Emma Ihrer
Encyclopedia
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ist.
Biography
Emma Ihrer came from a CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
family of bootmakers. She was married young to Emmanuel Ihrer, an apothecary twenty-two years her senior. In 1881 they moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Emma founded the socialist and feminist Frauen-Hilfsverein für Handarbeiterinnen (loosely, "Aid Society for Women Manual Workers"). She had a seat on the Board. In 1885, Emma Ihrer, Marie Hofmann, Pauline Staegemann and Gertrude Guillaume-Schack the Verein zur Wahrung der Interessen der Arbeiterinnen (loosely, "Society for the Protection of Women Workers' Interests"). The society functioned primarily as a support group in which doctors and lawyers offered their services free of charge. When the police forcibly disbanded the club a year later, it had over a thousand members.
In 1889 she and Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....
went as delegates to the International Socialist Congress in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Together, they prevented a motion against female employment and ensured that women had equal rights in the trade union movement. By the end of 1890 she was elected as the only woman among six men in the Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands ("General Commission of German Trade Unions").
In 1891 she published the weekly newspaper Die Arbeiterin ("The Woman Worker"). From 1892 it was called Gleichheit ("Equality"). She founded other feminist societies, which were generally socialist in nature, which resulted in almost constant trouble with the police.
Honours
- The Emma-Ihrer-Straße ("Emma Ihrer Street") in Berlin and VeltenVeltenVelten is a town in the Oberhavel district of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 10 km southwest of Oranienburg, and 24 km northwest of Berlin.-History:...
was named after her. - The German postal service issued a stamp depicting her (shown above).