Noemi Steuerwald

Noemi Steuerwald is a historian and a specialist in the cultural history of equestrian sports in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The long road to gender desegregation for Switzerland’s Boy Scouts and Girl Guides

Noemi Steuerwald 21.04.2026 The Scout and Guide Movement is one of Switzerland’s biggest youth associations. It is open to both boys and girls who mix freely as members of one organisation, but it wasn’t always like that.

Postcard ‘Am Lagerfeuer’ (by the campfire), drawn by Girl Guide Elsa Denner, 1940.

Horses for courses: a symbol of masculinity or a girl’s best friend?

Noemi Steuerwald 02.04.2025 Ponies as the silky-smooth projection of feminine sensitivity; riding as a girl’s pink, heart-shaped dream. This cultural image, although common today, only emerged around the mid-20th century.

The horse – both a symbol of manliness and a little girl’s dream. A brush drawing by Simon Volmar, circa 1830.