Chronology
The Chronology gives an overview of the history of the struggle of women in modern Europe for their equality
The document was created by Dr. Karen Hagemann. It covers the development from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth century and provides also some historical context. You can view and download the document, but the blue links in the document only work once you download the document.
| TOWARDS EMANCIPATION? WOMEN IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Chronology A Framework for the Study of European History of Women in Gender: Mid-Eighteenth to Mid-Twentieth Centuries |
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| Year |
IMPORTANT EVENTS and DEVELOPMENTS of Nations, States and the Military/War in Europe and beyond |
IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL DEBATES on Women and Gender (and other issues) |
The HISTORY OF WOMEN AND GENDER, in particular the History of the Women’s Movement
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| 1732 | Laura Bassi receives doctoral degree in philosophy, University of Bologna | ||
| 1742 | Dorothea Christine L. Erxleben argues for women’s right to university study | ||
| 1745 | Madame de Pompadour presented at court as the official mistress of Louis XV | ||
| 1748 | Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu’s L’Esprit des lois discusses women’s position under three forms of government | ||
| 1756 –
1763 |
May 15, the Seven Year War spread to Europe, when Great Britain declared War on France; August 29, Prussia joined the War against France and his Allies Saxony and Austria. This pitted Great Britain, Prussia, and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Spain and Portugal were later drawn into the conflict, while a force from the neutral United Provinces of the Netherlands was attacked in India.
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In L’Encyclopédie, vol. 6, Jaucourt raises the possibility that the subordination of wives to husbands in marriage is a social construction | |
| 1758 –
1759 |
Exchange between Jean le Rond d’Alembert and Jean-Jacques Rousseau over women’s emancipation | ||
| 1761 –
1762 |
Publication of Rousseau’s Julie and Émile;
Founding of Le Journal des dames by Madame de Beaumer |
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| 1763 | Feb. 10, Treaty of Peace of Paris ends Seven Years War; England defeats France and Prussia Austria in the Seven Years War | ||
| 1770 | Essay competitions concerning women’s education in the French academies; polemics on the woman question by the philosophes; tracts by physicians on women’s specific physiology and health issues | ||
| 1774 | Accession of Louis XVI of France
Marie Antoinette becomes queen of France |
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| 1776 | July 4, Continental Congress ratified the American Declaration of Independence | Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations published | |
| 1777 | Les Gynographes by Restif de La Bretonne, an antifeminist tract proposing that women should not even be taught to read or write | ||
| 1778 | France allies with the American colonists; war declared between Britain and France. | ||
| 1783 | Treaty of Versailles recognizes the independence of the United States | ||
| 1787 | Marquis de Condorcet’s Letties d’un bourgeois de New Haven à un citoyen de Virginie advocates women’s vote; Memoire pour le sexe féminin contre le sexe masculin by Madame de Coicy | ||
| 1788 | The May Edicts; The Revolt of the Nobility | ||
| 1789 –
1799 |
The French Revolution | ||
| 1789 | October, beginning of the French Revolution
election of States-General; the Third Estate assumes the title of National Assembly the fall of the Bastille; abolition of feudal rights and privileges.
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Publication of women’s cahiers; | Oct. 5-6, Women’s march on Versailles |
| 1790 | Publication of Marquis de Condorcet’s Sur l‘Admission des femmes au droit de cite | ||
| 1791 | Promulgation of the first French Constitution | Publication of Olympe de Gouges’s Declaration des droits de la femme | Enactment of equal inheritance for daughters; full civil (property) rights for unmarried French women |
| 1792 –
1798 |
The Revolutionary Wars in Europe; France fights against a coalition of different allies, most importantly Austria, Britain and Prussia | ||
| 1792 | Monarchy in France abolished | Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel’s Über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Weiber | In Paris, Pauline Léon, a leader of the Parisian Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, demands the right for women to bear arms, because this seems to be the pre-condition for equal citizenship rights for her |
| 1793 | The National Assembly votes for the execution of the French king | Louis-Marie Prudhomme clashes with the presidents of the provincial women’s clubs
Pierre Guyomar defends political equality between individuals, expressly including women; the Parisian Society of Revolutionary Republican Women campaigns for strict economic controls Charlotte Corday assassinates Marat the Committee of Public Safety shuts down the women’s clubs Olympe de Gouges, Manon Roland, Queen Marie Antoinette all guillotined |
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| 1794 | French army under Napoleon occupies Italian states (until 1798)
Friedrich Wilhelm III reigned as king of Prussia (from 1797 to 1840) |
Johann Gottlieb Fichte publishes The Science of Rights; German scholars debate the difference between the sexes | Petitions for women’s rights in the new Italian republics
Dutch tracts on women’s rights English politicians ridicule demands for women’s political rights |
| 1800 –
1804 |
Napoleon becomes First Consul, then Emperor; promulgation of the French Civil Code | Introduction of state-regulated prostitution in France | |
| 1803 –
1815 |
Napoleonic Wars: the French military campaigns throughout Europe and beyond; France fights against a coalition of different allies, most importantly Austria, Britain, Prussia, Russia and Spain. These wars were fought by the main war powers France and Prussia for the first time with mass armies on the basis of universal conscription; Britain fought with a militia system and a professional army. Tese new form made a mobilization of civil society for war puporse s more necessary than before. All together in the period of Wars between 1792 and 1805 5 million people died. In relation to the population as much as in WW I.
