At first the Hungarian woman’s rights movement was restricted to the advancement of girls’ education. The attainment of national independence gave the women greater ambition; since 1867 they have striven for the establishment of higher institutions of learning for girls. In 1868 Mrs. v. Veres with twenty-two other women founded the “Society for the Advancement of Girls’ Education.” In 1869, the first class in a high school for girls was formed in Budapest. An esteemed scholar, P. Gyulai, undertook the superintendence of the institution. Similar schools were founded in the provinces. In 1876 the Budapest model school was completed; in 1878 it was turned over to a woman superintendent, Mrs. v. Janisch. A seminary for women teachers was established, a special building being erected for the purpose. Then the admission of women to the university was agitated. A special committee for this purpose was formed with Dr. Coloman v. Csicky as chairman. In the meantime the “Society” gave domestic economy courses and courses of instruction to adults (in its girls’ high school). The Minister of Public Instruction, v. Wlassics, secured the imperial decree of November 18, 1895, by which women were admitted to the universities of Klausenburg and Budapest (to the philosophical and medical faculties). It was now necessary to prepare women for the entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen). This was undertaken by the “General Hungarian Woman’s Club” (Allgemeine ungarische Frauenverein). With the aid of Dr. Béothy, a lecturer at the University of Budapest, the club formulated a programme that was accepted by the Minister of Public Instruction. By the rescript of July 18, 1896, he authorized the establishment of a girls’ gymnasium in Budapest. It is evident that such reforms, when in the hands of intelligent authorities, are put into working order as easily as a letter passes through the mails.
In the professional callings we find 15 women druggists, 10 women doctors, and one woman architect. Erica Paulus, who has chosen the calling of architect (which elsewhere in Europe has hardly been opened to women), is a Transylvanian. Among other things she has been given the supervision of the masonry, the glasswork, the roofing, and the interior decoration of the buildings of the Evangelical-Reformed College in Klausenburg. A second woman architect, trained in the Budapest technical school, is a builder in Besztercze.
Higher education of women was promoted in the cities, the home industries of the Hungarian rural districts were fostered. This was taken up by the “Rural Woman’s Industry Society” (Landes-Frauenindustrieverein). Aprons, carpets, textile fabrics, slippers, tobacco pouches, whip handles, and ornamental chests are made artistically according to antique models (this movement is analogous to that in Scandinavia). Large expositions aroused the interest of the public in favor of the national products, for the disposal of which the women of the society have labored with enthusiasm. These home industries give employment to about 750,000 women (and 40,000 men).
Hungary is preëminently an agricultural country and its wages are low. The promotion of home industry therefore had a great economic importance, for Hungary is a center of traffic in girls. A great number of these poor ignorant country girls, reared in oriental stupor, congregate in Budapest from all parts of Hungary and the Balkan States, to be bartered to the brothels of South America as “Madjarli and Hungara.”[79] An address that Miss Coote of the “International Vigilance Society” delivered in Budapest resulted in the founding of the “Society for Combating the White Slave Trade.” The committee was composed of Countess Czaky, Baroness Wenckheim, Dr. Ludwig Gruber (royal public prosecutor), Professor Vambéry, and others. The recent Draconic regulation of prostitution in Pest (1906) caused the Federation of Hungarian Women’s Clubs to oppose the official regulation of prostitution, and to form a department of morals, which is to be regarded as the Hungarian branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution. Since then, public opinion concerning the question has been aroused; the laws against the white slave traffic have been made more stringent and are being more rigidly enforced.
A new development in Hungary is the woman’s suffrage movement (since 1904), represented in the “Feminist Society” (Feministenverein). During the past five years the society has carried on a vigorous propaganda in Budapest and various cities in the provinces (in Budapest also with the aid of foreign women speakers); recently the society has also roused the countrywomen in favor of the movement. Woman’s suffrage is opposed by the Clericals and the Social-Democrats, who favor only male suffrage in the impending introduction of universal suffrage[80]. On March 10, 1908, a delegation of woman’s suffrage advocates went to the Parliament. During the suffrage debates the women held public meetings.
From the work of A. v. Maclay, Le droit des femmes au travail, I take the following statements: According to the industrial statistics of 1900 there were 1,819,517 women in Hungary engaged in agriculture. Industry, mining, and transportation engaged 242,951; state and municipal service, and the liberal callings engaged 36,870 women. There were 109,739 women day laborers; 350,693 domestic servants; 24,476 women pursued undefined or unknown callings; 83,537 women lived on incomes from their property. Since 1890 the number of women engaged in all the callings has increased more rapidly than the number of men (26.3 to 27.9 per cent being the average increase of the women engaged in gainful pursuits). In 1900 the women formed 21 per cent of the industrial population. They were engaged chiefly in the manufacture of pottery (29 per cent), bent-wood furniture (46 per cent), matches (58 per cent), clothing (59 per cent), textiles (60 per cent). In paper making and bookbinding 68 per cent of the laborers are women. In the state mints 25 per cent of the employees are women; the state tobacco factories employ 16,720 women, these being 94 per cent of the total number of employees. Of those engaged in commerce 23 per cent are women.
The number of women engaged in the civil service (as private secretaries) and in the liberal callings has increased even more than the number of women engaged in industry. The women engaged in office work have organized. In 1901 the number of women public school teachers was 6529 (there being 22,840 men), i.e. 22.22 per cent were women. In the best public schools there are more women teachers than men, the proportion being 62 to 48; in the girls’ high schools there are 273 women teachers to 145 men teachers. In 1903 the railroads employed 511 women; in 1898 the postal service employed 4516 women; in 1899 the telephone system employed 207 women (and 81 men). These women employees, unlike those of Austria, are permitted to marry.