Ersilia Fossati

Ersilia Fossati (25 March 1921 - 9 October 1999) was a 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, 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, 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. Her father's family came from Meride, in the canton of Ticino, in Switzerland.

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.

She continued her studies at the teacher training college, the Magistrale di Locarno, where she earned a teaching certificate in 1941.

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. 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 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,

From 1963, she was in charge of the adult education college in Lugano. She was president from 1964 to 1966, and again from 1970 to 1971. Fossati served until 1983, and acted as a mentor to the next generation of Catholic women in Ticino politics, including Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi.

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.

In 2021, the commune de Mendrisio named a road in the Meride area in Fossati's honour. In 2021, Fossati was featured in a street based exhibition in Bern featuring 52 women from across Switzerland to celebrate the 50th anniversary of women's right to vote in Switzerland. The outdoor format was designed to be safely accessible during the Covid pandemic.

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