[Miss Elsie Pech, known in Bohemian literature by her pseudonym, Krásnohorská, was born in Prague in 1847. Her father was a varnisher and sign-painter. She acquired the rudiments of an education in a private school, but as there were then no institutions in Bohemia for the more advanced instruction of girls, she was forced to give up the cultivation of her mind for the training of her fingers: she began to learn needle-work. A friendship for the celebrated novelist, Caroline Světlá, decided her career: the humble sewing-girl became an author. Elise Krásnohorská [Eliska Krásnohorská, Eliška Krásnohorská] has given to the world the following original works: Three volumes of poems, a score of novels, a dozen librettos, and other dramatic writings, stories for children, biographies, literary criticism, essays on different phases of the woman question, and treatises on music and pedagogics. Since 1875 she has been the editor of the Woman's Journal (Ženské Listy), a monthly published at Prague, and has just produced a complete metrical translation of the great national poem of Poland, Pan Tadeusz, by Adam Mickiewicz. Miss Krásnohorská is at present one of the collaborators of the grand illustrated work, "Bohemia" (Čechy), a topographical, historical, and pictorial description of her native country.]

      After its terrible disasters, Bohemia, towards the end of the eighteenth century, had already disappeared from among existing nations. Joseph II, the most remarkable of the Austrian emperors, in assuming the crown of Bohemia, in addition to his other royal diadems, little dreamt of the future which awaited a people, on whose tomb he thought to plant the torch of civilization and reform through the medium of the German tongue and the German intellect. The rays of this funeral torch pierced to the heart of the nation, and the burning pain awakened it to a new life. And while it was believed that serfs, beggars, and vagabonds alone composed this people, Bohemia was seen to rise again in the person of her noblest sons -- thinkers, poets, savants, champions and martyrs of patriotic enthusiasm.

      At their side stood Bohemia's women, who performed their part in the regeneration of the humiliated race. How repulsive these noble efforts were to the prejudices of a denationalized society is painted by Caroline Světlá, the most celebrated of our writers, in a true and touching manner in her excellent novel, "The First Bohemian Woman" (Prvni Cěska). Many educated women threw themselves into the combat for the restoration of the vernacular tongue to the family and society, and came generously to the aid of those patriots who, having sacrificed everything to the struggle for nationality, found themselves reduced to poverty or, after the unfortunate effort of 1848, condemned to imprisonment and exile. Dobromila Rettig, Bohuslava Rajská, the nun Maria Cacká, the tender poetess of maternal love; but above all, tow persons of remarkable intellect and the grandest merit -- the noble Polish-Bohemian, Honorata z Wišniowskich Zapová, and Božena Němcová, -- are a few names selected from a long list of women, who took an active part in the battle for the resuscitation of their native land.

      At a meeting of Bohemian women, called together to ask for the pardon of the political prisoners of 1848, the high-minded Honorata, wife of the Bohemian writer, Charles Zap, carried away by enthusiasm, proposed the establishment of the Slavonic Women's Society, for the education of girls in the spirit of Bohemian patriotism. In 1855 she accomplished this object, but scarcely was the school, which had been the darling dream of her life, opened, when it had to be closed on account of the founder's broken health. This excellent woman died on January 4, 1856.

      Her contemporary, Božena Němcová, who was born in 1820 and died in 1862, was a superior writer. Her literary career began by a collection of folk-lore composed in a most graceful style. She also produced a considerable number of exquisite short stories, and at a later period that fine novel, "The Grandmother" (Babička), which has been translated into Russian and French, and which depicts the ancient customs of Bohemian family life in such a charming manner, that this single work sufficed to give the author a prominent place in the literature of her country.

      Němcová had not yet passed away when a genius, more brilliant and rarer than her self, blossomed forth in our midst. Caroline Světlá was born in 1830, and, since the beginning of her literary life in 1857, she has been the successful and adored guide of the intellectual movement in favor of Bohemian women. Her eloquent poetry, her moral courage and energetic activity in defending and propagating every noble and salutary idea, have brought about many useful reforms and popularized more than one sterling principle. In her novels, Světlá paints with the most delicate art the inward life and aspirations of the nation's heart, in contradistinction to Němcová, who dwells rather on external qualities. She prefers extraordinary and remarkable characters, the eminent personages of our history, to those general and common types so often described. She has a broad and highly cultivated mind, a warm heart and a rich imagination. Truth, virtue, patriotism, an ideal future compensating all the wrongs humanity has suffered, -- such is the spirit which animates those beautiful, fascinating creations, full of life and strength, drawn by the powerful pen of a woman who was as grand a poet as patriot and novelist. She it was -- and this is not the least of her merits -- who introduced the woman question into Bohemian literature.

