Hedwig Dohm is one of the smartest and funniest women of the last 100 years. Some of the things she asked for to help free women are still not true. Her critiques of the works of patriarchal thinkers of her time are amazingly clear-eyed and funny. She makes fun of their stupid claims to power and theories "justifying" injustice, which she calls "nonsense."
Dohm's ideas were very up-to-date. She saw that the so-called social character of women has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with schooling. She fought for women's right to go to college and vote and for men and women to get the same education and training for work. Housework and raising children could be given to institutions so that women could focus on their jobs. If women had their own money, they wouldn't have to get married just to feed themselves. This would "ethicize" marriage. Dohm says that motherly love is not a natural instinct: "Maternalism needs to lose the idealization that has been put on it."
Hedwig was the fourth child of Henriette Wilhelmine Jülich, who was from a poor family, and Gustav Adolph Schlesinger, who was Jewish and owned a tobacco company. Her parents didn't get married until 1838, which was after the tenth of their 18 kids was born. Schlesinger was baptized as a Protestant in 1817, but in 1851, he changed his Jewish-sounding family name to Schleh.
Hedwig Dohm was a German author, feminist, and fighter for women's rights. She lived from 1831 to 1919. She was very important in the fight for equal rights for men and women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dohm was born in Berlin, Germany, and he grew up in an intellectually advanced place. Her father was a well-known journalist, and the rest of her family also wrote.
Early works by Dohm focused on social and political problems, such as the rights of women. She thought it was important for women to get an education and be financially independent. In her writing, she fought for women to have the same chances as men in school, work, and politics. Dohm also fought for the right to get a divorce and against rules that were unfair to women.
Dohm's article "The Female Question" (Die Frauenfrage), which came out in 1873, is one of her most important works. In this essay, she questioned social norms and claimed that women should be seen as people with rights and choices of their own. Dohm said that the male structure of society was wrong and that women should be freed from it.
Dohm wrote and spoke out about women's problems for the rest of her life. She thought that women should be able to choose their own paths in life, without having to worry about what society thinks or wants. Dohm's activism and writings paved the way for women who came after her.
Hedwig Dohm's work as a feminist and supporter of women's rights continues to motivate and inspire women all over the world. Her work tells us that the fight for gender equality is still going on and that it's important to question societal rules and norms.
