date= |website=mendrisio.ch}}</ref>
In 2021, the commune de [[Mendrisio]] named a road in the Meride area in Fossati's honour.<ref name=":2" />
== Publications ==
* {{Cite journal |last=Fossati |first=S Ersilia |date=1981 |title=1941-1981 quarantesimo di fondazione del Servizio Complementare |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=rmi-002:1981:53::521 |format=pdf |journal=Rivista militare della Svizzera italiana |language=it |volume=53 |issue=6 |page=18}}
== References ==
<references />
=== Bibliography ===
* {{Cite book |last=Susanna Castelletti |title=Donne in movimento |last2=Lisa Fornara |publisher=FAFT |year=2007 |location=Massagno}}
* Association des Archives Unies des Femmes Tessin (AARDT), [[Melano]], [https://www.archividonneticino.ch/fossati-ersilia-1921-1999/ Ersilia Fossati (1921-1999)].
{{Portal|femmes|politique suisse|Tessin|
}}
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Swiss feminists]]
[[Category:Swiss women in politics]]
[[Category:Swiss lexicographers]]
[[Category:Secretaries]]
[[Category:Swiss politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Swiss politicians]]
[[Category:Swiss Catholics]]
[[Category:Wikipedia requested images of politicians and government-people]]
Okumaya devam et...