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The British author Jane Austen published her most important novels:
Sense and Sensibility,1811 Pride and Prejudice, 1813) Mansfield Park, 1814 Emma, 1816, Northanger Abbey, 1817
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| 1807 | Dramatic defeat of the Prussian-Russian army by the French troops | The French authors Germaine de Staël publishes Corinne | Napoleon establishes schools for daughters of the Legion of Honor |
| 1812 | First dramatic defeat of the French Army in Russia | ||
| 1813-
1815 |
Prussian-German War of Liberation against Napoleon (March 1813 – July 1815)
Oct. 1813, Battle of the Nations at Leipzig; Napoleon again dramatically defeated March 1814, Paris falls; Napoleon abdicates March 1815, Napoleon returns; June 1815, Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
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Women in the German states organize nearly 600 patriotic societies to support the struggle for liberation against France with charity work | |
| 1814-
1815 |
The Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria, its purpose was to redraw the continent’s political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France the previous spring.
The discussions continued despite the ex-Emperor Napoleon I’s return from exile and resumption of power in France in March 1815, and the Congress’s Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat at Waterloo. The Congress was concerned with determining the entire shape of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, with the exception of the terms freedom of peace with France. |
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| 1815 –
1830 |
Period of restoration, severe restrictions on freedom of the press and association throughout Europe | Publication of many tracts on women’s education; | |
| 1821 –
1827 |
Greek War of Independence was successfully waged against the Ottoman Empire and supported by liberals all over Europe. | ||
| 1825 | Publication of Appeal of One Half the Human Race Against the Pretensions of the Other Half—Men—to Retain Them in Political and Thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery by William Thompson and Anna Doyle Wheeler | ||
| 1830 | Democratic Revolution of 1830 in Paris; in Paris there is fighting in the street
Louis Phillip II, Duke of Orleans, becomes king revolts in German Hesse, Brunswick, and Saxony result in new constitutions Independence for Belgium Polish Revolution. |
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| 1831 | The Saint-Simonians launch their appeal, advocating rehabilitation of the flesh | ||
| 1832 | British Reform Act explicitly excludes women from suffrage | Publication of George Sand’s novel Indiana | |
| 1833 | Eugénie Niboyet founds the Conseiller des femmes (Lyon) | ||
| 1934 | Establishment of the Zollverein, or customs union, among the German states. | ||
| 1836 | La Gazette des femmes published by Madeleine Poutret de Mauchamps | ||
| 1840 | Friedrich Wilhelm IV reigned as king of Prussia (from 1840 – 1861) | ||
| 1841 | Voyage en Icarie by Étienne Cabet (communist community as a paradise for women, where everyone will marry) | ||
| 1843 | Publication of Marion Kirkland Reid’s A Plea for Women (Edinburgh);
Publication of Flora Tristan’s L’Union ouvrière |
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| 1846 | International financial crisis contributes to a high level of unemployment in France – about a third of the working population of Paris starve or are living on charity | Pierre-Joseph Proudhon gives women two choices, in his brochure: “Housewife or Harlot” | |
| 1847 | Publication of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë under a male pseudonym; Tennyson’s The Princess | ||
| 1848
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The Democratic European Revolution of 1848/49 starts in February and March 1848 in Paris, Berlin, Budapst, Vienna, etc.,; the democratic and liberal leaders demand everywhere equal political rights.
