Emma Graf

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Emma Graf (born October 11, 1865 in Langenthal ; † November 22, 1926 in Bern ) was a Swiss women's rights activist . In 1914 she founded the Yearbook of Swiss Women , a publication that served as a common forum for the bourgeois women's movement .

Life

Emma Graf, Ernst Otto Graf's sister , did an apprenticeship as a seamstress and then attended the teachers' seminar in Hindelbank. After teaching for a short time, she studied humanities at the University of Bern and received her doctorate in 1901. In addition to her work as a teacher, she was a research assistant for Professor Walzel and devoted herself to studying history, philosophy and literature, in particular on romantic women.

In 1907 she was the first woman in Switzerland to teach natural sciences at a higher secondary school . From 1902 to 1920 she was President of the Swiss Teachers' Association .

First as editor of the Swiss Teachers ' Journal , then of the Yearbook of Swiss Women, she campaigned for legal and economic equality between teachers and teachers. She also wrote articles and stories such as the trip of a Bernese women's rights activist to Greece and collected voices from historical figures on women's rights throughout her life.

From 1912 on she was also active in the women's suffrage movement. Soon she was elected president of the Bern voting rights association and in 1916 also president of the action committee for women's suffrage in community affairs . This led the voting campaign for the vote of 1917, in which the civic community of Bern granted women the right to stand as candidates in community commissions.

During the First World War , Graf was also one of the initiators of the “National Women's Donation”, with which Swiss women's associations raised around one million francs for soldiers and their families from 1915 to 1916. She also founded retirement homes and vacation homes for teachers. In 1921 Graf was appointed President of the Second Swiss Women's Congress .

Works (selection)

  • Rahel Varnhagen and romance. 1903.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures. Sebastian Lux Verlag, Munich 1963, p. 196.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Count, Emma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenthal
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1926
Place of death Bern