Senator Františka Plamínková

Františka Plamínková - A woman who guaranteed her convictions with her own life

Photo: Archive © LANGHANS FOUNDATION PRAGUE www.langhans.cz

Františka Plamínková - A woman who guaranteed her convictions with her own life

Senator Františka Plamínková (February 5, 1875 - June 30, 1942) was a Czech politician and feminist who helped push through women’s suffrage. She explained her tireless work by saying: “Men take politics as their goal, whereas for women it is a means to improve their lives.” She had a lot of international contacts, advocated democratic principles and worked tirelessly to promote human rights. She stood out for her intelligence, her negotiating talent and her ability to speak brilliantly in public.

She was the youngest daughter from a shoemaker’s family in Prague. She studied teaching and soon became involved in efforts to abolish celibacy applied to female teachers but not to male ones. As a teacher herself, she broke off her engagement. In 1903, Plamínková participated in founding the Women’s Club of Bohemia and two years later co-founded the Committee for Women’s Suffrage. After Czechoslovakia seceded from Austria-Hungary in 1918, the constitution of the newly formed state granted women their right to vote, also thanks to her efforts.

Photo: National Museum

In 1923 Plamínková founded the Women’s National Council, which brought together women’s associations of a liberal character and coordinated their activities. She also represented the Czech women’s movement in the international arena, which often brought posts in the leadership of international organisations. In 1925, at a congress in Washington, she was elected vice-president of the International Council of Women. She stayed in the United States for four months, lecturing to her compatriots about the new republic, visiting various institutions and meeting many people, for example in New York she met a former senator and future US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the same year, she took part in the parliamentary elections and won a seat in the Czechoslovak Senate, where she served until its dissolution in 1939.

Photo: National Museum

In September 1938, she wrote an open letter to Adolf Hitler in which she called him a dictator and defended President Edvard Beneš, whom Hitler had earlier publicly accused of lying. In the letter, she assured Hitler that she believed that the truth would prevail despite military superiority of the nazi army. At the very beginning of the war, Františka Plamínková, as a vocal defender of democracy and the values of the First Republic, was arrested and detained for several weeks by the Gestapo. The next arrest came in 1942 during the Heydrichiade, followed by imprisonment in the Small Fortress of Terezín. On June 30 she was executed at the firing range in Kobylisy in Prague.

Major milestones in
Františka Plamínková’s life

February 5, 1875

she is born

1895

she receives a decree as a teacher of town schools in Prague

1898

she passes exams to become a specialist teacher of physics, mathematics, art and calligraphy

1905

she co-founds the Committee for Women’s Suffrage

1907

she points out that the 1861 Electoral Code for the Bohemian Diet does not exclude women from passive and active suffrage

1912

she contributes to the election of a female candidate Božena Viková-Kunětická to the Bohemian Diet

July 1919

the law on the abolition of celibacy of female teachers is passed

April 1923

the Women’s National Council is founded, which brings together and coordinates women’s associations

1925

she attends the International Council of Women’s Congress in Washington, D.C. where she is elected a vice-president

November 1925

she is elected to the Senate

1931, 1932

she is the first Czech woman to speak at the League of Nations in Geneva at the Preparatory Commission for Disarmament Conference and a year later at the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments

1939

she travels to Sweden, Norway and Denmark

March 15, 1939

the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is established

September 1, 1939

she is arrested by the Gestapo for the first time

1897

she takes part in the 1st congress of Czecho-Slavonic women

1903

she co-founds the Women’s Club of Bohemia

November 1906

she gives a lecture at the Women’s Club of Bohemia on the modern woman

1908

she receives tenure as a teacher of the town school in Prague-Bubny

1918

establishment of independent Czechoslovakia

February 29, 1920

the law on the right to vote to the legislative assemblies for both men and women is passed

1924

she stops teaching

enactment of maternity leave for all women working in industry and services

1926

she speaks at the Paris Congress of the International Alliance for Women’s Suffrage

September 14, 1938

she writes an open letter to Adolf Hitler, in which she calls him a dictator

June 11, 1942

she is arrested for the second time by the Gestapo during the Heydrichiad, then imprisoned in Terezín

30 June 1942

she is executed at the firing range in Kobylisy in Prague

Speakers

The conference will bring together inspiring personalities from many fields. The individual presentations are always followed by a discussion opening up space for interaction.

Alice Koubová

Doc. Alice Koubová, PhD. et PhD. in her contribution focuses on research on social resilience in the Czech Republic. One of the outcomes of her research is a book of interviews with 15 personalities, which she worked on with literary documentarist Barbora Baronová, entitled Resilient Society. Between Powerlessness and Tyranny. The interviews open up themes of crisis, social change, systemic supports, coping strategies, social ties, values or culture, taking into account the theme of resilience, within the fields of psychology, economics, law, education, defence, media, care, ecology, social work, relations with minorities, misinformation, culture, and more. In addition to systemic protection of vulnerable and caring people, important factors in social resilience as the ability to navigate pro‑social and democratic adversity include social and political culture, the story that society tells about itself, and strategic communication that aims not to keep people in uncertainty and fear so that they are more controllable, but to inform them about resources and options for action.

Alice Koubová is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and a member of the Institute SYRI Steering Committee, where she leads the Resilience Systems Working Group. She is a member of the international research platform ResWell (Multi‑National Resilience & Wellbeing Research Collaboration) and Performance Philosophy.

Her research focuses on political psychology, relational ethics, resilience, subjectivity and performative philosophy. She often develops her research in active collaboration with public and cultural institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

She is the recipient of the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Award, the Otto Wichterle Prize, the Libellus Primus Prize and the Josef Hlávka Prize. She has published 5 monographs, edited 4 collective monographs and published over 50 scientific studies in prestigious publishing houses and journals. She actively collaborates with artistic groups and has co‑authored several theatre performances.

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