Hungarian Feminist Periodicals as Alternative Public Spaces, 1907–18: Values, Networks, and Dissemination Strategies

Abstract

Women have been active as writers, translators, journalists, and editors in Hungarian public life since the mid-nineteenth century. They both participated in the mainstream press and created their own public spaces by establishing periodicals advocating women’s education, employment, and political rights. This article focuses on the Budapest-based journals A Nő és a társadalom [Woman and Society] (1907‒13), founded by Rózsa Schwimmer (1877–1948), and its successor A Nő [Woman] (1914‒27), the official organs of the Hungarian Feminist Association and the National Federation of Female Clerks. Drawing on the archives of the Feminist Association, including readers’ letters, it explores the networks connected to the journals. More particularly, it demonstrates how the editors, who also played key roles in the Association, established local offices and affiliate groups outside the capital to expand their readership and to propagate feminist ideas in the most effective way.