One caregiver for 150 children
The first opportunity to have children cared for outside one’s own home were infant schools and kindergartens that emerged in the first half of the 19th century. It was during this time that the first women began to work outside the home, which was not really anticipated by the prevailing role model for women at the time. Mothers were expected to stay at home with the children and take care of the household. Financially, however, this was no longer viable for many families. Thus, by 1870, more than half of Swiss women were working. They could only place their children in one of these schools once they reached three years old. Given the ratio of one caregiver for 150 children, these schools were more akin to mass processing. They had nothing in common with today’s childcare offerings.
The first childcare center was established in Basel in 1870.
Switzerland invests only 0.1% of its GDP in supplementary family care. Other OECD countries invest an average of 0.8%.
According to a UNICEF study, Switzerland ranks 38 out of 41 countries on the subject of childcare in comparison with OECD countries.
GDP could be increased by 6% if mothers were fully employed.
The birth rate in Switzerland is 1.46 births per woman. In France, it is 1.83.
Support for working families
From the mid to late 19th century, additional childcare options began to emerge. This initiative was led by private individuals: women’s associations, doctors and pastors founded childcares or after-school care for older children. These were mostly located in workers’ districts, where the demand for childcare was high. However, the organizations also set conditions for the parents. Children of unmarried women were rejected for moral reasons. Parents were required to hand over their children clean, bathed and diapered. The individual and loving care that we take for granted today did not exist back then. The centers were only concerned with ensuring that the children were not neglected while their parents were at work. Why was this? Probably because the providers of the childcare centers clung to their bourgeois-influenced roles. They were banking on the idea that mothers would soon no longer need to work and thus saw themselves only as a stopgap until that time came. The families had to pay for the care even then. That’s why in Zurich, initially, almost exclusively children from artisan families were cared for. People who worked in the factories could hardly afford the costs.
For bourgeois families, childcare was not an issue back then. They employed nannies or wet nurses. The mothers took care of the household and other tasks.
A role model changes
At the end of the 19th century, the role model for women began to change. After the First World War, fewer and fewer of them worked. Society assigned them the role “behind the stove,” where they took care of the household and children. As a result, external childcare services were increasingly less sought after. The growing middle class could live well with the father as the sole earner. In 1941, the statistically measured employment rate of Swiss women reached a low point. Only 35 % of them were working. The relevance of childcare offers also declined. For many families, such offers were not even an issue: the compatibility of motherhood and career was not discussed in public and political discourse for a long time. In the early sixties, only a few Swiss families used childcare services.
Pioneering work of the Italians
Movement only came back into the issue when, after the Second World War, Italian guest workers were the first foreign labor force to come to Switzerland. They were followed by Portuguese, Spaniards and then Yugoslavians. In 1960, an incredible 75 percent of all female workers in Switzerland were from abroad. They started families but often returned to work shortly after giving birth. Now there was a need for childcare services! Because the families
of these people had remained abroad. The grandparents couldn’t step in. However, there was still no offer available, so people had to take matters into their own hands. The Italian Catholic missionary order, for example, began to expand the so-called “Asili.” Here, the children of guest workers were looked after during the week and even received a lunch, something that until a few years ago was still not a matter of course for Swiss childcare offers for children! But the centers remained primarily reserved for the children of Italian women – probably also because Italian was spoken here and the caregivers came from the neighboring country. For Swiss families, care by the mother remained the preferred solution.
Demand for change
It wasn’t until the seventies that things started moving again in Switzerland. More women were working, and the women’s movement actively demanded a larger offering of childcare services. What seems completely normal to us today, wasn’t back then: only from 1976 did women no longer need their husband’s permission to work.
New services emerged, and the view on childcare began to change. The idea of actively engaging with the children and incorporating educational aspects into the care took hold. Childcare mother associations were established. Their goal was more personal care. At the same time, parents were to have more say when it came to the day care of their children. The image of childcares also began to change. Gradually, they were no longer seen as a stopgap solution but were perceived as useful and supportive institutions. Investment was made in the training of staff, and the centers became more professional.
Still much to do
The political sector recognized the great need for childcare services only when the birth rate in Switzerland began to decline from 1990 onwards. It became clear: more must be done to improve the compatibility of career and family. The sector pro-fessionalized, and the state took over private associations, including the still-existing Italian-speaking “Asili.” There were initial funding efforts to create more offers.
Despite everything, only 36 % of children living in Switzerland were cared for in a childcare center or a school supplementing center in 2021. The number of offers is still scarce and heavily dependent on location. In addition, there are the high costs: a full-time childcare place costs in Switzerland on average more than a quarter of the total family income. In an international comparison, this is an extremely poor value. For many families, this means: the person with the lower income – and that is still often the mother – works only part time or withdraws completely from professional life.