Melitta Marxer

Melitta Marxer (born September 8, 1923 as Melitta Kaiser in Schaanwald ; died February 13, 2015 in Vaduz ) was a Liechtenstein activist and women's rights activist who fought for women's suffrage . She gained international fame with a speech to the Council of Europe in 1983 , in which she sought international support for the introduction of women's suffrage in Liechtenstein.

Live and act

Melitta Marxer, née Kaiser, grew up with her four siblings in Schaanwald (Liechtenstein). After finishing secondary school , Kaiser worked in a ceramic factory. She left the factory at the age of 25 because she married Felix Marxer (1922–1997) in 1949 and started a family with him. She gave birth to three daughters; one of them is the artist Regina Marxer .

While her three daughters were growing up, she became aware of the legal inequalities between women and men in Liechtenstein and the fact that only men could choose. Marxer supported her daughters in their desire for a higher education and took part in the struggle to attend secondary schools and grammar schools, the goal of which was not achieved until the 1960s. Liechtenstein girls have been admitted to grammar schools since 1968.

Marxer and other feminists then turned to the 1968 referendum on women's suffrage, which initially failed. The women formed the Committee on Women's Suffrage to work towards approval of the right to vote. In 1971 and 1973, two referendums failed because of the majority that blocked women's suffrage. Because they saw no progress, Marxer and other feminists founded Aktion Dornröschen in 1981 , an allusion to the German fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and the long waiting time before the prince kisses the princess awake. They didn't want to wait for that. The women also filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court because they saw their rights restricted. In 1982 the lawsuit was dismissed. Because the government refused to introduce women's suffrage, Marxer and 11 other Sleeping Beauty activists took other measures. They traveled around Europe and talked about their lack of rights. In 1983 they made their concerns public at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg . This action was heavily criticized in Liechtenstein because it put the country in the international spotlight, but it was effective. On July 2, 1984, male voters in Liechtenstein granted women full voting rights.

Marxer died on February 13, 2015 in Vaduz.

reception

The Swiss documentary The Other Half was made in 2002 and tells the story of Melitta Marxer and her fight for women's rights in Liechtenstein.

Quotes

“Our family consisted of four women and one man. Whenever there was an election, it was only my husband who was allowed to vote - and we women had to stay at home. "

"What should we do? Just sit still and hope that our political rights will be recognized? If we had only done that, we would not have the right to vote today. "

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alois Ospelt: Biography Felix Marxer . Ed .: Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein, yearbook. tape 100 , 2001 ( eliechtensteinensia.li [accessed January 19, 2019]).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wilfried Marxer: 20 Years of Women's Suffrage - A Critical Balance . Ed .: Liechtenstein Institute for Research and Teaching. tape 19/2004 , ISBN 3-9522833-7-1 .
3. ↑ February 28, 2006 - 35 years ago: Liechtenstein citizens vote against women's suffrage. February 27, 2006, accessed January 23, 2019 . 
4. ↑ The other half. Retrieved January 19, 2019 . 
5. ^ ^{A b c} Nicky Gardner & Susanne Kries: A Liechtenstein moment. hidden europe, June 22, 2009, accessed on January 19, 2019 . 
6. ^ "Around the World; Liechtenstein Women Win Right to Vote". New York, New York: The New York Times. ( Memento from November 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
7. ^ V Marxer Melitta-Kaiser | sterbebilder.li. Retrieved January 19, 2019 (German). 
   
8. ↑ The other half. Retrieved January 19, 2019 .