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
The first woman lecturer in a university in which German is the language
used has been employed in Berne since 1898. She is Dr. Anna Tumarkin, a
native Russian, having the right to teach in universities æsthetics and
the history of modern philosophy. In 1909 she was appointed professor. In
each of the universities of Zurich, Berne, and Geneva, a woman has been
appointed as university lecturer. Women doctors practice in all of the
larger cities. There are twelve in Zurich. The city council of Zurich has
decided to furnish free assistance to women during confinement, and to
establish a municipal maternity hospital. In Zurich there has been
established for women a hospital entirely under the control of women; the
chief physician is Frau Dr. Heim. The practice of law has been open to
women in the canton of Zurich since 1899, and in the canton of Geneva
since 1904. Miss Anna Mackenroth, _Dr. jur._, a native German, was the
first Swiss woman lawyer. Miss Nelly Favre was the second. Miss Dr.
Brüstlein was refused admission to the bar in Berne. Miss Favre was the
first woman to plead before the Federal Court in Berne, the capital. As
yet there are no women preachers in Switzerland. In Lausanne there is a
woman engineer. In the field of technical schools for Swiss women, much
remains to be done. The commercial education of women is also neglected by
the state, while the professional training of men is everywhere promoted.
Women are employed in the postal and telegraph service. The Swiss hotel
system offers remunerative positions and thoroughly respectable callings
to women of good family. In 1900 the number of women laborers was 233,912;
they are engaged chiefly in the textile and ready-made clothing
industries, in lacemaking, cabinetmaking, and the manufacture of food
products, pottery, perfumes, watches and clocks, jewelry, embroidery, and
brushes.[68] Owing to French influence, laws for the protection of women
laborers are opposed, especially in Geneva. The inspection of factories is
largely in the hands of men. Home industry is a blessing in certain
regions, a curse in others. This depends on the intensity of the work and
on the degree of industrialism. The trade-union movement is still very
weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a
purely economic or a socialist-political character. Only a few
organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women's
Clubs. Since 1891 the men's trade-unions have admitted women. The first
women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census
of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home
industry; this number is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons
(325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremost of the home
industries is the manufacture of embroidery, engaging a total of 65,595
persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home
industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account