Louis Phillipe abdicates, a republic is proclaimed when liberal proclamations are passed; the French Provisional Government establishes universal manhood suffrage, abolishes black slavery in the colonies; first elections result in a moderate republican majority Uprisings in Berlin too in March 1848; Frederick William IV grants a constitution. |
Publication of Auguste Comte’s Systeme de politique positive, where he argues that “man should provide for woman” and designates women as priestesses for the religion of humanity
Debates on the woman question in German-language press |
Parisian women demand to know why women have been “forgotten” politically; they demand for rights, including the vote and representation
founding of women’s clubs, women’s press, La Voix des femmes in Paris Founding of women’s clubs in Vienna, Berlin, etc. Mid July, Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention (U.S.) Late July, Closing of the Parisian women’s clubs (late)
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| 1849 | Democratic Revolutions (February 1848 – July 1849) culminate in 1949 in Revolutionary (Civil) Wars
July, defeat of the democratic and liberal armies by the restaurative troops. |
Papal encyclical Ubi Plimum proposes the elevation of the Virgin Mary to rally female support for the Catholic Church
response by Johannes Ronge of the progressive German Catholic groups Louise Otto-Peters founds the Frauenzeitung in Meißen near Dresden |
Jeanne Deroin founds L’Opinion des femmes, declares her candidacy for office; polemic with Proudhon
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| 1850 | Repression in Austria, France and Prussia; new laws against free political association and free publishing and speech | ||
| 1851 | Coup d’etat of Louis Napoleon, national assembly dissolved | Jeanne Deroin and Roland address their letter from prison to the women of America
Harriet Taylor Mill’s article in the Westminster Review |
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| 1852 | Second Empire declared and Louis Napoleon takes title of Emperor Napoleon III. | ||
| 1852 –
1854 |
Jeanne Deroin publishes the Almanach des femmes with articles in French and English | ||
| 1853 –
1856 |
Crimean War from 1854 until 1856 and was fought between Imperial Russia the United Kingdom. France the Ottoman and Piedmont-Sardinia. | ||
| 1854 | Papal promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary | Barbara Leigh Smith protests the legal position of married women in England | |
| 1856 | Women’s Petition to Parliament (London) | ||
| 1856 –
1857 |
Jenny P. d’Héricourt takes on P. J. Proudhon | ||
| 1858 | Publication of Pierre Joseph Proudhon’s De la Justice
Publication of Juliette Lamber’s Idees anti-proudhoniennes |
British Parliament restricts medical profession to holders of British degrees in response to Elizabeth Blackwell’s registration as a physician, with an American degree and a French internship | |
| 1859 | Russian women admitted to university lectures | ||
| 1859 –
1860 |
Publication of Jules Michelet’s L’Amour and La Femme
Publication of Jenny P. d’Hericourt’s La Femme affranchie |
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| 1860 –
1865 |
American Civil War; abolition of slavery (1864-65)
Abolition of serfdom in Russia |
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| 1861 | Unification of Italy; codification of laws begins;
Accession of William I to Prussian throne (from 1861 – 1888), from January 18, 1871 – 9 March 1888 first German Emperor. |
Publication of Maine’s Ancient Law and Johann Jacob Bachofen’s Das Mutterrecht | Julie-Victoire Daubié becomes the first woman to earn the French baccalaureate |
| 1862 | Otto von Bismarck becomes Minister President of Prussia. | Swedish women taxpayers granted the municipal vote | |
| 1864 | Danish-German War, December 1863 – July 1864, between the Northern German States and the Danish Kingdom | The University of Zurich opens its medical school to women auditors | |
| 1865 | The All-German Workers’ Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein, ADAV) was founded in Leipzig by Ferdinand Lassalle | Okt., Founding of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (Association of German Women) by Louise Otto Peters and Auguste Schmidt | |
| 1866 | Austrian Prussian War | In 1866, Hastings resident Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon had drafted and promoted a petition for votes for women, thus sowing the seeds of a nationwide movement for votes for women.
