The Modern Woman's Rights Movement: A Historical SurveySchirmacher, Käthe
History
The Modern Woman's Rights Movement: A Historical Survey
Schirmacher, Käthe
Women -- Social and moral questions; Women's rights
As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) a _month_,
later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a
week's hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries
women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day without board. In
printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as assistants; for
9-1/2 hours' work a day they are paid a _monthly_ wage of from 2 to 14 and
15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive
16 guldens ($7.71) a month.
In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as
bricklayers' assistants, working 10 to 11 hours a day; their wages are 40
to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these
conditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry
thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What
miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos!
An industrial women's movement in Galicia is not to be thought of as yet.
There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the
cities; _i.e._ into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning 10,
15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The
ignorance of the lower classes (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the
ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between
six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) had _never attended
school_. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever! Of the
4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500
kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be
regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school
board. There are _Gymnasiums_ for girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl.
Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of
the universities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on political economy.
In Cracow there is a woman's club. Propaganda is being organized
throughout the land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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