It is to be expected as a result of the wretched economic conditions of the workingwomen that prostitution with its incidental earnings should be widespread in German Austria. Vienna is the refuge of those seeking work and seclusion (Verschwiegenheit). The number of illicit births in Vienna is, as in Paris, one third of the total number of births. For these and other reasons the “General Woman’s Club of Austria” (Allgemeine Österreiche Frauenverein), founded in 1893 under the leadership of Miss Augusta Fickert, has frequently concerned itself with the question of prostitution, of woman’s wages, and of the official regulation of prostitution,—always being opposed to the last. The International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution (internationale abolinistische Föderation) was, however, not represented in German Austria before 1903; the Austrian branch of this organization being established in 1907 in Vienna.

The middle-class women are doing much as leaders of the charitable, industrial, educational, and woman’s suffrage societies to raise the status of woman in Austria. The most prominent members of these societies are: Augusta Fickert, Marianne Hainisch, Mrs. v. Sprung, Miss Herzfelder, v. Wolfring, Mrs. v. Listrow, Rosa Maireder, Maria Lang (editor of the excellent Dokumente der Frauen, which, unfortunately, were discontinued in 1902), Mrs. Schwietland, Elsie Federn (the superintendent of the settlement in the laborers’ district in North Vienna), Mrs. Jella Hertzka, (Mrs.) Dr. Goldmann, superintendent of the Cottage Lyceum, and others.

These women frequently coöperate with the leaders of the Socialistic woman’s rights movement, Mrs. Schlesinger, Mrs. Popp, and others. The disunion of the two forces of the movement is much less marked in Austria than in Germany, the circumstances much more resembling those in Italy. In these lands it is expected that the woman’s rights movement will profit greatly through the growth of Socialism. This is explained by the fact that the Austrian Liberals are not equal to the assaults of the Conservatives. Universal equal suffrage, which does not as yet exist in Austria, has its most enthusiastic advocates among the Socialists. With the Austrian Socialists, universal suffrage means woman’s suffrage also.[76]

During the Liberal era two rights were granted to the Austrian women: since 1849 the women taxpayers vote by proxy in municipal elections, and since 1861 for the local legislatures (Provinciallandtagen).[77] In Lower Austria the Landtag in 1888 deprived them of this right, and in 1889 an attempt was made to deprive them of their municipal suffrage. But the women concerned successfully petitioned that they be left in possession of their active municipal suffrage. Since 1873 the Austrian women owners of large estates vote also for the Imperial Parliament through proxy. The Austrian women, supported by the Socialist deputies, Pernerstorfer, Kronawetter, Adler, and others, have on several occasions demanded the passive suffrage in the election of school boards and poor-law guardians; they have also demanded a reform of the law of organization, so that women can be admitted to political organizations. To the present these efforts have been fruitless. When universal suffrage was granted in 1906 (creating the fifth class of voters), the women were disregarded. In the previous year a Woman’s Suffrage Committee had been established with headquarters in Vienna. It is endeavoring especially to secure the repeal of paragraph 30 of the law regulating organizations and public meetings. This law (like that of Prussia and Bavaria previous to 1908) excludes women from political organization, thus making the forming of a woman’s suffrage society impossible. For this reason Austria cannot join the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance.

During the consideration of the new municipal election laws in Troppau (Austrian Silesia), it was proposed to withdraw the right of suffrage from the women taxpayers. They resisted the proposal energetically. At present the matter is before the supreme court. In Voralberg the unmarried women taxpayers were also given the right to vote in elections of the Landtag. The legal status of the Austrian woman is similar to that of the French woman: the wife is under the guardianship of her husband; the property law provides for the amalgamation of property (not joint property holding, as in France). But the wife does not have control of her earnings and savings, as in Germany under the Civil Code. The father alone has legal authority over the children.

Here the names of two women must be mentioned: Bertha v. Suttner, one of the founders of the peace movement, and Marie v. Ebner-Eschenbach, the greatest living woman writer in the German language. Both are Austrians; and their country may well be proud of them.

In Austria the authorities are more favorably disposed toward the woman’s rights movement than in Germany, for example.

HUNGARY[78]

Total population:19,254,559.
Women:9,672,407.
Men:9,582,152.
Federation of Hungarian Women’s Clubs.
Woman’s Suffrage League.