ual suffrage, which does not as yet exist in
Austria, has its most enthusiastic advocates among the Socialists. With
the Austrian Socialists, universal suffrage means woman's suffrage
also.[76]

During the Liberal era two rights were granted to the Austrian women:
since 1849 the women taxpayers vote by proxy in municipal elections, and
since 1861 for the local legislatures (_Provinciallandtagen_).[77] In
Lower Austria the _Landtag_ in 1888 deprived them of this right, and in
1889 an attempt was made to deprive them of their municipal suffrage. But
the women concerned successfully petitioned that they be left in
possession of their active municipal suffrage. Since 1873 the Austrian
women owners of large estates vote also for the Imperial Parliament
through proxy. The Austrian women, supported by the Socialist deputies,
Pernerstorfer, Kronawetter, Adler, and others, have on several occasions
demanded the passive suffrage in the election of school boards and
poor-law guardians; they have also demanded a reform of the law of
organization, so that women can be admitted to political organizations. To
the present these efforts have been fruitless. When universal suffrage was
granted in 1906 (creating the fifth class of voters), the women were
disregarded. In the previous year a Woman's Suffrage Committee had been
established with headquarters in Vienna. It is endeavoring especially to
secure the repeal of paragraph 30 of the law regulating organizations and
public meetings. This law (like that of Prussia and Bavaria previous to
1908) excludes women from political organization, thus making the forming
of a woman's suffrage society impossible. For this reason Austria cannot
join the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

During the consideration of the new municipal election laws in Troppau
(Austrian Silesia), it was proposed to withdraw the right of suffrage from
the women taxpayers. They resisted the proposal energetically. At present
the matter is before the supreme court. In Voralberg the unmarried women
taxpayers were also given the right to vote in elections of the _Landtag_.
The legal status of the Austrian woman is similar to that of the French
woman: the wife is under the guardianship of her husband; the property law
provides for the amalgamation of property (not joint property holding, as
in France). But the wife does not have control of her earnings and
savings, as in Germany under the Civil Code. The father alone