Gender and Culture

Rosa Mayreder (1858-1938) of Vienna, Austria, was a major European feminist and peace activist as well as an excellent scholar and superb writer. The essays collected in the volume Gender and Culture are well-researched, meticulously argued, and of both historical and lasting significance. This volume is the first English translation of a 1923 collection of some of her most important writings. "Gender and Culture" not only gives eloquent expression to Mayreder's ideological commitment to equality and the rights of women in the family, society, and the professions, but also displays her thorough understanding of gender issues throughout history in European societies and in the writings of major thinkers and writers over the centuries. Mayreder explores ideas and viewpoints about gender in a broad context, reaching back to Greek and Roman antiquity as well as tracing developments in Catholic and Protestant church history and interweaving consideration of the views of philosophers from Augustine and Plato to Schopenhauer and Fichte, the literature of writers such as Goethe and Schiller and intellectuals of her day, including the sex researcher Albert Moll and the Swedish feminist Ellen Key. These essays discuss gender as related to love, marriage, eroticism and parenthood against the background of European history and culture, presenting a plethora of insights into her times and many that are still relevant in our day.