herefore the
women teachers presented themselves to the provincial legislatures,
demanded an increase in salary, and, in spite of the opposition of the
male teachers, secured the increase by the law of 1891. In 1876 a society
devoted its efforts to the improvement of the girls' high schools, which
had been greatly neglected. In 1885 the women writers and the women
artists organized, their male colleagues having refused to admit women to
the existing professional societies. In 1888 the women music teachers
likewise organized themselves. At the same time the question of higher
education for women was agitated. In Vienna a "lyceum" class--the first of
its kind--was opened to prepare girls for entrance to the universities
(_Abiturientenexamen_). Admission to the boys' high schools was refused to
girls in Vienna, but was granted in the provinces (Troppau, and
Maehrisch-Schoenberg). Girls were at all times admitted as outsiders
(_Extraneae_) to the examinations held on leaving college
(_Abiturientenexamen_). In this way many girls passed the "leaving"
examination before they began their studies in Switzerland. Until 1896 the
Austrian universities remained closed to women. The law faculties do not
as yet admit women. The women's clubs are striving to secure this reform.
Those women that had studied medicine in Switzerland previous to 1896, and
wished to practice in Austria, required special imperial permission, which
was never withheld from them in their noble struggle.

In this way Dr. Kerschbaumer began her practice as an oculist in
Salzburg. However, the Countess Possanner, M.D., after passing the Swiss
state examination, also took the Austrian examination. She is now
practicing in Vienna.

As the Austrian doctors have active and passive suffrage in the election
to the Board of Physicians (_Aerztekammer_)[72] Dr. Possanner also
requested this right. Her request was refused by the magistrate in Vienna
because, _as a woman_, she did not have the suffrage in municipal
elections, and the suffrage for the Board of Physicians could be exercised
only by those doctors that were municipal electors.[73] Thereupon Dr.
Possanner appealed her case to the government, to the Minister of the
Interior, and finally to the administrative court. The court decided in
favor of the petition. It must be emphasized, however, that the Board of
Physicians favored the request from the beginning.

Women preachers and women lawyers are as yet unknown