»Why do we need these women's newspapers?«

Female question and the relation to women in Slovakian women s newspapers until the collapse of Hapsburg monarchy

Abstract

The first Slovakian women's newspaper The Dennica was published in 1898. It can be considered as the first larger independent enterprise of Slovakian women, which had also an all-Slovakian character. Due to repressive relation of Hungarian authorities to the second-rate Slovakian ethnical community, the newspaper also published articles, which were hiding Slovakian national question in the female issues. The Dennica, as well as a few years' younger women's newspaper The Živena strongly restricted the complexity of female question. Both newspapers aimed particularly at spiritual and religious awakening of women so that they could operate more successfully in their families and thus also for their nation. The Dennica and The Živena did not publish any articles about feminism and female emancipation, which were already present in the West at the time; the first articles with such content, although very limited, appeared sporadically as late as in the years before the First World War.