Syllabus
Syllabus
1. Introductory Lesson – definition of the course content, presentation of the study requirements, introduction to the topic of the women's rights in the Czech lands – periodization
2. Women's Human Rights - the position of women in society as a subject of historiographical, legal-historical and sociological research, the relevance of gender studies
3. The Beginnings of the Women's Movement - the causes of the first cultural, educational and supportive women's organizations in the period from the 1860s onwards, programs of the women's movement
4. The Right to Education at the End of the 19th Century – the issue of female education at the turn of the century in the Austrian monarchy and in Bohemia, the Minerva phenomenon, study abroad
5. The Fight for Women's Rights at the End of the Austrian Monarchy - active and passive suffrage, Františka Plamínková's activism, influence of Anglo-American culture, Tomáš G. Masaryk and the women's question
6. The First World War as a Turning Point in the Concept of Women - the impact of the war on the change in the understanding of the social role of women, the effort for equal rights between men and women in post-war Czechoslovakia, women's association activities in the new republic
7. Women in "Male" Professions - the new role of women, women as teachers, journalists, doctors, scientists, politicians, interwar everyday life of working women
8. Czech Women in the Fight against Nazism – the Nazi ideal and the real role of women in the Protectorate, the involvement of women in the domestic resistance, forgotten heroines
9. The Role of Women in the Era of Stalinism - the women's movement during the time of Milada Horáková and Anežka Hodinová-Spurná, the adoption of Soviet models of gender indoctrination, the importance of the Czechoslovak Women's Union, the legal biennial and the new legal concept of women
10. Sexual Revolution in the Czechoslovakia – second wave feminism in the Czechoslovak environment, the phenomenon of the Vlasta magazine, contraception and the new concept of family law, work as a path to emancipation
11. Normalization and Emancipation of Women – the return of conservatism or quiet emancipation?, Husák's family, development of modern sexology, women's issue in dissent
12. The Wild Nineties - the new sexual revolution, American cultural influence, prostitution, legislative changes after 1989, political feminism
13. An Illusion of Gender Equality - current discussion about the position of women in Czech society under the influence of European legislation and international agreements, #metoo in the Czech Republic
Annotation
Women’s rights in Modern Czech History
Lecturer: Mgr. et Mgr. Jaromír Dvořák
Annotation
The course focuses on the evolution of women's roles in modern Czech society from the end of the Habsburg Monarchy to the present. The course ends with a discussion of the current status of the so-called Istanbul Convention and is chronologically constrained by the founding of the first women's cultural, educational, and support institutions in the 1860s. The issue is defined territorially by the territory of the Czech Lands, but the course also reflects the evolution of human rights in state and supranational entities of which the Czech Lands were a part. The course's goal is to familiarise students with both the specific evolution of women's positions in Czech society and the human rights influences that have had an impact on the Central European environment. Space is allotted during the interpretation to the three basic levels of the given issue, where the demands of the women's movement articulated in the press and programme statements of women's organisations (the idea of an ideal state) are first analysed within the context of individual periods. This is followed by a reflection on the women's issue from the standpoint of objective legislation (legal status), while space is also devoted to the actual position of women in society at the time (factual status). The student will not only become acquainted with the specific historical realities of the Czech women's movement, but also with human rights theory.
Course Objectives
The course aims to familiarise foreign students with the concept of women's human rights in Central Europe, using specific historical developments in the Czech lands as examples. The entire course is designed to help students understand the fundamentals of the issue and then apply methodological principles when studying human rights issues in a variety of cultural and historical contexts.