Therese Schlesinger, née Eckstein (6 June 1863 – 5 June 1940), was an Austrian

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and politician.

Life

Therese Schlesinger was born in Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire, on 6 June 1863 to an

upper middle-class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...

Jewish family. Among her siblings were the early

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

Emma Eckstein Emma Eckstein (1865–1924) was an Austrian author. She was "one of Sigmund Freud's most important patients and, for a short period of time around 1897, became a psychoanalyst herself". She has been described as "the first woman analyst", who b ...

, the writer Gustav Eckstein and the polymath Frederick Eckstein. She married Viktor Schlesinger on 24 June 1888 and her daughter, Anna, was born a year later. The birth was very hard on Schlesinger with her right leg being partially disabled enough to force her into a wheelchair for several years. Her husband died on 23 January 1891. From 1905 she lived with her mother, daughter, sister Emma and brother Gustav until their deaths during the 1920s. Her daughter's suicide in 1920 profoundly effected Schlesinger. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1938, she fled to France. She spent the rest of her life in a sanatorium in

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...

, where she died on 5 June 1940.

Activities

Beginning in 1894, Schlesinger became involved in the Austrian feminist movement, joining the General Austrian Women's Association ( (AÖFV) and participated in the 1894 Enquéte on the Condition of Female Viennese Wage-Workers (). At the end of 1897, she left the AÖFV and joined the

Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unti ...

(. "In the years to follow, Schlesinger appeared at the center of debates over the best way to win women to the cause of

Social Democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. Her position was clear: the demands of trade union organizations did not extend to securing the political education of women and women’s voting rights, equally important demands as far as Schlesinger was concerned. Furthermore, if a new kind of solidarity were to be developed between people within the framework of a socialist project, it was first of all necessary to treat cultural questions pertaining to ‘everyday’ life and consciousness as political concerns." From 1919 to 1923, she served as a member of the National Council (). Later, she joined the

Federal Council Federal Council may refer to: Governmental bodies * Federal Council of Australasia, a forerunner to the current Commonwealth of Australia * Federal Council of Austria, the upper house of the Austrian federal parliament * Federal Council of German ...

(), resigning on 5 December 1930.Hauch, p. 481

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlesinger, Therese 1863 births 1940 deaths Politicians from Vienna Jews from Austria-Hungary Jewish Austrian politicians Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Members of the Constituent National Assembly (Austria) Members of the 1st National Council (Austria) Women members of the National Council (Austria) Members of the Federal Council (Austria) Austrian feminists Austrian activists Austrian women activists Jewish women activists Austrian women's rights activists Austrian socialist feminists Jewish feminists 20th-century Austrian women politicians Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss