KOBIETA W PRUSACH 1871–1933

In Prussia the turn of the 20th century brought about enormous civilization progress which was accompanied by an improvement in the standards of living. This process had already taken place in the German Reich and was followed by political, social and economic changes which affected women as well. Most importantly, at that time they gradually won more educational rights. Until the 19th century women’s educational attainment was limited to primary education and home schooling by governesses. Subsequently, girls were admitted to secondary schools for girls and eventually they were granted the right to sit high school final examinations and access tertiary education. Since mid-19th century women were allowed to join political organizations and after World War I they acquired political rights. Although much depended on a person’s individual disposition and personality, the middle-class mentality of the time was considerably patriarchal, hence equal rights in real interpersonal relationships became a fact only in the 20th century. Contrary to popular misconceptions, working women were commonplace already in the 19th century; unfortunately, as a rule the reason for women’s work was poverty, while attractive professions requiring high qualifications remained unavailable to women. The first changes consisted in allowing women into the teaching profession on graduating from teacher training colleges and then allowing them into the medical and legal colleges and professions. As a consequence of a dramatic decrease in the rate of infant and child mortality, women ceased to be ‘birth machines’, as they had been perceived until then, and instead of giving birth to six or eight children, they had two or three, which had a dramatic impact on their living conditions and opened new life perspectives for them.