Visual Sources of the History of Women’s Education

Abstract

In this paper, we try to illustrate the developmental features of women’s history during the age of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the angle of photos and caricatures, humorous discourses, while trying to identify generally used visual schemes in the environment of secondary schools for girls. It is evident that several weekly newspapers published pictures of the courses, schools, buildings, classrooms connecting with the endeavours of the National Association for the Education of Women, with the portraits of the association’s leaders among the several articles which were published, which all indicate a serious public interest. There are many details, which cannot be explored using only written sources, such as information about the training areas, the hairstyles and clothes of the female students, and the tools used for education. At the same time, the humorous drawings of the examined weekly newspapers reveal that the girls, as well as the politicians who supported them, were often portrayed as being ugly and ridiculous, compared to the “traditional” female roles and attractive imagery of the era. The systemized collection and analysis of these images is an indispensable task for the history of women’s education, as they do not simply supplement or reinforce the content revealed from the written sources, but are capable of yielding new insights and radically new perspectives. 

Photo: Vasárnapi Újság (Erdélyi)