Karla Máchová

Karla Máchová (married Kostelecká; 21 October 1853 – 16 May 1920) was a Czech teacher, women's rights activist, journalist and politician. In 1908, using a legal loophole, Máchová was among the first three women to run for the Bohemian Diet.

Karla Máchová
Born(1853-10-21)21 October 1853
Beroun, Austrian Empire
Died(1920-05-16)16 May 1920
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Occupation(s)teacher, women's rights activist, journalist, politician

Early life and education

Karla Máchová was born on 21 October 1853, in Beroun.[1] Her parents died when she was young, so she was brought up in an orphanage in Prague. She had to start working early to pay for her education. She studied to become a teacher and began giving lessons while still attending school.[2]

Career

Máchová worked as a teacher and took on an active role in Czech women's and teachers' associations as well as in the Social Democratic Party.[2] She advocated for women's rights in families, society, politics and education.[2] In 1881, she was barred from teaching in state schools due to her political activism; from then on she supported herself with tutoring, journalistic work and translations.[2] A year later Máchová met Charlotte Garrigue, with whom she became close friends and activist allies.[2] She was also close to Karolina Světlá.[3]

In 1893, Máchová traveled to the United States,[4] where she participated in the World's Congress of Representative Women and spoke up about the hardships of Bohemia's working-class women.[5] She spent four years abroad, joined a local Czech women's association[4] and, together with Czech-American feminist Jozefína Humpal-Zemanová,[6] launched Ženské Listy[4][6] (Women's Gazette) – the first magazine created for Czech women living in the United States.[6]

Back in Bohemia and prompted by Tomáš Masaryk, Máchová helped with founding of the Masaryk Workers' Academy.[4] She also organised a women's section of the Social Democrats.[3] Máchová was a gifted speaker and in 1905 she began giving speeches at the Social Democrats' meetings advocating for women's suffrage.[2] In the years 1901–1914 she was the editor-in-chief of the Social Democrat women's magazine, then from 1916 she was at the helm of a magazine called Zájmy žen.[4]

In 1908, using a legal loophole, together with Božena Zelinková and Marie Tůmová, Máchová was among the first three women to run for the Bohemian Diet.[7][8][9] Even though she received a second spot on the Social Democrat list, her party did not invite her to its large pre-election meeting, creating for her a perfunctory women's meeting instead.[2] She ran in the Hradčany-Vyšehrad-Holešovice voting district and received almost 500 votes – close to the number gained by her colleague from the party and the highest number of votes out of the three women candidates.[9] None of the women candidates secured a seat in the parliament, but the general public was shocked by how many votes had been cast in their favour.[10] A couple years later Social Democrats nominated Máchová again[3][7][11] for a freed seat in the Diet, but it went to Božena Viková-Kunětická who thus became the first woman elected to the Bohemian parliament.[7][11]

Illness and death

Due to health issues, Máchová did not participate in the political scene of the nascent Czechoslovak Republic.[3]

Máchová died on 16 May 1920, in Prague.[1]

References
  1. "Máchová, Karla". Frauen in Bewegung 1848–1938. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  2. Dvořáková, Eva; Duchková, Anna (2 November 2018). "Muži ji nebrali vážně, přesto boj o volební právo žen nevzdala. Osudové ženy: Karla Máchová" (in Czech). Czech Radio. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  3. "Máchová (Machová) -Kostelecká Karla". Encyklopedie ČSSD. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  4. "Máchová, Karla, 1853–1920". Středočeská vědecká knihovna v Kladně (in Czech). Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  5. Paces, Cynthia (2016). "Czech motherhood and fin-de-siecle visual culture". In Baker, Catherine (ed.). Gender in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe and the USSR. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-137-52804-9.
  6. Ondrušková, Andrea (26 June 2012). "Medzi dvoma svetmi: časopis Ženské Listy a život českých žien v Amerike v rokoch 1894–1901". Charles University Digital Repository.
  7. Malečková, Jitka (2005). "The Emancipation of Women for the Benefit of the Nation: The Czech Women's Movement". In Paletschek, Sylvia (ed.). Women's Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: A European Perspective. Stanford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-8047-6707-1.
  8. Musilová, Dana (2018). "Czech Republic: Nationalism, Suffrage and Political Participation". In Franceschet, Susan; Krook, Mona Lena; Tan, Netina (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Women's Political Rights. Springer. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-137-59074-9.
  9. Kočišková, Jana (1 April 2022). Ženy v politice: Role a postavení vrcholných političek v Československu 1948–1968 (in Czech). Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-80-246-5162-0.
  10. Boumová, Petra. "Jak získaly české ženy volební právo II. : Fórum 50 %". padesatprocent.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  11. Knotkova-Capkova, Blanka (February 2016). "On Feminisms in Czech Political Contexts". Alternative Politics (Special Issue). eISSN 1309-0593.
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