Death And The Maiden

11

Amelia Lydgate had come from London to Vienna to study medicine at the university, where she was now enrolled as a student — one of only a handful of women. The prevailing view among the majority of her teachers was that medicine should be an exclusively male preserve, and consequently Amelia encountered prejudice, in one form or another, almost every day; however, she was undaunted by the dismissive remarks directed at her. The ignorance of others amounted to a mild irritation but nothing more, as it was in her nature to approach everything in life with an attitude of rational detachment. Moreover, such outmoded thinking was not ubiquitous. Indeed, she had made the acquaintance of some notable dissenters. Landsteiner, the man who had discovered blood groups, had taken a personal interest in her research, and her former doctor, Max Liebermann, had become — as much as social convention allowed — a close friend.

The public lecture that she was attending had been organised by the Socialist Education Alliance in cooperation with the General Austrian Women’s Association. Outside the small hall a poster announced that Frau Flora Eberhardt of the Society for Women’s Extended Education would be delivering a talk on the subject of ‘Equality and the marriage problem’.

Amelia was seated at the end of a row of chairs approximately halfway down the central aisle. The hall was somewhat austere. A faded portrait of the emperor hung above the entrance but there was little else to enliven the drab interior. A cold, persistent draught stirred the hem of Amelia’s petticoats.

Frau Eberhardt was a large woman with broad shoulders and wide hips, all comfortably accommodated in the loose folds of a blue and white reform kaftan. She had evidently dispensed with her corset. There was nothing evangelical about her delivery. She addressed the audience with measured, persuasive oratory.

Amelia noticed that the young woman sitting across the aisle was balancing a copy of Mantegazza’s The Physiology of Woman on her lap. The young woman had also crossed her feet at the ankles, something rarely seen in polite circles.

Frau Eberhardt had begun by setting out her agenda for change. She demanded the complete revocation of Austrian civil laws that permitted the exercise of patriarchal authority within the institution of marriage. According to existing statutes, a husband was entitled to forbid his wife to take certain jobs. A wife had no right to determine where her family should live, this being the husband’s privilege and, unless a prior legal contract had been signed to the contrary, a husband had absolute power to administer his wife’s property. Frau Eberhardt deemed all of these things unacceptable in a civilised society. She called for the abolition of all marriages where one party was a young girl and the other a significantly older man. Such marriages were, she maintained, almost invariably arranged to the financial advantage of the bride’s family. Thus, they might be legitimately described as a form of prostitution.

Summing up her position, she concluded that the economic independence of women was the first condition of a free marriage.

The speaker received a round of applause, led enthusiastically by the young woman sitting opposite Amelia.

The second part of Frau Eberhardt’s lecture was even more controversial than the first.

‘To demand economic equality is all well and good,’ proclaimed Frau Eberhardt. ‘But this will achieve nothing in the absence of sexual equality.’

There was unrest in some quarters of the audience, mutters and the rustle of silk.

‘It is the opinion of many leading gynaecologists,’ Frau Eberhardt continued, undaunted, ‘that the female of the species is sexually anaesthetic, that is to say, not troubled by erotic feelings. Other, more enlightened commentators have suggested that such evidence as exists for this opinion might be accounted for by cultural factors. Young women are forced to affect modesty and deny their instincts because of social expectations. Although this is a very plausible hypothesis, it has found no sympathy among the leading lights of the medical community. No less an authority than the late Professor Krafft-Ebing asserted that women have but a shallow interest in sexual activity because of their biology. He tells us in his writings that if she — the female of the species — were not passive and submissive,’ at this point Frau Eberhardt picked up a book from the lectern and read, ‘“the whole world would be a bordello, and marriage and the family unthinkable.”’

Frau Eberhardt paused before posing some interesting questions: ‘Is this true? Can Professor Krafft-Ebing really be correct? Is the female of the species sexually anaesthetic? And if she is not, is it really the case that her untrammelled lust and degeneracy would bring about the end of civilised society?’

A smatter of restrained laughter travelled around the hall.

‘I will address these issues in turn.’

Frau Eberhardt put the volume down and picked up a sheet of paper. ‘I have here the results of a study undertaken in the United States of America, some years ago now, by Frau Doctor Clelia Duel Mosher. Her survey shows that one-fifth of married women achieve a venereal orgasm every time they engage in intercourse, and another fifth on most occasions. Her respondents described the experience as ecstatic or delightful. One of them expressed the simple sentiment that she would have hated to have omitted the experience. Are these the responses of sexually anaesthetic women? The conjugal right to satisfactory consummation,’ Frau Eberhardt stabbed the air with her finger for emphasis, ‘is as much the right of women as it is of men. Economic equality and sexual equality. Nothing less will be acceptable!’

At this juncture a soberly dressed middle-aged woman and her daughter stood up. The daughter had blue eyes and her blonde hair was coiled in braids over her ears. She wore a long dark skirt, a white blouse, a rose-embroidered waistcoat and black suede shoes with silver buckles. She looked like a figure from a traditional German fairy story. In her hand she carried the white carnation of Mayor Lueger’s Christian Social Party.

‘That is enough!’ cried the older woman. ‘What you are saying is filth — gutter talk — and doesn’t help women at all. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be cared for by a man, a good working man who is willing to labour and support his wife and children. It is unnatural to think otherwise.’

‘Sit down,’ shouted the young woman opposite Amelia, shaking her copy of Mantegazza in the air. ‘Let Frau Eberhardt speak!’

‘A woman’s place is in the home,’ continued the proud housewife, scowling at her critic. ‘That is her proper place. We must raise our daughters to be selfless, obedient, and willing to make sacrifices. What is motherhood, if not a sacrifice? What will become of our people if we do not fulfil our duty to husband and country? You …’ Her face reddened as she brought her mind to bear on the problem of formulating an insult. The result was a single word: ‘Intellectual!’ She turned to her daughter. ‘Come, Gretl.’

The two women stepped into the aisle and walked briskly towards the exit. Before slamming the door, the older woman shouted back at the stage.

‘There are laws about this sort of thing. What you are saying is obscene. They will hear about this at the town hall!’

Frau Eberhardt smiled at her stunned audience.

‘Well,’ she said finally. ‘No one can deny that there is much to do.’