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Massive women’s suffrage petition in England;
Patriotic Women’s Associations founded in Germany to support the War |
| 1866 –
1867 |
Debates on women’s work in the International Working Men’s Association (Geneva, Lausanne)
Passage of Contagious Disease Acts (1866, 1867) in England |
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| 1867 | Constitution of the Austrian-Hungarian “Dual Monarchy | The British House of Commons debates John Stuart Mill’s woman suffrage amendment to Second Reform Act;
University of Zurich grants first medical degree to a woman |
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| 1867 –
1869 |
Secularists and Catholics battle over lecture courses for girls in Paris | ||
| 1868 | Emily Davies argues that English girls must pass the same university entrance examinations as boys do; | Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin founds the Association Internationale des Femmes;
Empress Eugénie opens the Paris Faculty of Medicine to women |
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| 1869 | German Socialist Workers Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SAPD) founded in Eisenach by August Bebel | Publication of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women; | Single women granted municipal vote in England |
| 1869 –
1875 |
Intensive European-wide debates over women’s physical and mental suitability for higher education; | Founding of Girton College and Newnham College at Cambridge
Sophia Jex-Blake and friends obtain permission to study medicine at Edinburgh University |
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| 1870 –
1871 |
Franco-Prussian War, fought between the French republic and Prussia, the Northern German Alliance and Southern German States. | ||
| 1871 | Paris Commune in March to May of 1871 defeated by the Prussian-Germany army
May 1871 unification of German French establish Provisional Government that leads (1875) to the Third Republic |
Reestablishment of the Association Internationale des Femmes
In the 1870s and 1880s women’s suffrage groups sprung up all over Britain. The first in was the London National Society, which later came under the umbrella of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
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| 1871 | The German Constitution of 1871 establishes universal manhood suffrage for election of Reichstag delegates; | Abortion criminalized in the German Penal Code | |
| 1872 | Russia establishes medical courses exclusively for women, in St. Petersburg (closed again in 1887) | ||
| 1874 | Josephine Butler and associates launch crusade against regulated prostitution on the Continent, especially against the French system | ||
| 1875 | Formation of the German Socialist Workers Party (union of SAPD und ADAV)
All religious orders in Prussia are dissolved, called the Kulturkampf; Republican constitution in France |
Debates over the female right to paid work in the German Socialist Workers Party | |
| 1876 | British Parliament amends the Medical Act, removing restrictions based on sexual difference | ||
| 1877 | Founding of the British and Continental Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution, Geneva | ||
| 1878 | 1878-1890 Anti-Socialist-Law in Germany, the German Socialist Workers Party was forbidden, leading social democrats were sent to prison or had to emigrate | First International Congress on Women’s Rights, Paris
Hubertine Auclert challenges the omission of woman suffrage from the International Congress agenda Russia opens first women’s university Université de Neufchatel opened to women |
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| 1879 | Publication of August Bebel’s Die Frau in der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft (Women in Socialism), which was translated in 56 countries; he demand euqal rights for women in economy, society and politics: equal universal citizenship including the right to vote; equal right of paid work, equal right to be educated etc. | Hubertine Auclert challenges the French worker’s congress to support women’s rights | |
| 1880 | First production in Copenhagen of Henrik Ibsen’s play Et Dukkehjem (A Doll’s House, published 1879) | France establishes free and obligatory primary education for both sexes, and separate state secondary schools for girls | |
| 1883 | Repeal of the British Contagious Disease Acts | ||
| 1884 | Publication of Theodore Stanton’s The Woman Question in Europe;
Publication of Friedrich Engel’s Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats |
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| 1888 | Founding of the International Council of Women (ICW) by the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), in Washington, D.C. | ||
| 1889 | Centennial of the French Revolution; international expositions in Paris
Founding of Second International Working Men’s Association |
Bertha von Suttner publishes Die Waffen nieder (Lay Down Your Arms); | Two international women’s congresses held in Paris
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| 1890 | International congress on limitation of women’s employment convened by the German government
German Social Democratic Workers Party organized special units for social democratic women The General German Association of Women School Teachers (ADLV) was founded by Helene Lange |
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| 1891 | German Socialist Workers Party is allowed again, starts as Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) | Papal encyclical Rerum Novarum | Founding of the Fédération Abolitionniste Internationale |
| 1892 | Clara Zetkin, the leader of the German social democratic women, starts the journal Die Gleichheit (Equality) for working class women. This journal was published till 1923. It was the leading journal of the International socialist women’s association. | First self-proclaimed “feminist” women’s congress in Paris (May) | |
| 1893 | Independent Labor Party (ILP), organization of British ethical socialist was founded | Founding of the Allgemeiner Österreichischer Frauenverein (General Austrian Women’s Association) | |
