Anna Boschek (14 May 1874, Vienna – 18 November 1957) was an Austrian politician ( Social Democrat) and feminist.Aus vergangenen Tagen. In: Gedenkbuch. 20 Jahre Österreichische Arbeiterinnenbewegung. Im Auftrag des Frauenreichskomitees herausgegeben von Adelheid Popp. Wien 1912, S. 89–102 She was one of the first of her gender in the Austrian parliament. Boschek was the daughter of a railway locksmith. Orphaned at a young age, she was forced to quit school and worked as a domestic and at various factories. She was the ward of Anton Hueber, who also became her political mentor. In 1890, she became the first woman in the

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

's central committee.Lebenslauf und Werke von Anna Boschek im ARIADNE-Projekt Frauen in Bewegung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek At the time, women were prohibited from engaging in political activity, so she took her seat on the committee under an assumed, male, name. In 1891, Boschek she became a member of the workers' union and the Social democratic ABF. She was one of three women delegates at the 1893 conference which founded the Imperial Trade Union Commission, and in 1894, she was elected to its executive, with responsibility for women workers. She remained the most prominent woman in the Austrian trade union movement until the end of World War I. During these years, she founded trade unions for nurses, domestic servants, tobacco workers, and flower and feather workers. In 1900, she founded the Union of Sewers, a trade union open to all women able to sew. This broad definition allowed it to act as a general union for women, while circumventing government restrictions on women's political groups. From 1918 to 1920, Boschek was a member of the Vienna city council. In 1919–1920, she was a member of the

Austrian Constitutional Assembly election, 1919 Constituent Assembly elections were held in Austria on 16 February 1919, and were the first election in which all women were allowed to vote. German citizens living in Austria and Sudeten Germans living in the newly-formed Czechoslovakia were al ...

, then she was a member of the National Council of Austria from 1920 to 1934. After the coup of 1934, she was imprisoned for seven weeks and then put under police surveillance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boschek, Anna 1874 births 1957 deaths Austrian trade unionists Politicians from Vienna Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Members of the Constituent National Assembly (Austria) Members of the National Council (Austria) 19th-century Austrian women politicians 20th-century Austrian women politicians Politicians from Austria-Hungary