Legislature

In 1811, the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Code) introduced new provisions which decidedly marked the position of women particularly within the family and marriage. The Civil Code regulated their inferiority and dependence on their fathers or husbands. The majority of its provisions was in force up to the end of World War II. Even though the Austrian Civil Code laid the foundations of the traditional and patriarchal society, it was more favourably disposed towards the rights of women in courts of law, inter alia, also towards the rights of mothers of illegitimate children than the French Code Civil (1804).

Before the outbreak of World War I women’s suffrage was regulated by numerous laws that defined it in terms of parliamentary elections in Vienna, provincial diets, and local communities. At the turn of the 20th century women tax payers were only allowed to vote in city council elections. Women landowners were also entitled to vote in the Carniolan provincial diet. They voted by proxy, for the law stipulated that only men were allowed to cast votes. Women taxpayers and teachers were given the right to vote in the city council elections in Ljubljana in 1911.

Morality

The society’s bourgeoisation coincided with the tightening of moral rules and normsy. Advocates for the public morality promoted virtuous living that was to be achieved by internalizing bashfulness. The strict moral norms were in practice often breached in the face of the bourgeois moralists’ requirements. Many Catholic moralists attempted to introduce new virtuous standards also in the countryside and among the working class, attempting to deter them from dancing and consuming alcohol. The bourgeois morality gained prominence particularly in laws regulating sex life. These laws, for instance, limited prostitution, hindered the use of contraception and advertising thereof, often merely with ostensible success. The religious outlook on sexuality gave more and more way to medical interpretations, which in the light of the then morality searched for reasons for sexual deviations (for instance, homosexuality)
in biology.

Birth and Mortality Rate

The birth rate in the territory of present-day Slovenia was still high before World War I; however, like in many other parts of Western and Central Europe, it went into a gradual decline. In 1910, the average number of children born to a woman was 5.2, while in the period 1896–1900 it was 5.6. Considerable differences between individual Slovene provinces and regions were noticeable. The Prekmurje region and the Littoral had the highest birth rate and Carniola the lowest. The fertility rate was higher in the countryside than in cities, where from the second half of the 19th century onwards, where the number of children was deliberately limited particularly by way of coitus interruptus and abortion.

By and large, the mortality rate went into decline before World War I. The maternal death rate and that of newborns remained high. A total of 15.1% of all children aged up to nine months died in Carniola in 1910. The highest infant mortality rate was recorded in cities, particularly among illegitimate children.

Caring for Women
and Children

In the 18th and 19th century, Austria introduced a string of measures aimed at the protection of children and improving the position of pregnant women and mothers. Courses for midwives were organized and first Slovene-language midwifery textbooks were published. In 1885, Austria introduced maternity leave in several industries; in 1888, it envisaged maternity allowance within the compulsory health insurance during maternity leave along with other benefits for mothers-to-be. General social protection for the unemployed was in the pre-war period still in its infancy, although soldiers’ families were partly taken care of.

Up to 1887, soldiers’ widows and orphaned children received pensions granted by military institutions or were given alms by the emperor. A new law regulating the provision of family members of conscripted men and fallen soldiers was passed in 1912, on the basis of which within the monarchy soldiers’ wives could apply for financial support already in September 1914.

Girls’ Education

In the Habsburg Monarchy women were entitled to primary education, which – particularly towards the end of the 19th century – contributed to a decreased illiteracy rate among women. However, girls were not allowed to continue their education in secondary schools and colleges, with the exception of several trade schools and teachers’ training colleges. In 1896, girls were admitted to the final examination (matura), and, a year later, women who passed the matura were allowed to enrol in the Faculty of Philosophy in Vienna. It was rather late that Austria-Hungary enabled women to matriculate at higher education institutions, 34 years after the University of Zurich, the first European university that allowed the enrolment of women. 27 Slovene women matriculated at the University of Vienna between 1897 and 1918.

At the beginning of the 20th century, university educated Slovene women included Marija Wirgler Jezernik, a pedagogue, Ana Jenko, a chemist, Eleonora Jenko Groyer and Amalija Šimec, who were physicians. Between 1911 and 1915, Klara Kukovec (of Russian descent, married to a Slovene) was the first woman physician in Trieste. Angela Piskernik obtained a PhD in natural sciences in November 1914.

Women’s Associations

Up to 1918 women in Austria-Hungary were not allowed to join political organizations. They were active, first and foremost, in charitable, national defence, and religious societies. Protestant women established the Evangelijsko žensko društvo (Evangelical Women’s Society) in 1856. Catholic societies and, subsequently, labourers’ and teachers’ societies followed suit. The widespread demand for women’s emancipation provided fertile ground for the establishment of emancipatory societies. The “feminist” Splošno slovensko žensko društvo (General Slovene Women’s Society) was established in 1901.

