A short history of women's rights & achievements in Luxembourg

(CS) In the run-up to International Women's Day on March 8, wort.lu/en interviewed women in Luxembourg from a variety of sectors about anything from being a working mum to what needs to be done to better support women in the Grand Duchy.

As the first of a series of articles to be published between March 3 and March 8, we have put together a timeline of women's rights and achievements in Luxembourg in a nutshell.

Women start playing bigger role in politics

• 1911: The first secondary schools for girls open in Limpertsberg and Esch/Alzette. While the schools still offer a differing curriculum from the boys' schools, they mark a first step towards wider access to education for girls in Luxembourg.
• May 8, 1919: In a parliamentary vote, Luxembourg adopts equal voting rights, allowing women to vote and run for office. This places the Grand Duchy among the first countries in Europe to give women the vote.
• October 1919: Four women run in the 1919 elections and Luxembourg's first female MP, teacher Marguerite Thomas-Clement, is voted into office. She will remain the only female MP until 1931, after which the parliament remained all male until the 1960s.
• 1922 – 1923: Luxembourg women make increasing forays into the professional world. In 1922, Marcelle Dauphin becomes Luxembourg's first practising dentist, followed in 1923 by first female GP Louise Welter. Also in 1923, Marguerite Welter is the first lawyer to join the national Chamber of Lawyers.

Conservative years for Luxembourg women

• 1924: Lory Koster is the first female athlete to represent Luxembourg at the Olympic Games. She secures sixth place in the 200-metre breast stroke in Paris.
• 1929: Women in Luxembourg celebrate International Women's Day for the first time, 18 years after its official foundation.
• 1930s: The 1930s mark a largely conservative period. Women are not allowed to work outside of the home without their husband's permission, open a bank account, sell, buy or manage goods. Only the father has legal rights to a couple's children. Husbands have the right to open their wife's mail and adultery by women is punishable with a prison sentence, while male adultery carries a fine, only if the husband and his mistress met in the marital home. Women who marry a foreign national have to give up Luxembourg citizenship.
• 1937: Simone Lutgen becomes the first woman to be awarded the “Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe” art prize for her wood work sculptures.
• 1940s: In the 1940s a series of women's organisations spring up, fighting for more equality, such as equal pay. However, the advancement of women's rights largely stalls on a political level until the 1960s.

Things get moving in the 1960s and '70s

• August 30, 1958: Luxembourg cyclist Elsy Jacobs wins the first ever women's Road World Championships. Later that year she breaks the women's hour record, which will stand for 14 years.
• 1965: After 34 years of an all-male parliament, Astrid Lulling becomes the first female MP.
• 1967: By law, Luxembourg grants equal pay to women and men.
• 1968: Co-education is introduced in Luxembourg schools.
• 1969: Madeleine Frieden-Kinnen becomes the first female minister in Luxembourg, taking on the post of Minister for Family, Youth, Social Solidarity and Health, as well as being Minister for Culture and Religious Affairs.
• 1972 – 1975: A series of laws further promotes equality between men and women, such as new laws on the rights and obligations of marriage partners, divorce, as well as the protection of pregnant women and mothers in the workplace.

Government promotes women

• 1981: Due to a new law it is forbidden to discriminate against women or men when hiring staff.
• 1986: Women in Luxembourg can now join the armed forces.
• 1989: The first state-run institution on women policies, the “Service de la promotion et de la condition féminine”, is established as part of the family ministry.
• 1995: Under new Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, a ministry for the promotion of women is created.
• 1999: Parental leave is introduced in Luxembourg for both parents by minister for the promotion of women Marie-Josée Jacobs.

Laws cause controversy

• 2005: The law for the giving of names is changed, allowing parents to give their children either the mother or the father's surname. Previously, children were automatically given the surname of the father.
• 2009: In the last parliamentary elections, female representation reached 25 percent for the first time, marking a step forward but showing that gender parity is far from achieved.
• 2012: Several laws aimed at improving the situation of women in Luxembourg caused protest among women's rights organisations. Changes to domestic violence laws were seen as a step backward, offering more protection to the offenders than the victims. While abortion was legalised for pregnant women in their first trimester, a second mandatory counselling session was seen as patronising by several organisations.
• February 14, 2012: Luxembourg joins the international One Billion Rising movement, staging a dance flashmob as part of a global campaign aiming to raise awareness against violence towards women.