Sarah Kemeny and Dr. Cindy Brewer, Germanic and Slavic Languages
Rosa Mayreder, Auguste Fickert, and Marie Lang’s publication of “Dokumente der Frauen” and the General Women’s Organization of Austria organization influenced and shaped Austrian political and legal identity for women in Austria. Auguste Fickert (1855-1910), Rosa Mayreder (1858-1938), and Marie Lang (1858-1934) were founders of women’s organizations and publications for the improvement of women’s rights and had profound effects on Austria’s political and legal identity for women. Their theories, publications, and organizations externally developed and then incorporated and codified gender into the Austrian political and legal systems.
My main task is to evaluate the influences of these women, their organizations, and publications, such as “Dokumente der Frauen,” and the effect they had in changing Austrian politics and law to include women’s rights. Analyzing the monthly publication of “Dokumente der Frauen” and activities of Mayreder, Fickert, and Lang’s General Women’s Organization of Austria, this research traces the persuasiveness of their endeavors. As I will be researching this project in the Austrian National Library Archives in Vienna this summer, my research is not yet complete.
When women first entered parliament in 1919, or as it was named back then, Konstituierende Nationalversammlung, they constituted only 4.7%. Since then, percentage of participation has risen very slowly (Fig. 1). My research examines reasons for the slow rise in participation among women, specifically focusing on extra-parliamentary institutions, the relationship between gender and political power, the influence of German nationalism, the gender composition of labor unions, and finally, women’s opportunities and access to these organizations and institutions.
One of these extra-parliamentary institutions, the Allgemeiner Österreichischer Frauenverein (AÖFV), or General Women’s Organization of Austria, was founded in Vienna in 1893. Upon conception, its main goal was to campaign for women’s suffrage. Auguste Fickert was appointed as president, with Rosa Mayreder as vice-president. Maria Schwarz, Marie Lang, and Marianne Hainisch, other prominent women’s rights activists, were among the first members of this organization. Due to the pleading of certain prominent women, the AÖFV began to take on other social issues such as prostitution. The organization took an active role in speaking out against prostitution as part of the Frauenfrage, or women’s question. It is my hypothesis that the AÖFV acted as an influential extra-parliamentary institution, exerting pressure on law-making bodies to recognize women’s issues.
In addition, many publications, including “Dokumente der Frauen” contained strong editorials and articles condemning prostitution and calling on women to take a stand and have “civil courage for a woman to address publicly such topics as sexuality and prostitution” (Good, Grandner, and Maynes 22). “Dokumente der Frauen” was not just circulated locally. It became well-known both nationally and internationally. Men were also able to write for the publication, adding to its prestige and circulation. My research so far has indicated that “Dokumente der Frauen” provided women with a united voice, and was instrumental in gathering support and attention of key law-making entities on women’s issues.
The Austrian women’s movements were also heavily influenced by German nationalism. Research by Pieter M. Judson shows a relationship between the rise of nationalist community identity among bourgeois Germans and the rise in gender awareness in Austria. “Asserting a common German identity often enabled bourgeois German-speaking Austrians to co-opt competing classes and social groups for the sake of preserving national unity” (Good, Grandner, and Maynes 13). After the fall of the German Liberal Auersperg Cabinet in 1879, ideology among the bourgeoisie changed, “emphasiz[ing] the bonds that supposedly united Germans of all classes.” To unite and “reestablish national purity …belonged to women, or more accurately, to mothers…[which] gave a new significance to women’s activities” (Good, Grandner, and Maynes 5). The issues of female roles, female teacher celibacy, and protection for unwed and single mothers were later added to the AÖFV platform, thereby increasing AÖFV activity, and perhaps increasing women’s rights awareness problems.
In writing and researching this work, I did encounter certain obstacles. Primary documents needed were not available; and online databases containing important documents were incomplete. To rectify this, I will travel to Vienna in the summer of 2005 and do archival research in the Austrian National Library, home to the ARIADNE collection of important women’s documents and publications.
Although, my research is not yet completed, and a conclusion not yet reached, this has been and will continue to be a priceless educational experience for me as I travel to Austria to continue and complete my research. My finished research and accumulated texts will be submitted to the SOPHIE on-line library to be digitized, glossed, and edited to be web-published.
Works Cited
- Good, David F., Margarete Grandner, and Mary Jo Maynes, eds. Austrian Women in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1996.