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      “Human Beings Is What Women Want to Become, and to Partake of the Garland of Work and Victory.” Visions of Emancipation, Community Spirit, and Social Reform in the First German Women's Movement

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      Frontiers in Sociology
      Frontiers Media S.A.
      emancipation, women's movement, Germany, Louise Otto-Peters, social reform

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          Abstract

          My reflections draw attention to the General German Women's Association (German: Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein—ADF), which was founded on 18th October 1865 under the chairwomanship of writer, journalist and publicist Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1865). This event marks the beginning of the organized women's movement in Germany. I will pay special attention to Louise Otto-Peters, who not only initiated the ADF and chaired it for many years, she was also its most important theoretical thinker, and crucially, developed specific policies for women. This happened at a time when women were largely excluded by law from political participation. They did not have the right to vote until 1918 and were therefore unable to play any role in city and state parliaments, or in the Reichstag, either. Until 1908, they were not even allowed to be members of political parties or associations with a political orientation. The first part of this article sets out to depict Louise Otto-Peter's views and visions based mainly on her writings “Das Recht der Frauen auf Erwerb. Blicke auf das Frauenleben der Gegenwart” (The Right of Women to Gainful Employment. Views on Contemporary Women's Lives) from 1866, and “Frauenleben im Deutschen Reich. Erinnerungen aus der Vergangenheit mit Hinweis auf Gegenwart und Zukunft” (Women's Lives in the German Reich. Memories from the Past with Reference to the Present and Future) from 1876. The second part attempts an appraisal of her ideas against the backdrop of the existing gender order and the dominant gender thinking. Part three is interested in the legitimization of her visions and, to this end, examines important—but by no means all—discernible lines of argumentation and interpretations.

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          Most cited references79

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          Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland 1894-1933

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            Protestantismus und Frauenemanzipation in Deutschland 1850 bis 1920

            U. BAUMANN (1992)
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              European Feminisms, 1700-1950: A Political History

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Sociol
                Front Sociol
                Front. Sociol.
                Frontiers in Sociology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                2297-7775
                13 September 2019
                2019
                : 4
                : 64
                Affiliations
                Chair of Social and Economic History, Dresden University of Technology , Dresden, Germany
                Author notes

                Edited by: Eva Maria Hinterhuber, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Germany

                Reviewed by: Georgios Papanicolaou, Teesside University, United Kingdom; Susanne Hertrampf, University of Bonn, Germany

                *Correspondence: Susanne Schötz susanne.schoetz@ 123456tu-dresden.de

                This article was submitted to Gender, Sex and Sexuality Studies, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sociology

                Article
                10.3389/fsoc.2019.00064
                8022594
                b803a093-309a-4245-a6ed-2e332d685f8a
                Copyright © 2019 Schötz.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 05 November 2018
                : 19 August 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 80, Pages: 21, Words: 20749
                Categories
                Sociology
                Original Research

                emancipation,women's movement,germany,louise otto-peters,social reform

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