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TITLE: Program of the Forming Association for Women's Education, 1867; and the Charter, 1868, in Life and Activity of Mrs. Pál Veres Hermin Beniczky, Published as a Token of Grateful Adoration by the National Association for Women's Education, 702-705. DESCRIPTION: This document is one of nine extracts from the 1902 publication Life and Activity of Mrs. Pál Veres Hermin Beniczky, edited by Mrs. József Rudnay and Mrs. Gyula Szigethy. The book contains an extensive account of the life and activities of Beniczky and reprints of many original documents. Hermin Beniczky, usually remembered as Mrs. Pál Veres (1815-1895), was a pioneer of Hungarian women’s education, founder in 1868 of the National Association for Women’s Education (Országos Nőképző-Egyesület) and its long-term President, and co-founder in 1869 of the first high school for girls in Hungary. See the biographical summary of her in Krassimira Daskalova, Anna Loutfi, and Francisca de Haan, A Biographical Dictionary of Women’s Movements and Feminisms: Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2006), 54-57. The extracts selected include a collection of writings dating from the period 1865–69. These include Beniczky’s calls from 1865 and 1867, her treatise from 1868 and documents of her lobbying with the governing party from 1868–69, when she submitted a petition signed by nine thousand women to the Hungarian parliament, requesting a law on higher women’s schools with public funding. In her writings, Beniczky condemned the exclusive concern for languages and etiquette in the upbringing of upper-class girls and argued that a more meaningful education would also help secure a livelihood for unmarried and widowed women. Taking note of a general shift from physical towards intellectual work, she set out a broad range of possible female careers. However, she kept distancing herself from any more far-reaching concept of women’s emancipation. There is also a portrait of Beniczky. Another selection from Beniczky’s writings from the period 1869 to 1883, includes opening speeches from the Association’s general assembly meetings, letters, papers and addresses. The initiative to finance higher women’s schools from public funds failed in lack of political backing. The central school, however, got under way in 1869 with Hungarian as the sole language of instruction, and although Beniczky complained about high attrition rates, it soon launched a teacher training track as well. Finally, a selection from the documents from the period 1869–94 include the statutes of the National Association, the first curriculum of the central school for the two lower grades, a report on its opening, a call by the Association to celebrate the royal couple’s 25 year coronation jubilee (Francis Joseph was Emperor of Austria since 1848 but had been crowned King of Hungary only in 1867), its congratulatory letter sent on the same occasion, and contributions to the 25 year jubilee of the National Association itself in 1893. The curriculum is remarkable for giving a close glimpse at Beniczky’s ambitious vision of women’s education. Girls of thirteen to fourteen years of age in the general track studied all of the following subjects: art history, aesthetics, pedagogy, hygienic, Hungarian, German and French, arithmetic, drawing, thinking, ethics, Hungarian cultural history and civics, Hungarian literary history and chemistry applied to the household. A few letters received by Mrs. Veres, writings about her, and writings which address her activities and other important events in relation to women’s education, such as for instance the speech by the Minister for education, Gyula Wlassics, on the occasion of the opening of the National Association’s girls’ gymnasium in 1896, are also included. In 1906 a statue was erected in Budapest depicturing Mrs. Veres, wearing a Hungarian national costume. Today, the statue is placed at the beginning of Mrs. Pál Veres Street (Veres Pálné utca) in the inner city of the Hungarian capital. Its pedestal carries the inscription “Mrs. Pál Veres Hermin Beniczky. She fought for the cause that Woman with her education and her soul may become a factor/agent (tényező) of national welfare.” For more on the sculpture, see Veres Pálné, Beniczky Hermin szobra [The Sculpture of Mrs. Pál Veres Hermin Beniczky] (Budapest, 1906). KEYWORDS: Women and Institutions of Empire; Dynasty; Elisabeth Queen of Hungary and Empress of Austria; Women and Nation within Empire; Women and Nation-Building; Women and National Languages; National Identity; Empire Silenced; Women and Education; Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation; Social Reform and Political Activism; Political Parties and Other Male-Dominated Organizations; Habsburg Empire; Austria; Hungary

Field of Interest

Women and Social Movements

Collection

Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires Since 1820

Content Type

Section

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

4

Publication Year

1902

Source Title

Veres Pálné Beniczky Hermin élete és működése. Hálás tisztelete jeléül kiadta: az Országos Nőképző-Egyesület [Life and Activity of Mrs. Pál Veres Hermin Beniczky, Published As a Token of Grateful Adoration by the National Association for Women's Education], edited by Mrs. József Rudnay and Mrs. Gyula Szigethy. (Budapest: Az Atheneum irod. és nyomdai r.-társulat könyvnyomdája, 1902). pp. 702-705

Subject

Women and Social Movements, History, Women and Education, Women and Rights, Women and Politics, Transnational Women’s Movement, Mujer y Educación, Mulher e Educação, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional, Hungría, Hermin Beniczky, 1815-1895, Elisabeth, Empress, consort of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, 1837-1898, Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, 1830-1916, Gyula Wlassics, 1852-1937, Hungary, Austria, Women and Education, Political and Human Rights, Social Reform and Political Activism, Women, Colonization, Empire, and Post Coloniality, Access to Higher Education, Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation, Empire and Education, Social and Cultural Rights, Equal Rights for Women, Political Parties and Other Male Dominated Organizations, Empire and Feminism, National Identity, Indigenous Languages, Hungarians, Austrians

Topic

Access to Higher Education, Education as a Source of Women’s Emancipation, Empire and Education, Social and Cultural Rights, Equal Rights for Women, Political Parties and Other Male Dominated Organizations, Empire and Feminism, National Identity, Indigenous Languages

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Mujer y Educación, Mulher e Educação, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional, Hungría