Za lepší život venkovské ženy
For a better life of a country woman

Pictures of civic and political acts of women in the “Annunciation” magazine before the elections to local governments in 1919

Summary/Abstract: The study monitors the ladies’ magazine Zvěstování (Annunciation) before the elections to local governments in June 1919, which were important not only because they were the first elections in the newborn Czechoslovak Republic, but also as the first occasion during which women could exercise their newly gained right to vote. The Agrarian Party started publishing the Annunciation weekly in January 1919 as a campaigning and educational tool the purpose of which was, first and foremost, to make country women involved in politics, strength en their loyalty to the party and, in particular, to motivate them to join the agrarian women’s movement which was being formed at that time. The authoress focuses on how the movement was articulating its ideas about political and civic activities and interests of women, The resulting picture has a number of features which are the same as or similar to the general period ideal of a female politician as a woman working for the benefit of all, focuses mainly on social issues related to women and children, cultivates the society and politics, and contributes a specifically female element to them. However, the picture is supplemented by an openly declared intention to work on a practical improvement of lives of country women, and open criticism of the behavior of country men to women, not just in the public sphere, but mainly in the marriage and family. The criticism of the patriarchal marriage model is accompanied by articulated awareness of the interlinking of the public and private spheres. The magazine heralds the future evolution of the feminist movement of country women the core of which in the years to come was the Czechoslovak Branch for Interests of Country Women under the umbrella of the Agrarian Party. In the magazine’s optics, however, the loyalty of female voters of the Agrarian Party was based primarily on their identification with the country, economic motivations, and worries about the collapse of the social order which the Social Democrats were perceived to be able to bring about. The defense of women rights was perceived as a matter and responsibility of women themselves, to whom the party was supposed to provide an organizational framework for this purpose.

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