| 1894 | Die Frau (The Women), edited by Helene Lange and Gertrud Bäumer became the leading journal of the BDF | March 28-29, Founding of the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (General German Women’s Association, BDF), the first leader was Auguste Schmidt (till 1899), afterwards Marie Stritt (till 1910) | |
| 1896 | Ellen Key asserts importance of motherhood, rather than paid labor, and calls for state subsidies for mothers | Second feminist congress in Paris; Marie Maugeret founds Christian feminism, Paris;
international women’s congress in Berlin; feminists launch protests against new German Civil Code |
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| 1897 | Founding of La Fronde, Paris;
founding of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), England; women admitted to study at the University of Vienna |
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| 1899 | Hague Peace Conference | Women’s petition (a million signatures) addressed to The Hague Peace Conference
Founding of the German-Evangelical Women’s Association by Paula Müller-Otfried |
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| 1899 –
1900 |
Huge congress of the International Council of Women (ICW) in London; two international feminist congresses in Paris | ||
| 1900 | Marie Maugeret founds the Catholic womens organization Fédération Jeanne d’Arc | ||
| 1901 | Norwegian women taxpayers obtain municipal vote and right of election; first suffrage proposal introduced in French Chamber of Deputies | ||
| 1902 | International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) founded in Washington, D.C. | ||
| 1903 | Founding of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester, England | ||
| 1904 | Founding of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) conference in Berlin
International agreement on the suppression of white slave trade; Bertha Pappenheim founded the Jüdischer Frauenbund (Jewish Women’s Association); Feminist protests in Paris and Vienna against the Civil Codes of France and Austria |
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| 1906 | Women (and men) accorded the national vote in Finland | ||
| 1907 | First International Congress of the Socialist Women in Stuttgart, Clara Zetkin is elected as the leader of the socialist women’s movement.
Women’s Section of the Second International Workingmen’s Association endorses unrestricted woman suffrage as a socialist goal |
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| 1908 | All-Russian Congress of Women, St. Petersburg;
Prohibitions lifted on German women’s participation in public life, they are allowed to participate in political meetings and become members of the political parties for the first time. |
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| 1909 | Alexandra Kollontai publishes Sotsial’nye osnory zhenskogo voprosa (The Social Basis of the Woman Question); | Founding of the Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes | |
| 1910 | Socialist women endorse International Women’s Day with the aim of the universal and equal suffrage at the second International Congress of the Socialist Women
International convention to end the white slave trade |
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| 1911 | Norwegians elect a woman to the Storting (Parliament):
Suffrage campaign peaks in France |
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| 1912 | Parliamentary defeat of the Third Conciliation Bill (electoral reform), Great Britain | ||
| 1913 | Norwegian women obtain full parliamentary suffrage;
International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) meets in Budapest; abolitionist meetings in Paris and London; |
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| 1914 | July, Serbian conspirator assassinates the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo
Socialist Demonstrations against a war all over Europe |
Suffrage campaign peaks in France (spring and. early summer);
International Council of Women (ICW) meets in Rome; May, International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) sponsors massive suffrage rally in Rome . |
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| 1914 –
1918 |
World War I: The war was fought by the Allied Powers on one side (Belgium, Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Russia, Serbia, and the United States), and the Central Powers (Austria and Germany, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria) on the other. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. By its end, the war had become the second bloodiest conflict in recorded history (behind the Taiping Rebellion), though it was surpassed within a generation by World War II. In World War I about 5% of the casualties (directly caused by the war) were civilian – in World War II, this figure was 50%. In total 16 million people died (9 Million military)
World War I proved to be the decisive break with the old world order, marking the final demise of absolutist monarchy in Europe. Four empires were shattered: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman, and the Russian. Their four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Romanovs, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell during or after the war. |
International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) Manifesto, after the start of the ware, calling for arbitration
The General German Women’s Association (BDF) supports the war, as did the German Social Democratic Party and their Women’s committee. All German women’s organization were founding together the National Women’s Service (Nationalen Frauendienst), to support the war actively at home; only a small minority of SPD members is from the very beginning against the war, part of them were Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg Also the majority of the women’s organizations from the left and the right support the war, for them it is a defense war against the Austro-German aggressor. Women in all involved countries were to be mobilized by the state to support the war actively by starting to work in the war industry and replace the men |
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| 1915 | International Socialist Women’s Conference against the War in Bern, organized by Clara Zetkin and others.
