title: Der Kampf um die Hauswirtschaftskammer
Creators: name: Metzler, Birgit
Publisher: name: :none
Year: 2012

description: Die Österreichische Wahlrechtsbewegung für Frauen konnte ihren Wunsch nach Anerkennung von Frauen als Staatsbürgerinnen 1918 durchsetzen. Frauen konnten endlich wählen und wurden per Gesetz als Staatsbürgerinnen des neuen demokratischen Staates anerkannt. In der Ersten Republik konnten politisch aktive Frauen aber ihre politische Partizipation nicht ihren Wünschen gemäß ausüben. Obwohl circa fünfzig Prozent der WählerInnen weiblich waren, waren nur 3,6 bis 7,4 Prozent der ParlamentarierInnen weiblich. Diese Zahlen zeigen deutlich auf, dass in der Wahrnehmung der Öffentlichkeit Frauen nicht als politische Menschen gesehen wurden. Die wenigen politisch aktiven Frauen beschäftigten sich hauptsächlich mit als “weiblich” angesehenen Themen wie Erziehung oder Wohlfahrt sowie KonsumentInneninteressen. Erschwerend kam hinzu, dass diese Frauen nicht dieselbe politische Meinung teilten, ein vereinter Kampf für eine gemeinsame Sache war also unmöglich. Sozialdemokratinnen setzten sich vor allem für die Rechte von ArbeiterInnen, im Zusammenhang mit dieser Arbeit seien vor allem Hausgehilfinnen und Heimarbeiterinnen erwähnt. Die wenigen großdeutschen und bürgerlich-liberalen Frauen, die ein politisches Amt inne hatten, stammten zumeist aus bürgerlichen oder adeligen Familien oder waren zumindest Akademikerinnen. Sie wollten vor allem die prototypische bürgerliche Hausfrau vertreten, engagierten sich aber teilweise auch für Hausgehilfinnen. Viele bürgerliche Frauen stemmten sich aber im Parlament gegen Verbesserungen für die Arbeitssituation von Hausgehilfinnen, was wohl auf einen grundsätzlichen Klassenkonflikt zuürckgeführt werden kann. Die Hauswirtschaftskammer, wie sie von katholischen oder bürgerlichen Frauenorganisationen interpretiert wurde, war eng mit dem von den bürgerlichen Frauen übernommenen Konzept der Mütterlichkeit verbunden. Mütterlichkeit war ihrer Ansicht nach Frauen entweder durch Gott gegeben worden (katholische Frauen) oder Frauen natürlich angeboren (bürgerlich-liberale Frauen). Mit Mütterlichkeit meinten diese Frauen aber nicht eine rein physische Mütterlichkeit, sondern Mütterlichkeit wurde als eine Art “Volksmütterlichkeit” interpretiert. Frauen sollten durch ihre mütterliche Art auf die von den Frauen als konkurrenzorientiert und streitsüchtig angesehene Gesellschaft eingreifen und ausgleichend auf viele soziale und wirtschaftliche Konflikte dieser Zeit wirken. In einer Hauswirtschaftskammer, so argumentierten die bürgerlichen Frauen, hätten Frauen ihre natürliche oder gottgegebene mütterliche Art sinnvoll einsetzen können. Als weiteres Argument für die Hauswirtschaftskammer bedienten sich die bürgerlich-liberalen und katholischen Frauenvereine dem Konzept der KonsumentInnenkammer. Frauen sollten, da sie als Haushaltsvorstände eine gute Einsicht in das wirtschaftsleben bekämen, diese Erfahrungen auf einer höheren Ebene, in der Hauswirtschaftskammer, mit der restlichen Gesellschaft teilen. Ab 1932, bedingt durch die Wirtschaftskrise und einen Rechtsruck der Regierung, wurden berufstätige Frauen zunehmend in einem negativen Licht dargestellt, und schließlich wurde 1933 durch die sogenannte Doppelverdienerverodnung verheirateten Beamtinnen gesetzlich ihre Berufsausübung verboten. Mit der Zerstörung der Demokratie in Österreich und der Veröffentlichung der Maiverfassung des austofaschistischen Regimes 1934, nahmen die Diskriminierungen gegen weibliche Bürgerinnen noch weiter zu. Im §16 Abs (2) wurde die Andersbehandlung von Frauen gesetzlich festgelegt. Der Kampf um eine Hauswirtschaftskammer bedeutete für die bürgerlichen Frauen nun die einzige Möglichkeit zu politischer Partizipation in einem faschistischen System in dem berufstätigkeit für politische Partizipation stand. Der Kampf um die Hauswirtschaftskammer sollte über das Frauenreferat der Vaterländischen Front bis 1938 vergeblich weitergeführt werden.
