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Founding of the Promotion for the Encouragement of Employment Qualification among Members of the Female Sex (Retrospective, 1891)

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On December 13, 1865, the great hall of the English House was packed with an assembly composed of men and women from the most intelligent classes of Berlin society. The question raised by President Lette had struck all circles of the population like a lightning bolt. It was vigorously debated in every family, in every social gathering, finding enthusiastic supporters and determined opponents; nonetheless, the sharpest point of ill will, prejudice, and ridicule had been blunted from the very start. For the person who had made himself the champion of the cause was too pure, too untouchable for any of that, and he also opened the assembly in his simple and heart-warming way.

“The matter recommends itself equally from the perspective of humanity and justice and from that of the national economy,” President Lette said after his words of welcome [ . . . ].

[The first constitutive meeting took place on February 27, 1866. The association numbered 300 members and was named: Association for the Promotion of Employment Qualifications among Members of the Female Sex.]

President Lette was able to open the meeting with the happy news that Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess had expressed her gracious support for the efforts of the association through a letter from her cabinet secretary, the Chamberlain Major von Normann, support even confirmed by a gift of 500 talers.

This was the first time that the name of the exalted woman had been mentioned in connection with the Association for the Promotion of Employment Qualifications among Members of the Female Sex and this name would henceforth remain most intimately interwoven with the association’s history. We find it on every page of this history, not only as the protectress, which she became at the request of the newly elected board, but also as a wise and far-sighted advisor, active helper, patroness, and friend who never lost sight of the places where the association was working during the happiest of times and the most terrible, always holding her protecting hand over them.

[ . . . ]

V. The Organization of the Association and Its Initial Years of Activity.

The statute of the association set the following goals, the pursuit of which was supposed to be given priority:

1. Removal of the biases and obstacles to the gainful employment of women; 2. Promotion of educational institutions to provide training for a commercial and industrial purpose; 3. Provision of industrial training opportunities and the mediation of relations between male and female workers, unless adequate provision has already been made for this purpose by existing institutions; 4. Establishment of places to sell and exhibit female handicrafts and artistic products; 5. Protection of self-supporting working persons of the female sex from discrimination in moral or economic terms, preferably through verification of suitable opportunities for housing and board.

[ . . . ]



Source: Geschichte der fünfundzwanzigjährigen Wirksamkeit (1866 bis 1891) des unter dem Protektorat Ihrer Majestät der Kaiserin und Königin Friedrich stehenden Lette-Vereins zur Förderung höherer Bildung und Erwerbsfähigkeit des weiblichen Geschlechts Beteiligte Personen und Organisationen. Festschrift for the 25th Anniversary of the Lette Association 1866–1891 [Lette-Verein, 1891], pp. 8–11, 17–18.

Translation: Thomas Dunlap

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