The first independent women’s society in the area of Gorizia and Trieste, the Associazione delle signore a sollievo dei poveri was established in 1869. Throughout the Slovene ethnic territory German women were active particularly in national defence societies: Deutscher Schulverein strove for Germanization of schools and Südmark supported the German colonisation of Slovene territory. In the 1880s, Slovene women started to established branches of Družba sv. Cirila in Metoda (Sts Cyril and Methodius Society) also in the territory along the entire future Isonzo Front.

Women’s
Periodicals

The first Slovene-language women’s periodical Slovenka (Slovene Woman) was issued in Trieste in 1897. It was edited by Marica Nadlišek, a teacher and author from Trieste. Despite its wide circle of permanent contributors of both genders, it was discontinued in 1902. Its then editor Ivanka Klemenčič-Anžič started working with the central Slovene newspaper Slovenec (Slovene) and became the first Slovene professional woman journalist.

Four women’s periodicals were published in Carniola before the outbreak of the war. Between 1905 and 1914, Slovenska gospodinja (Slovene Housewife) was published as a supplement of the daily newspaper Naš list (Our Paper). Naša gospodinja (Our Housewife) was the women-oriented supplement of Domoljub (Patriot), the newspaper with the largest circulation. Two other periodicals were published for a shorter period of time; namely, Slovenska žena (Slovene Wife) in the years 1912 and 1913, and seven issues of a socialist-oriented monthly periodical Ženski list (Women’s Paper) were published in 1913. Carolina Luzzatto, who edited the newspaper Corriere di Gorizia and became the first woman editor in the Italian-speaking milieu, left her mark on women’s journalism in the Gorizian region.

Women’s
Labour Market

According to the population census of 1910, two thirds of the population in the territory of present-day Slovenia were peasants, and 11% of the population was employed by the industry or trade. A lengthy agrarian crisis, the fragmentation of land, and the unemployment rate expedited emigration that peaked in the decade preceding the Great War. In families in which men left the country in search of employment abroad, women were often in charge of the family economy.

About 30,000 boys and men were recruited in the general conscription in July and August 1914. Initially, their conscription did not change the conditions in the labour market. The period saw an increased demand for items, particularly footwear, clothing, foodstuffs, and tobacco products, which were manufactured by factories and workshops employing women. The outbreak of the war brought women’s emigration to a halt. For instance, traffic connections with Egypt were disrupted, which prevented “Alexandrian women” from returning home and sending their earnings to their families.

Nursing
Auxiliaries

In the countryside, individual charity societies and organisations (The Red Cross, St Vincent Society) organized training courses for nursing auxiliaries already before World War I. Namely, this type of personnel, the majority of whom consisted of nuns working in individual hospitals throughout Carniola, was scarce. St Vincent Society started training them already in 1912, and the Red Cross followed suit a year later. Nursing auxiliary candidates had to be 25 to 35 years of age, unmarried, “morally irreproachable”, and in good physical shape. Having completed their training, they became nursing auxiliaries; since they were not nuns, they were also referred to as secular nursing auxiliaries. A regular nursing school was planned by the Carniolan authorities; however, its establishment was prevented by the outbreak of World War I.

Food Provision

Austria-Hungary entered the war with insufficient reserves of food and raw materials. The price of foodstuffs had increased already before the outbreak of the war; due to shortages the central authorities imposed a price cap on foodstuffs in mid 1914. An increased demand for food for the army and the civilian population led to the development and an expedited production of food industry, which employed mostly women.

During wartime, the supply of foodstuffs was a priority concern for municipal authorities; meanwhile, the rural population had to rely on its own ingenuity and possibilities at hand. Owing to the paralysing of civilian and social institutions the increasingly difficult provision was alleviated also by women and children, who gathered various materials (clothing, gold, stores for the winter, etc.) for the army and the war-related industry. Due to the general mobilization, which took place from 31 July 1914 onwards, women took care of the rich harvest. They were helped by children, young people, the old, and by men unfit for military service.

Refugees

Upon the outbreak of combat in Galicia and Bukovina (present-day Ukraine, Poland, and Rumania) in September 1914, the Austro-Hungarian authorities uprooted the local civilian population. A swift evacuation brought about chaotic migrations and break-ups of many families. A smaller portion of this first refugee wave, particularly Ruthenian and Polish families with a considerable share of women and children, settled in Slovene regions, mostly in the countryside, where they worked in exchange for meagre wage, food, and lodgings. Women refugees staying in cities and refugee camps often helped out in military medical institutions.

Under the law of August 1914, the authorities had to cover the cost for refugees’ food, clothes, health, cultural and religious needs, which was not always the case. On numerous occasions the refugees were faced with the locals’ aversion, which was after the outbreak of the Isonzo Front experienced also by refugees from the Soča region.