International Congress of Women at The Hague; International Women’s League for Peace founded (becomes WILPF in 1919) Danish women enfranchised |
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| 1916 | Easter Uprising, Dublin, Ireland | ||
| 1917 | Founding of the Independent Social democratic Party in Germany (USPD), its members broke with the SPD because of their support of WW I
In February 1917 start of the Russian Revolution, in October the Bolsheviks seize power and confirm women’s equality; separate Peace with Germany. |
Oct., Bolsheviks seize power and confirm women’s equality: Russian women were granted the equal vote | |
| 1918 | Nov. 11, the First World War ends with a defeat of Austria and Germany
General Strike in Berlin. The Emperor flees to Holland, the November Revolution ends the German Empire, Germany becomes a Republic; the German Communist Party was founded in Berlin in December 1918. Her leaders became Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg |
Nov. 8, German women over 20 were granted the equal vote;
British women above age 30 granted the vote, along with all remaining unenfranchised men; Nov., All-Russian Congress of Women; Maternity and Child Welfare Act, Great Britain |
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| 1918 –
1919 |
Women granted the vote (in various forms) in the Netherlands, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, but not in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania, or Bulgaria | ||
| 1919 | Jan., Free Corps, a group of ex-soldiers, arrested and murdered Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht;
Jan. 19, German National Constituent Assembly elected, met in Weimar, declared Weimar Republic. April 28, founding of the League of Nations; June 28, Treaty of Versailles
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Pro-suffrage Allied women meet in Paris to influence Treaty of Versailles;
Founding of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO); ILO Conference on Women’s Work, Washington, D.C. Founding of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Zurich; First International Congress of Working Women. The social democratic Workers Welfare (Arbeiterwohlfahrt) was founded in Berlin and became until 1933 one of the main fields of activity for German social democratic women. |
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| 1919 –
1923 |
Spartacist revolt in Berlin put down by government using the “Free Corps,” a group of ex-soldiers. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are arrested and murdered by the Free Corps. National Constituent Assembly elected, meets in Weimar, declared Weimar Republic.
Hyperinflation in Germany starts, which results 1923 in deep economy and social crisis of German post-war society. |
First Campaign against so-called ‘double earning’ women. i.e. married women, who are employed full-time, in Germany | |
| 1920 | Russian revolutionary government legalizes abortion (Nov.):
French pro-natalists proclaim the Rights of the Family |
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| 1921 | July 29, Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist Party (NSDAP). | ||
| 1922 | Benito Mussolini and Fascists come to power in Italy, Mussolini rules until 1943. | ||
| 1924 | Publication of Eleanor Rathbone’s The Disinherited Family;
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International Council of Women (ICW) Conference on the Prevention of the Causes of War | |
| 1925 –
1926 |
July 18, 1925 Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” published.
Sigmund Freud addresses the woman question; Karen Horney responds |
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| 1926 | Sept 8., Germany admitted to League of Nations | The Soviet Code on Marriage and Divorce
International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) Congress in Paris: schism over protective legislation for women; IWSA becomes International Alliance of Women (IAW) |
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| 1927 | Report of the Special Body of Experts on Traffic in Women and Children published by the League of Nations;
Oxford University restricts the number of women students admitted |
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| 1928 | Kellogg-Briand Pact on the outlawry of war | Age of suffrage for women is lowered from 30 to 21 in Great Britain. | |
| 1929 | Oct 29, Stock Market on Wall Street crashes. Great Depression with an unusual high unemployment rate starts | Assaults begin on women’s employment and feminist campaigners mobilize in its defense;
États-Généraux du Féminisme, Paris |
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| 1929 –
1934 |
Great Depression, worldwide economic crisis | ||
| 1930 | Papal encyclical Casti Connubi | ||
| 1931 | Second Spanish Republic (1931-39), leaded by a coalition of Socialists and Communists | Women get the vote in Spain;
International Labor Organization (ILO) endorses Convention on Equal Pay for Equal Work; Liaison Committee of Women’s International Organizations established |
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| 1932 | Women’s massive petition for peace presented to the League of Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva | ||
| 1933 | Jan. 31, Hitler comes to power in Germany, Nazis order dissolution of organizations | The Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (BDF) dissolves itself in protest. | |
| 1933 –
1945 |
The ‘Third Reich’ in Germany | ||
| 1934 | Aug 2, German President Hindenburg dies; Aug 19, – Adolf Hitler became the Führer of Germany. | Manifesto of the World Congress of Women against War and Fascism | |
| 1935 | March 16, Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription; Sept 15, German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws;
Oct., Mussolini invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia) |
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| 1936 | March 7, German troops occupy the Rhineland; Aug 1, Olympic games begin in Berlin;
May 9, Mussolini’s Italian forces take Ethiopia; May 3, Popular Front government in France. The Popular Front won the general election of May 3. For the first time, the Socialists won more seats than the Radicals, and the Socialist leader Léon Blum became France’s first Socialist Prime Minister. The first Popular Front cabinet consisted of twenty Socialists, thirteen Radicals and two Socialist Republicans (there were no Communist Ministers). |
May 3, French Popular Front government appoints three women ministers (women were not able to vote in France at that time) | |
| 1936 –
1939 |
The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939), July 18, Civil war erupts in Spain; started by the Fascist under General Franco, who declared head of Spanish State on Oct 1, it was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist rebellion led by.
