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://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/ec931ed8-76a0-4494-bc82-391773924a48