      Her sister, Sophia Podlipská, an author of distinguished talents, who possesses less imagination and fire than Světlá, and whose acute mind has a tendency towards philosophical meditations, has produced stories, novels and didactic works full of charm, soul and exquisite ideas. Her writings, which enjoy the highest respect of everybody, have a special attraction for the young girl and the mature woman, who love to reflect on her experiences. Besides her novels, Podlipská has written many charming children's stories and several treatises of great value on pedagogics.

      These two sisters are at the head of a large and able group of literary women, such as 'Renata Tyrš, who has written very learnedly on the fine arts; Stránecka, whose beautiful productions give promise that Moravia will find in her its Němcová; Sohumila Klimeš, who devotes herself to similar studies; the poets Irma Geissl, Božena Studnicka, Albina Mráček and Berta Műhlstein; the novelist Vënceslava Lužická, who, like Maria Reigr, Anna Bayer, M. D., Julia Gintl and Clemence Hanuš, is, at the same time, a writer on moral and educational subjects; the sisters Dora and Millina Hanuš, Maria Červinka, and many others, who occupy themselves with travels, biography, etc; the sisters Agusta and Amelia Šlechta, who are known not only as authors but also as designers and wood engravers; and, among the large number of translators, Eliza Peška, the actress, who has translated and adapted an astounding quantity of dramas.

      The Bohemian theatre owes much to women, who as playwrights and actresses hold a high rank. Odile Sklenář-Malá, a tragedian of magnificent talent, of elevated taste and an earnest and captivating enthusiasm, stands first among our singers and actresses. Girls who wish to prepare for the stage must pursue their studies in private, or in the Prague Conservatory of Music, where the singers for the opera are trained, -- the only public institution of this kind in Bohemia.

      The opportunities for women's education in Bohemia are most lamentable. The Prague Academy of Fine Arts does not admit women, though an intermediate school of design and painting, established at the capital by the government a few years ago, is open to them. The universities are closed to female students. The same thing is true of all polytechnic, industrial, commercial, agricultural and mechanic art institutions, and of all intermediate schools. Their doors are firmly barred against girls. In a word, the State did nothing, until very recently, for the education of Bohemia's daughters after they left the primary schools. almost everything they learn beyond the a, b, c's is due to private enterprise.

      It was not until 1863, that the Prague municipal council decided to open, at the expense of the city, a high school for Bohemian girls. It is a beautiful building, and what is more important, it is well endowed. This foundation called for imitation, and most of the other cities of Bohemia followed the good example set by the capital. Then the general government began to show signs of waking up to its duty, and in 1867, a normal school for Bohemian girls was established at Prague, where only a German one had been up to this time. To-day there are three schools of this kind in Bohemia and Moravia.

      Associations of women look after the other branches of girls' education. The Society of St. Ludmila, for example, has attempted at Prague a school of porcelain painting. Caroline Světlá founded in the same city in 1871 a society for the industrial and commercial education of Bohemian girls, composed of two thousand women, whose donations, augmented by municipal and governmental subventions, support a school frequented by over five hundred pupils, the greater part of whom pay no tuition fee. Those who are graduated with credit are found positions. Encouraged by the generous aid of the Bohemian Medical Association, the society conducts a school for the training of nurses, the first ever established in the empire. The organization, which has done so much to disarm prejudice, has a monthly organ, the Woman's Journal (Ženské Listy), devoted to the women's movement and edited by Elsie Krásnohorská.

      As teachers, women are employed only in the elementary schools, and receive the same pay as men. They also find occupation in the government postal and telegraphic service, but the field of women's work is excessively restricted in Bohemia.

      Charity in a thousand forms is the object of most of the other associations. those composed entirely of patriotic Bohemian women, are devoted mainly to supplying clothing, books, etc., to needy school children of both sexes, to founding infant schools and creches, to the education of orphans, to the opening of soup-houses where the hungry poor may live cheaply, to the sheltering of the homeless, etc., etc. The Red Cross Society has branches among our women, and reading-rooms, lecture clubs and musical societies are common.

      The moment it was seen that the spirit of Bohemian nationality was invincible, the disdain of its enemies gave place to intense hatred, and there began a bitter struggle to snatch the education of the youth from the hands of our race. But Bohemia's women came to the rescue of our threatened language and patriotism, and these numerous societies have accomplished not only a grand charitable and educational work, but they have been an important agent in keeping alive the idea of our nationality.

