At the dawn of the twentieth century, three trailblazing women's associations emerged from the Austro-Hungarian middle class: Vienna's Allgemeiner oesterreichischer Frauenverein (AoeF) and Budapest's closely linked Notisztviselok Orszagos Egyesuelete (NOE) and Feministak Egyesuelete (FE). Spearheaded by educated professional women, these groups championed progressive and often radical ideals, forging robust international connections with other women's movements. However, the shifting political landscapes in Austria and Hungary eventually led to their decline and near-erasure from history. In Progressive Women's Movements in Austria and Hungary, Dora Fedeles-Czeferner dives deeply into these movements, transcending conscribed national narratives to uncover the daily workings of these Austrian bourgeois-liberal and Hungarian feminist organizations. She reveals how they both influenced and were influenced by international activism. Unlike their contemporaries in the Christian-Social and Socialist Democratic women's movements, the AoeF, NOE, and FE operated independently of official political parties, leveraging the influential connections of their leaders and using strategic publicity to garner support. Despite their mutual inspirations and connections, these organizations had significant differences. They varied in their origins, their ability to engage rural members, and their strategies for achieving their goals. Fedeles-Czeferner employs entangled history methodologies to examine these organizations' foundations, key figures, memberships, objectives, and activities from the beginning of the 20th century until the beginning of the 1920s. By challenging regional narratives that have marginalized these radical women's movements, she reconnects Austria-Hungary's pre-war feminist past to its transnational roots, revealing their true historical significance.
Dora Fedeles-Czeferner is Research Fellow at the HUN REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History. She is the author of two monographs in Hungarian. This is her first book to be published in English.
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Chronology Introduction 1. Scholarship on the bourgeois-liberal, feminist movement in Hungary and Austria 2. Austria-Hungary in the fin de siecle 3. The Austro-Hungarian women's movement until the fin de siecle and the different branches of women's movement 4. The Austrian association: The Allgemeiner OEsterreichischer Frauenverein 5. The Hungarian associations: Notisztviselok Orszagos Egyesuelete and Feministak Egyesuelete 6. Similarities and differences among the three associations Conclusion Bibliography Index
