Title: European women's periodicals
Description: This collection of European women's periodicals contains publications from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Dutch Indonesia. Although the collection includes material dating from around 1830, most documents are from 1880 to 1940. At the time of their original publication the periodicals in this collection informed readers and allowed them to express their views on a wide range of topics, including literature and the arts, women's suffrage, birth control, education, and homemaking. Socialist women's journals such as Die Gleichheit highlight the important role women played in socialist movements. Other periodicals focus on Catholic interests, issues of importance to young women or working women, and specific political parties and movements. The collection encompasses more than twenty periodicals from Austria; more than fifteen from Belgium; more than forty from France; more than fifty from Germany; and more than fifty from the Netherlands and Dutch Indonesia. Austrian periodicals include Die österreicherin (1928-1938); Vienna's Der Bund (1905-1918); and Neues Frauenleben (1902-1015), the periodical of the General Austrian Women's Organization, which advocated suffrage, marriage reform, education, and better working conditions for women. Belgian holdings include a Catholic women's periodical, La Femme Belge (1922-1935), and a socialist one, De Stem der Vrouw (1903-1940). French publications comprise the earliest periodicals in the collection, among them the arts-focused Psyche (1836-1841) and the socialist La Vague (1918-1937). La Francaise (1906-1940), written for moderate, middle-class feminist women, advocated suffrage, battled stereotypes, and, after 1930, condemned the rise of fascism. German periodicals in the collection include Berlin's Die Frau (1893-1940), a popular magazine targeted to middle-class moderate feminists; Die Gleichheit (1893-1923), the official international periodical of the women's socialist movement; and Die Neue Generation (1908-1932), edited by sexual reformer and pacifist Helen Stöcker, which advocated legal abortion, sexual education, and women's equality. Periodicals from the Netherlands include Evolutie (1893-1926), edited by noted feminist Wilhelmina Drucker; Nosokómos (1900-1928), from an organization of progressive nurses; and Ons Blaadje (1896-1907), a socialist journal for children. Illuminating a wide range of women's concerns, struggles for equality, and involvement in progressive movements, this collection is vital for researchers interested in the history of feminism in northern Europe.
Subjects: Women's periodicals, European, Women, Sources, History
Places: Europe
Time periods: 20th century, 19th century