Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/370

The position of women in the Czechoslovak Republic today in respect to political rights may be regarded as the realization of the fondest hopes of those who have labored for civic rights of women and of the hopes of all who have desired to see civic equality forming the foundation of the State. Since the war ended women have been placed on complete equality of rights with men, all differences of class and standing have vanished in so far as concerns the political rights of citizens of the Republic. A universal, equal, direct and secret franchise, active and passive, has been introduced. The Preamble of the Czechoslovak Constitution adopted on February 29, 1920 by the National Assembly provides: “The people are the one and only fountain of state authority in the Czechoslovak Republic.” Section 106 states: “Privileges based on sex, birth, or profession are not recognized.”

The constitution further provides that the right to vote at elections for the House of Deputies and the Senate of the National Assembly is enjoyed by all citizens, irrespective of sex, above certain ages. That is, all citizens over 21 years of age may vote for Deputies and all citizens over 26 years of age may vote for Senators. For all other elections, those over 21 years of age enjoy the privilege.

It follows as a matter of course that the right of political association is guaranteed by the Constitution to all citizens.

There are few places in the whole world where such a radical change has taken place in the position of women with regard to political rights. We have to remember that up to the time of the Revolution (October, 1918) Bohemia formed a part of Austria-Hungary. By the laws of the Empire it was expressly prohibited for women to be members of political associations or to form such associations. In more recent times (1907) the franchise laws for election to the Vienna Parliament were amended and women expressly excluded from suffrage although, till then, women who were landed proprietors enjoyed the right to vote.

In Bohemia women enjoyed to a limited extent, the right of voting at local elections and at elections to the Bohemian Diet. Indeed they even succeeded, with the support of some justice-loving Bohemian men, in having women elected as members of the Diet of the then Kingdom of Bohemia, but not a year passed in which they had not to fight in defense of these rights, for the Vienna government was continually aiming at their abolition.

And now the Republic guarantees absolute equality of rights.

This equality has not been won by violence or by a surprise attack. It has grown from tradition—a fact which so much enhances its value in our eyes—it has been prepared and worked up to through many years by the women’s movement, and is therefore all the more logical and founded on a more solid basis.

There have been times in our history—the days of the Husites and the Bohemian Brethren—during which a real brotherly and sisterly relation of the two sexes actually existed—a living interest on the part of women in the sufferings of men, an equality of strength and determination in the work for justice, for liberty of conscience and later for liberty of the nation. Side by side with the male warriors of God of the Husite days we see also women warriors; side by side with the Bohemian Brethren of the days of Comenius we see also Bohemian sisters.

We are not blind to the fact that in the daily rounds we are no longer as true to this tradition as we were in those former times. The irresistible pressure of successive Austrian Governments who favored the Germans and Hungarians as elements capable of destroying the national sentiment of the Czechoslovaks and of moulding them into a single uniform mass—in short of converting them into Austrians—subservient to the incompetent Habsburg sowed its seeds also among us. But the moment the Czechoslovak nation was liberated and could decide for itself the future fabric of its State, the old Czech spirit of justice re-awoke in the breasts of its legislators.