Women's Suffrage in the Austrian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy 1848–1918

Although it is largely unknown, women had some voting rights in the 19th century in the Habsburg monarchy, especially the right to vote in the municipality and on the provincial level. Suffrage at that time was based on the two pillars of property and education rather than gender. It was undisputed for a long time that women could get the right to vote due to their tax payments. The fact that women could also be included into the ‘intelligence’ electoral class was controversial, as shown by some decisions by the Austrian high courts. It was only towards the end of the 19th century that the gender criterion began to prevail in election regulations and women were increasingly excluded from the right to vote, which led to the emergence of the Austrian women’s movement. The monarchy fell in 1918 and the granting of universal women’s voting rights was finally embodied in the proclamation of the Austrian republic on 12 November 1918.