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In March 1848, revolution swept through Central Europe, bringing with it new opportunities for political participation and patriotic displays. Many women actively supported the 1848 revolutions, fighting on the barricades, sewing national flags, forming democratic associations, and taking part in demonstrations. They also took up their pens, and in Hungary, women produced the "Demands of the Radical Hungarian Women," which appeared in a newspaper in late April. This twenty-four-point petition, reprinted below in English translation and the original Hungarian, addresses issues common to women across Europe in 1848. Conditioned by the context in which it appeared, the petition places emphasis on displays of Hungarian patriotism and support for national culture.
On 29 April 1848, six weeks after the outbreak of revolution in Hungary, a remarkable document appeared in a patriotic Hungarian-language newspaper, Pesti Divatlap (Pest Fashion Magazine). Entitled "Demands of the Radical Hungarian Women," this twenty-four-point petition boldly asserted women's right to take part in public life and underlined their importance to the revolutionary cause.(1) "The Hungarian woman," the authors stated unequivocally, should "actively take part in public affairs." (§2) Never before had Hungarian women expressed such demands so forcefully or comprehensively. This petition has received surprisingly little attention from scholars; yet with its language of patriotism, education, and culture, the "Demands" merits comparison with other petitions, declarations, and reform proposals that women issued throughout the nineteenth century. The petition also confronts issues at the center of the 1848 revolution.
In recent decades, scholars have explored the wide range of women's experiences during the nineteenth century, demonstrating the ways in which women escaped the confines of a male-dictated domestic sphere.(2) In Hungary, women lacked property and political rights and were denied access to the professions and university. From the 1830s, women were nevertheless part of a nascent civil society centering on voluntary associations and the press. As elsewhere in Europe, women of the middle and upper classes were most active in charitable and educational societies, from which they gained experience in fund-raising, organizing, and decision making outside the home. Women also attended various events sponsored by male-dominated cultural and economic associations. The largely passive participation of women in these concerts, exhibitions, and general assemblies had an important symbolic function, lending an air of dignity and...