Born: 17 April 1868, Czechia
Died: 16 October 1915
Country most active: Czechia
Also known as: NA
Moravian women’s rights advocate Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková was inspired to activism by her work as an educator. After teaching for several years, she began to recognize the gendered disparities between male and female teachers, as well as between their students. By 1898, she was publicly calling for women to receive equal pay for equal work and campaigning for equal education for boys and girls.
In 1902, Wiedermannová founded and became chair of the Jednota učitelek moravských (Moravian Women Teachers Union), which pushed for gender pay equity, increased training for teachers and more educational opportunities for girls. In 1903, she opened her Girls’ Academy in Brno, hoping to later expand to include secondary education. Because the Austro-Hungarian Empire provided little funding for girls’ education (only 2.5 million koruna, out of a total educational budget of K43 million), she held popular lectures to help pay the academy’s operating costs. It was five years before she successfully established the Girl’s Reform High School, the first girls’ secondary school in Moravia, in 1908.
That same year, Wiedermannová founded and became the editor of Ženská revue (Women’s Review), a magazine featuring articles on developments in the international women’s movement. In 1909, she retired from teaching to focus on activism, with her profile rising until she was one of the most prominent Czech feminists, presenting more than a hundred lectures during her career. She founded several women’s associations and in 1910 was instrumental in creating a regional umbrella organization in Moravia, the Sdružení pokrokových žen (Association of Progressive Women), which promoted women’s suffrage and the integration of women into all segments of public life.
Wiedermannová-Motyčková was active at rallies and in petition drives to gain the vote for women. She participated in international conferences and formed connections with feminists in other parts of her country. With the outbreak of World War I, her activism shifted to humanitarian support for the poor and for soldiers’ families. She died in 1915, only a few years before Czech women secured the right to vote in 1918.
Her sister, writer and politician Ludmila Konečná, was also a women’s rights activist who supported Zdeňka‘s girls academy and contributed to Ženská revue, including continuing to publish the magazine for years after her sister’s death. Ludmila also preserved her sister’s legacy with the memoir Zdenka Wiedermannová: Zakladatelka ženského hnutí na Moravě, 1868–1915 (Zdenka Wiedermannová: Founder of the Women’s Movement in Moravia, 1868–1915).