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The idea of the ‘peace-loving woman’?

The increasing militarisation in Austria-Hungary in the nineteenth century was based on a polar and dichotomous gender structure. As the historian Daniela Lackner points out, “men were systematically stylised as symbols of militarism, violence and war, while women through a differentiation mechanism were clearly on the side of civilian life, peace and peaceability.”
 

Research into women’s and gender history and the new military history have now shown that these categorisations did not always coincide with the historical reality. These works also point out that women were involved in a variety of ways in wars and military conflicts, be it as victims, perpetrators or combatants, or through the provision of economic resources. This applies to both world wars and to earlier military conflicts.

Before and during the First World War the concept of a “peace-loving woman” still played an instrumental role above all with representatives of the radical bourgeois women’s movement and their opposition to militarism and war.

The pacifist and representative of the radical wing of the German bourgeois women’s movement Lida Gustava Heymann stated, for example, that a “male principle” dominated by violence was opposed by a “female principle” characterised by kindness and mutual aid. She inferred this contrast not from the biological nature of the sexes, as the “female principle” was also embodied in “particularly high-minded men”. Through their role as mothers, however, women were more attentive to life than men, from which she inferred that “female essence, female instinct […] are identical with pacifism.” The criticism of militarism by Lida Gustava Heymann is thus based amongst other things on a concept that femininity or “the woman” can be equated with pacifism.

This concept was used for a similar purpose in the opposition to militarism and war by the Austrian representatives of the “radical wing” (Gisela Urban) of the bourgeois women’s movement. For Rosa Mayreder, member and former vice-president of the General Austrian Women’s Association, and her colleague Auguste Fickert, war was caused by economic and political factors but also by “primitive male instincts”. According to Susan Zimmermann, she believed that there was a “law of destruction” represented by the male-dominated society, which in extreme cases was expressed by war, in fundamental contrast to the “law of survival” inherent in the female.Rosa Mayreder also inferred the “peaceability of women” from their “natural” role as mothers. She believed that humanity could achieve lasting peace only if these “female qualities” were actively involved in political and social structures.

Translation: Nick Somers

 

 

Bibliografie 

Brinker-Gabler, Gisela (Hrsg.): Die Frau in der Gesellschaft. Frauen gegen den Krieg, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, 65-70

Davy, Jennifer Anne: German Women’s Peace Activism and the Politics of Motherhood: A Gendered Perspective of Historical Peace Research, in: Benjamin Ziemann (Hrsg.): Perspektiven der Historischen Friedensforschung, Essen 2002, 111-132

Davy, Jennifer Anne: Wege aus dem Militarismus – Die feministische und antimilitaristische Militarismuskritik der deutschen Pazifistinnen Anita Augspurg und Lida Gustava Heymann, in: Wolfram Wette (Hrsg.): Militarismus in Deutschland 1871 bis 1945. Zeitgenössische Analysen und Kritik, Münster 1999, S. 190-215

Hagemann, Karen: Militär, Krieg, Geschlechterverhältnisse. Untersuchungen, Überlegungen und Fragen zur Militärgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Ralf Pröve (Hrsg.): Klio in Uniform? Probleme und Perspektiven einer modernen Militärgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit, Köln/Weimar/Wien 1997, 35-88

Hämmerle, Christa: Von den Geschlechtern der Krieges und des Militärs. Forschungseinblicke und Bemerkungen zu einer neuen Debatte, in: Thomas Kühne/Benjamin Ziemann (Hrsg.): Was ist Militärgeschichte?, Paderborn/Wien 2000, 229-265

Lackner, Daniela: Die Frauenfriedensbewegung in Österreich zwischen 1899 und 1915, Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien, Wien 2008

Rebhan-Glück, Ines: Die österreichische Frauenbewegung und der Krieg, in: Alfred Pfoser/Andreas Weigel (Hrsg.): Im Epizentrum des Zusammenbruchs. Wien im Ersten Weltkrieg, Wien 2013, 82-87.

Rebhan-Glück, Ines: „Wenn wir nur glücklich wieder beisammen wären …“ Der Krieg, der Frieden und die Liebe am Beispiel der Feldpostkorrespondenz von Mathilde und Ottokar Hanzel (1917/18), Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Wien 2010

Zimmermann, Susan: Die österreichische Frauen-Friedensbewegung vor und im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Forum Alternativ (Hrsg.): Widerstand gegen Krieg und Militarismus in Österreich und Anderswo, Wien 1982, 88-96

 

Quotes:

„men were systematically stylised ... “: quoted from: Lackner, Daniela: Die Frauenfriedensbewegung in Österreich zwischen 1899 und 1915, Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien, Wien 2008, 107

„male principle“: quoted from: Heymann, Lida Gustava; Weiblicher Pazifismus (1917/1922), in: Brinker-Gabler, Gisela (Hrsg.): Die Frau in der Gesellschaft. Frauen gegen den Krieg, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, 65

„particularly high-minded men“: quoted from: Heymann, Lida Gustava: Weiblicher Pazifismus (1917/1922), in: Brinker-Gabler, Gisela  (Hrsg.): Die Frau in der Gesellschaft. Frauen gegen den Krieg, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, 67

„female essence, female instinct ...“: quoted from: Heymann, Lida Gustava: Weiblicher Pazifismus (1917/1922), in: Brinker-Gabler, Gisela (Hrsg.): Die Frau in der Gesellschaft. Frauen gegen den Krieg, Frankfurt a. M. 1980, 66

„primitive male instincts“: Mayreder, Rosa: Geschlecht und Kultur. Essays, Jena/Leipzig 1923, quoted from: Lackner, Daniela: Die Frauenfriedensbewegung in Österreich zwischen 1899 und 1915, Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien, Wien 2008, 115

„law of destruction“: Mayreder, Rosa: Zur Kritik der Weiblichkeit. Essays, Jena 1910, quoted from: Zimmermann, Susan: Die österreichische Frauen-Friedensbewegung vor und im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Forum Alternativ (Hrsg.): Widerstand gegen Krieg und Militarismus in Österreich und Anderswo, Wien 1982, 94-95

„law of survival“: Mayreder, Rosa: Zur Kritik der Weiblichkeit. Essay, Jena 1910, quoted from: Zimmermann, Susan: Die österreichische Frauen-Friedensbewegung vor und im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Forum Alternativ (Hrsg.): Widerstand gegen Krieg und Militarismus in Österreich und Anderswo, Wien 1982, 94-95
 

 

Contents related to this chapter

Aspects

  • Aspect

    Discontent

    The longer the war lasted, the more disagreement was voiced by representatives of the Austrian peace and women’s movements and also by sections of the Austro‑Hungarian population. They became increasingly tired of the war, reflected in strikes and hunger riots and in mass desertions by front soldiers towards the end of the war.

Persons, Objects & Events

  • Object

    For peace

    The face on the 1000-schilling note is Bertha von Suttner, probably the most famous representative of the Austrian peace movement. During the First World War there were lots of people and groups who followed her example and protested against the war and in favour of peace. Although they had little influence, their advocacy of peace was particularly courageous in view of the prevailing and controlling censorship.

Developments

  • Development

    Gender roles: change/no change?

    It is a widely held view that the First World War revolutionised the traditional roles of men and women in society. Photos of tram conductresses, female coach drivers and postwomen would appear to confirm this, as does the assumption by women of the traditional male role as providers for the family. But did things change that much, and what was left of the supposed changes after 1918?