Criminalising Marital Rape: A Look at Women’s and Feminist Mobilisations in the Swiss Legislative Arena

Marital rape was first recognised as a criminal offence in the 1991 revision of the Swiss Penal Code, after intense debates within the legislative arena as well as outside it. Whereas the first parliamentary commission and chamber – the Council of States – rejected the criminalisation of marital rape, the second commission and chamber – the National Council – decided in favour of its recognition as a penal offence. This paper proposes to examine this "change of heart" in detail, looking at the role played by feminist lawyers, femocrats and feminist organisations working with survivors in shaping marital rape as a public problem within the legislative arena. How did these actors employ established or burgeoning (feminist) networks and spaces in order to push for the recognition of marital rape as a public problem? Which uses of "the Law" in the broadest sense were made by these actors – be it through feminist reinterpretations of legislation or through securing a legitimacy to be heard in the arenas of parliamentary debate and decision-making? Finally, which strategies and discursive practices did they use in trying to get marital rape back on the legislative agenda1? Using a mixed approach and theoretical framework (History, Sociology of Law and Sociology of public problems), as well as a variety of data (archival research and interviews), this paper aims to contribute to discussions around "social movements'" –and particularly women's and feminist movements' – mobilisation of and in the Law in Switzerland.