      Charity and instruction unite in the aims of the American Club of Bohemian women, founded at Prague by Mr. Vojta Náprstek, a liberal-minded patriot, who, like his philanthropic mother, the late Mrs. Anna Náprstek, has devoted his fortune to the public good by enriching the industrial museum created by her, and by succoring the poor to whom she had been a generous benefactor. Mr. Náprstek had spent several years in the United States, where he had witnessed the remarkable progress of the women's movement, and, on returning to his native land, he wished to introduce among us the ideas he had so much admired on the other side of the Atlantic. Such was the origin of the American Club of Bohemian women. Every Sunday, instructive lectures are given in its rooms, and during the first years the subjects were principally drawn from the brilliant examples set by the United States in this question of women's emancipation. Under the auspices of this club, Mr. Náprstek organized, some twenty years ago, an exhibition of sewing machines, which were unknown at Prague until that time, and here were given the first lessons in their use. He has also opened to the members of the club his polyglot library, containing many literary treasures, and his beautiful collection of objects of art. it will thus be seen that Mr. Náprstek has every reason to be proud of the nickname which has been given him of "the women's advocate."

      Indeed Bohemian women need an advocate. We have already perceived that they have many rights to conquer, but there are still others which have not yet been mentioned. The Austrian code, for example, is not free from contradictions in its treatment of our sex. Thus, while the testimony of a woman is considered valid in criminal cases of the gravest nature, she may not sign as witness the simplest civil document. Again, if she be a widow with children, she has authority over their tutor, with the title of maternal tutor, and yet she may not be the tutor herself. The ancient law of the kingdom of independent Bohemia, on the other hand, recognized women as tutors. But the Austrian code is just to us in all that regards the rights of possession, inheritance, etc., where we are placed on the same footing with men. Dissolution of marriage is permitted, but divorced persons may not remarry.

      The electoral law of the empire -- and what I say here holds good for the whole monarchy as well as for Bohemia -- treats women more fairly than in the case in other European countries. They have a voice in the municipal, provincial and national elections, though a male citizen duly authorized by them casts their vote. With this single reserve -- a very important one, it must be confessed -- our women are politically the equal of men. At Prague, however, this is not the case. The Bohemian capital preserves an ancient privilege which is in contradiction to the Austrian electoral law, and which excludes us from the elective franchise.

      Universal suffrage does not exist in Bohemia, nor for that matter in the empire, but the payment of a certain amount of taxes confers the right to vote. I do not enter into the details of the electoral law, which is somewhat complicated, which has its exceptions and contradictions, and is in fact an apple of discord in Austria in more than one respect; but, speaking generally, it may be said that a woman who owns property, who is in business, or who pays taxes, may designate a citizen, possessing her confidence, to represent her at the polls. Our women are satisfied with this system, and prefer it to casting their ballots in person.

      It may be said, also, that women are eligible to office, or at least that there is no law against their accepting it, while there are instances of their having done so. In southern Bohemia, a short time ago, a countess was chosen member of a provincial assembly (okresní zastupitestvo) with the approval of the body, on the condition that she should not participate personally in its deliberations, but should be represented by a man having full power to act for her.

      But I cannot close this short sketch without devoting at least a page to the German element in Bohemia. There exists at Prague a society of German women for the promotion of industrial and commercial instruction, a lyceum for German girls, a normal school for the preparation of German school-mistresses, and several private institutions for the education of girls. A women's industrial society, composed partly of Germans and partly of Bohemians, is also found at the capital, while the two races work side by side in several charitable societies, etc. Encouraged by the prosperity of the Bohemian school for nurses, which has already been mentioned, the German women founded a similar institution, which, however, has not been so successful, because those who consecrate themselves to the care of the sick come from the people, and cannot profit by instruction given in German.

      German society at Prague is not composed of the various classes of the population, as is the case with Bohemian society, but it is chiefly made up of the shop-keepers and merchants, the greater part of whom are Jews, whose influence is felt in all the German business life of Bohemia.

      Public opinion is, in one particular at least, and for economic reasons, favorable to women's emancipation. The population of Bohemia contains two hundred thousand more females than males, and the efforts to render the former capable of self-support are naturally encouraged. But this fact does not check the presumptuous from declaring, in Bohemia, as elsewhere, that women have less ability than me, and that the work of the former is inferior to that of the latter. A still graver charge is that women are too accessible to illiberal and reactionary influences, and that therefore they should be refused admission into posts of importance. In order to prove for all time that these assertions are false, it should be the task of those of us whose minds are open to the light to elevate our sex to a true comprehension of progress, liberty and patriotism, so that the full powers and noble qualities of Bohemian women may be known of all men." pp. 446 - 456

Source:

Theofore Stanton, The Woman Question in Europe, (1884) [reprinted New York: Source Book Press, 1970]

Created and maintained by Sunshine. Copyrighted by Lenka Vytlacilova, 2000. You have Sunshine's permission to copy and disseminate this document as long as it is attributed to Lenka Vytlacilova and Sunshine's URL appears on the document.

last updated Dec 2000