Publication details
Disciplinované buřičky : Ženy v politických stranách na Moravě do roku 1914
| Title in English | Disciplined agitators : Women in political parties in Moravia before 1914 |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Monograph |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This publication analyses the process of the inclusion of women into the People’s (Progressive) Party, the National Catholic Party, the Christian Social Party, the land organizations of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers’ Party, the Czech Agrarian Party and the Czech National Social Party in Moravia. Based primarily on the analysis of periodicals, the analysis covers the process in the period between the late 1890s and the beginning of the First World War. The main outcome of the book is to disrupt the theory of the political parties being unwilling to create an adequate environment for the political engagement of women. The research presented here confirms that the parties investigated created the kind of conditions that were generally favourable for the entry of women into interest groups far beyond their female-exclusive structures. The average women’s representation in the membership of certain Catholic, Socialist and Agrarian youth groups and trade unions even ranged from 30% to 40%, and their total numbers were in the thousands. On the other hand, some youth and trade union platforms of the Nation Social Workers as well as the Agrarians did remain closed to women, which provides evidence of traditional gender relations in these organisations. The publication has also determined that women’s activities were focused on social and maternal issues, social life and the sphere of entertainment. However, even before 1914, women were active at all levels of political work. With the exception of voting rights and the issue of suffrage, which were excluded by contemporary legislation in Moravia, women participated in elections as a passive audience, as auxiliary forces in political campaigns or as subscribers to the political press. The most capable of them had political training in courses of rhetoric and took part as agitators. Although women were for the most part invisible participants in political life, their efforts should be interpreted as political activity in the broader meaning of that phrase. Their purpose was to subsidize construction of party facilities or strike funds, as well as to raise a new generation of voters/loyal party members, but also to make political life familiar to women. |
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