‘Steady Defender of Women’s Equality’ – V.M. Bilokonska in Women’s Movement of the beginning of the 20th century
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to study the contribution of V.M. Bilokonska to the development of the women’s movement, and its importance in changing the social status of women.
Scientific novelty. The significance of V. Bilokonska’s efforts in the formation of the women’s liberal movement in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, which consisted in uniting women for the sake of raising the level of education, mediation in employment, involvement of women in the public life of the city, giving them the opportunity to combine work and motherhood, is determined.
Conclusions. The activities of V.M. Bilokonska in Kharkiv Society for Spreading Literacy among People (1900-1910) and Kharkiv Society for Mutual Assistance of Working Women (1904-1910) are characterized. It is uncovered that the leading directions of V. Bilokonska’s work were information and educational activities, and employment of women, to which she gave a systematized, complex character. Those public initiatives did not correspond to the advanced feminist ideas of the beginning of the 20th century but were a continuation of the liberal movement aimed at helping women adapt to existing social conditions.
In an effort to spread and improve women’s education, including through the establishment of vocational courses, gymnasiums, and Higher Women’s Courses, the Society for Mutual Assistance of Working Women headed by V.M. Bilokonska tried not only to bring women out of the private environment but also to transform them into a competitive social group in the labor market. The establishment of the Labor Bureau, which provided intermediary services in employment, became a real step in helping women. Other initiatives of the Society, such as the establishment of an inexpensive kindergarten, which was supposed to free up women’s time and allow them to work, and an inexpensive canteen, capable of facilitating everyday chores, testify to the awareness of the need for social protection of women.
The work of V.M. Bilokonska in the Reference and Pedagogy Department of the Society for Spreading Literacy among People and as the Head of the Society for Mutual Assistance of Working Women proves the desire to combine own worldview, which was based on the awareness of the need to help the most vulnerable groups of the population, and the realization of her potential and initiative in essential social needs. V.M. Bilokonska’s initiatives in the field of information dissemination or establishment of the Labor Bureau were ahead of time, and her activities contributed to the consolidation of the women’s movement and the change in the status of women.
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