description: The fight for the recognition of domestic economy as a profession in the form of a chamber of home-economics "Hauswirtschaftskammer" during Austrofascism. The Austrian suffragette movement, which was also part of the international women’s movement, succeeded in their fight for suffrage in 1918. Women could finally vote and were acknowledged as citizens of the newly formed democratic state. In the period that succeeded the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, women struggled to implement their role as political and societal human beings into society. Even though about fifty percent of the total number of voters were female, only between 3.6 and 7.4 percent of the members of the Austrian parliament were female. This numbers clearly show, that in the mind of the public, women were not seen as equal to men. The few women who were in higher positions in political parties, for example as members of the Austrian parliament, were mainly drawn to topics such as social welfare, the education of girls and consumer finances, issues which were marked as "female" in these times. Since not all women were of the same political opinion, the few politically active women were members of different political parties with very different interests. The social democrats, most of them members of the proletariat themselves, mainly advocated female workers rights including those of domestic workers or midwives for example, by wanting to introduce more social rights for them. The few pan-German and women that were organized in the Christian Social Party (Christlichsoziale Partei) who had made a seat in parliament, approached social justice from another point of view. Most of the pan-German or christian social women in parliament were either bourgeois, aristocratic and, or academics. They came from another social background and, when it came to home-economics, wanted to represent the prototypical "middle-class housewife" and domestic workers, even though they most often belonged to upper class households and had domestic workers in their own households. Therefore the rights of domestic workers were not an issue for these women and they did not support the social democrats fight for more rights for people working in this field of business. It was also claimed that, since they came from an upper class background, they couldn’t identify with the problems of home workers even though they wanted to represent them in a chamber of home-economics. The chamber of home-economics as propagated by the different catholic and bourgeois women’s organizations, was connected to their emancipatory concept of “motherliness”. “Motherliness” was interpreted as a characteristics of women and was either given to them by god's will (catholic women's organiszations) or a seen as a natural characteristics of the female gender (burgeious women's organizations). It was seen by the burgeois and catholic women, as a factor uniting women regardless of age, profession or political views. What united the organizations was their fight for the chamber of home-economics. In a chamber of home-economics women should have, according to the burgeois, pan-German and catholic women, been united and given more political rights, the control of consumerism in Austria was one of the arguments that the women used in their struggle for more political power. They argued that the state could be compared to a household and that in a household a woman would oversee practically everything from finances to social interactions. Therefore, the women argued, a chamber of home-economics would be the perfect form of female societal participation. Another argument for the chamber of home-economics was the above mentioned motherliness. Only in a political organisation could women live their motherliness and influence the “male” politics in a positive way. From 1932 onwards, women were legally discriminated by the government which implemented laws forbidding female state executives to stay in their jobs if married to another state officer. When the democratic Austrian state was destroyed and a fascist system was implemented, the fight for the chamber of home-economics became another quality. With the so called “May constitution” (Maiverfassung), which was inaugurated on the first of May 1934 the passage 16 paragraph 2 was implemented into the constitution. The fascist state could now legally rob women of their rights if it was necessary. The chamber of home-economics became the only way of participation in a fascist system for unemploye women, a growing number if one considers the legal repression of working women at this time. Even though the austrofascist state offered women the possibility to work in a “Frauenreferat” a part of the austrofascist government, which was to deal with all matters concerning women, it was not enough for politically active women who still wanted to actively change society for the better. Until 1935 the Frauenreferat did only exist on paper as it’s leader Franziska Starhemberg later confessed. In 1935 however, many catholic women joined the Referat and the burgeois women’s organisation was forcefully incorporated into the Frauenreferat by the state. From this moment on, the fight for the chamber of home-economics became an issue for the Frauenreferat. In 1937 when the austrofascist state planned to adapt the constitution, the women took their chance and once again sent petitions to high state officials in order to enforce the political rights of women. The fascist government then introduced a chamber Housewifes- and home workers (Hausfrauen- und Hausgehilfinnenkommission) which in fact did not give the women any more rights but to discuss the relationship between housewifes and home workers. Dissatisfied, the catholic women sent a last petition to high state magistrates and pleaded for their chamber. This last petition from January 31st, 1938 was not answered by the officials. One could only speculate if the women would have succeeded with their ideas but it was highly unlikely considering the deprecatory attitude of the throughout male state officials. This thesis describes the fight of burgeious, pan-German and catholic women for more political rights during the first republic and their struggle for participation in an austrofascist system in the form of a chamber of home-economics.