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1936 in Spain founding of Mujeres Libres
Swedish pro-population reforms; Gunnar and Alva Myrdal reconfigure women as workers who have the right to children |
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| 1937 | Congress of Women’s World Committee against War and Fascism, Paris
League of Nations authorizes formation of Committee on the Status of Women Constitution of the Irish Republic qualifies women’s rights |
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| 1938 | March 12/13, Germany announces ‘Anschluss’ (union) with Austria; Aug 12, German military mobilizes
Sept 30, British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich Oct 15, German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns Nov 9/10, Kristallnacht – The Night of Broken Glass in Germany – Nazi terror against Jews. |
Publication of Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas | |
| 1939 | Nazi-Soviet Pact
Sept 1, the Second World War started with the German invasion of Poland March 15/16, Nazis take Czechoslovakia; March 28, Spanish Civil war ends. |
Publication of The Law and Women’s Work by the League of Nations | International Alliance of Women (IAW) meets in Copenhagen
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| 1939 –
1945
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The Second World War and the Holocaust. Most Western accounts place the start of the conflict on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, which drew in Britain, France and the Commonwealth. Some consider the Japanese attack on China (July 7, 1937) to be part of the same conflict. The Soviet Union annexed part of Poland in 1939, fought a separate war with Finland, and became one the Allies when attacked by Germany in June 1941. The United States entered the conflict in December of 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The war lasted until 1945, when the Axis powers surrendered.
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Women in all war states were mobilized for the War. They had to work in the war industries and replace the men there. Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States founded moreover Auxiliary Corps for Women | |
| 1939-
1945 |
World War II resulted in the direct or indirect death of more than 60 million people, over 3% of the world population at that time. Attributed in varying degrees to the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, and the rise in nationalism, racism, fascism, National socialism, Japanese imperialism, and militarism, the causes of the war are a matter of debate. | ||
| 1940 | Alva Myrdal publishes Nation and Family in Sweden | ||
| 1942 | The Beveridge Report (England) lays out a social welfare system in which wives derive benefits exclusively through employment of husbands | ||
| 1944 | May, Allied offensive against the Axis powers launched | The New Soviet Family Law promulgated | |
| 1945 | May 7, Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies; May 8, V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. | Papal broadcast on Woman’s Dignity
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French and Italian women vote after the war for first time
Founding of the United Nations Founding of Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), Paris |
| 1946 | Viola Klein publishes The Feminine Character: History of an Ideology | Founding of the UN Commission on the Status of Women | |
| 1947 | The “Cold War” affirmed
The Soviet Molotov Plan |
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| 1948 | United States congress passes Marshall Plan of economic recovery for Europe;
Berlin Airlift begins |
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights | |
| 1949 | Berlin airlift ends,
German Democratic Republic (East Germany) founded |
Publication of Margaret Mead’s Male and Female
Publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) |
UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others |
| 1952 | ILO Convention on Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers | ||
| 1953 | Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) raises the women’s rights banner in Copenhagen at its World Congress of Women | ||
| 1955 | UNESCO publishes Duverger’s survey The Political Role of Women | ||