Women's Citizenship and the First World War

Autor(en)
Birgitta Bader-Zaar
Abstrakt

Historians’ views about the impact of World War I on women’s citizenship havediverged. 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(en)
Institut für Geschichte
Journal
Women's History Review
Band
25
Seiten
274-295
Anzahl der Seiten
22
ISSN
0961-2025
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015.1083226
Publikationsdatum
03-2016
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
504014 Gender Studies, 601014 Neuere Geschichte
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Gender studies, History
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/womens-citizenship-and-the-first-world-war(ec931ed8-76a0-4494-bc82-391773924a48).html