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.
A society to oppose the official regulation of prostitution and to improve moral conditions was organized in 1908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes in municipal affairs; the women owners of large estates vote for members of the Landtag. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of Cracow are champions of the woman’s rights movement in Galicia. Mrs. Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the magazine Ster. In Russian Poland her activities are more restricted because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this the “Equal Rights Society of Polish Women” has organized local societies in Kiew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of Polish women’s clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution was organized in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the activities of the Polish woman’s rights movement in Warsaw.
The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland. Excluded from government service, many educated Polish women flock into the teaching profession; there they have restricted advantages. The University of Warsaw has been opened to women.
THE SLOVENE WOMAN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT[107]
| Total population: 1,176,672. The women preponderate numerically. |
The Slovene woman’s rights movement is still incipient; it was stimulated by Zofka Kveder’s “The Mystery of Woman” (Mysterium der Frau). Zofka Kveder’s motto is: “To see, to know, to understand.—Woman is a human being.” Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazine Slovenka into a woman’s rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers have been organized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers cannot live on their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 hellers (14 cents) a day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 hellers (6 cents) for making 36 buttonholes, 1 krone 20 hellers (25 cents) for making one dozen shirts.
SERVIA
| Total population: 2,850,000. The number of women is somewhat greater than that of the men. Servian Federation of Women’s Clubs. |
Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among the people the oriental conception of woman prevails along with patriarchal family conditions. The woman’s rights movement is well organized; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational.
Elementary education is obligatory, and is supported by the “National Society for Public Education” (Nationalen Verein für Volksbildung). The girls and women of the lower classes are engaged chiefly with domestic duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home industries. These home industries were developed as a means of livelihood by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Servian woman’s rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy); most of the domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians.