THE LIFE OF A WORKING-CLASS WOMAN

Františka Dočekalová – Women’s Labor and Grassroots Labor Activism at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

History is often still told as the story of great and powerful men. In this lecture, labor historian Boleslav Šmejkal will demonstrate that to understand our history, we also need a bottom-up perspective—one that examines people’s daily lives, their struggles, and their role in major social changes. Using the example of Františka Dočekalová, a female worker and trade unionist from Třebíč who lived at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century, he will outline the living conditions of people in industrial cities, the history of women’s labor, the history of labor activism, and how the “little” person could influence major events such as the founding of Czechoslovakia.

Boleslav Šmejkal is a labor historian. After completing his master’s degree at CEU in Vienna and Budapest, he is currently a doctoral candidate in modern social history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. He focuses primarily on the social and cultural history of Central Europe in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. His research topics include the history of labor, the history of the labor movement, workers’ sports and physical education, and the history of affordable housing. He is a member of the Tenants’ Initiative and the Random Radical soccer team.

The lecture will be held in Czech only.