A Liberated Voice: Tony Sender's Autobiography and the German Left's Discourse of "The Woman Question" during the Interwar Period

Abstract

The following paper discusses the autobiography of Tony Sender, an active female politician in the Weimar government in Germany between World War I and World War II. The autobiography entitled Tony Sender: The Autobiography of a German Rebel, focuses on Sender's participation in the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) (SPD). After placing Sender in the larger socialist political scene of the interwar period, the paper argues that Sender's self-representation as an equal active socialist contradicts other female roles offered to women at the time and suggest that lingering patriarchal structures limited women's activity in the Germany's new democratic society. The article serves as further support for recent research into the limitations male-dominated political activity placed on early 20th century German women, despite their constitutional equality.