Marie Tůmová

Marie Tůmová (12 June 1866 – 1 May 1925) was a Czech women's suffragist and a teacher. In 1908, using a legal loophole, Tůmová was among the first three women to unsuccessfully run to be elected to the Bohemian Diet.

Marie Tůmová
Born(1866-06-12)12 June 1866
Prague, Austrian Empire
Died1 May 1925(1925-05-01) (aged 58)
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Occupation(s)teacher, women's suffragist, politician

Career

Teaching

Marie Tůmová worked as a teacher and, during World War I, became the principal of a municipal girls' school in Žižkov – a first woman to helm a municipal school in Bohemia.[1] In 1919–1925, she worked on behalf of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education in Carpathian Ruthenia and Slovakia, but malnutrition and bad living conditions led to a fatal illness.[1]

Tůmová (standing, third from left) at the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Budapest, 1913

Activism

Tůmová advocated for women's rights and was a member of Czech women's and teachers' associations, such as Women's National Council[1] She was friends with a fellow teacher and suffragist Františka Plamínková, with whom she worked in the Committee for Women's Suffrage.[2] Tůmová represented the committee abroad, traveling to Stockholm, Rome, Bucharest, Budapest and London.[1]

In 1908, using a legal loophole, the Committee for Women's Suffrage nominated Tůmová in the elections for the Bohemian assembly.[2] Thus, together with Karla Máchová and Božena Zelinková, Tůmová was among the first three women to run for the Bohemian Diet.[3] She ran in the Vysoké Mýto-Skuteč-Hlinsko voting district and received around 200 votes.[4] None of the women candidates secured a seat in the assembly, but the general public was shocked by how many votes had been cast in their favour.[3] The committee ran Tůmová for the next elections as well, but with similar results.[2] Eventually, it was Božena Viková-Kunětická who became the first woman elected to the Bohemian Diet.[3]

Personal life

Marie Tůmová was born in Prague in 1866.[5] Her parents were the journalist, writer and politician Karel Tůma[6] and Marie Čelakovská, whose father was the poet František Čelakovský.[1]

References
  1. "Marie Tůmová - první ředitelka dívčí měšťanské školy bojující za volební právo žen". Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy (in Czech). Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  2. Feinberg, Melissa (2006). "Masaryk, Feminism, and Democracy in the Czech Lands". Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship, and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovokia, 1918-1950. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-8229-7103-0.
  3. Boumová, Petra. "Jak získaly české ženy volební právo II. : Fórum 50 %". padesatprocent.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  4. Kočišková, Jana (2022-04-01). Ženy v politice: Role a postavení vrcholných političek v Československu 1948–1968 (in Czech). Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-80-246-5162-0.
  5. "TŮMOVÁ Marie 0.0.1866-1.5.1925". Biografický slovník českých zemí. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  6. Tůmová, Marie (Maria Antonie). 2003. ISBN 978-3-7001-3213-4. Retrieved 2023-01-06. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
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