Interpretation of Sex, Sexuality, and Sexual Knowledge in the Discourse of the Austro-Hungarian Feminist Movements before 1918

Abstract

Leaders of the Austrian bourgeois-liberal and Hungarian feminist organizations considered sex education of youth extremely important in the late 19th and early 20th century: they discussed these issues not only in their official organs, but also within the frame of different presentations and discussion evenings before 1918. Questions regarding the exchange of sexual knowledge and white slavery also became an important part of their agendas.
Besides this, they handed in several proposals to governments and asked MPs for the introduction of coeducation, for reasonable legal regulation of sex education at schools, and for the prevention of prostitution. In spite of the importance of the topic, it is crucial to point out that neither the Austrian, nor the Hungarian historians have devoted enough attention to this question. That is the reason why in this paper I will examine how the two most important Austrian bourgeois-liberal and Hungarian feminist associations made efforts to find solutions to the above-mentioned issues before the First World War and between 1914 and 1918. To this, I rely on the documents of the official organs of the organizations as well as archival sources in Budapest, Vienna, and New York.