Women's Citizenship and the First World War
- Author(s)
- Birgitta Bader-Zaar
- Abstract
Historians' views about the impact of World War I on women's citizenship have diverged. Some scholars have emphasized that the war changed cultural understandings of suffrage due to women's patriotism and dedication to the war effort. Others have underlined that the politics of electoral reform determined whether or not women attained voting rights. Based on the cases of Austria and Germany where women were enfranchised in the context of revolutionary unrest triggered by the war, this article argues that the political process was in fact crucial. However, the claim of women's suffrage during the war is to be contextualized within a general understanding of republican citizenship and the concept of the 'citizen soldier'. This discourse was essential to keeping the issue alive during the war. Nonetheless, further studies are still required to assess the war's impact on women and citizenship in the subjective sense of participation.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of History
- Journal
- Women's History Review
- Volume
- 25
- Pages
- 274-295
- No. of pages
- 22
- ISSN
- 0961-2025
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015.1083226
- Publication date
- 03-2016
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 504014 Gender studies, 601014 Modern history
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Gender Studies, History
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/womens-citizenship-and-the-first-world-war(ec931ed8-76a0-4494-bc82-391773924a48).html