ABSTRACT
The legal rights women had gained after World War I, contrasted sharply with their political and economic options; moreover, substantial rights were undone by the Austrian authoritarian government in 1934. The status and the position of women within a national economy mirror their position in the society as a whole. More than other information, economic data suggest the options women and men have in a given society, and bring to light gender inequality. The inequality between Austrian men and women is revealed mostly in their economic relationship. The social democratic women stayed firm to the Social Democratic Party and accepted more limitations than women of the autonomous movement did. The lower social classes often support a traditional family model, whereas the upper and the upper middle class are partly off-loading housework and care responsibilities on lower class women. A stronger influence of women only led to a slight increase the involvement of women in the upper-echelons of the union.
