Adelheid Popp (1869–1939)

Adelheid Popp, née Dworschak, was one of 15 children born to an impoverished working-class family in Inzersdorf, Vienna, Austria. Her father was an alcoholic and violent. She was six years old when he died, and had to leave school at the age of 10 to help support the family. She worked briefly as a domestic worker, a seamstress' apprentice, and factory worker. As a teenager, she became interested in politics and began to read social democratic newspapers and literature. In 1889 she attended her first public meeting of the Social Democratic Workers Party, in which she became active. Two years later, she was the party's first female public speaker and official delegate. She campaigned for women's rights, including education, equal pay, and legal abortion. She became the editor-in-chief of the socialist women's newspaper, Die Arbeiterinnenzeitung. In 1893 she organized the first strike for women's clothing workers in Vienna. In 1894, she married Julius Popp, a colleague. Her autobiography, Die Jugendgeschichte einer Arbeiterin (The Autobiography of a Working Woman), appeared in 1909. She also wrote Haussklavinnen (Domestic Slaves), published in 1912. She was elected to the Vienna Council and then to the Austrian Parliament in 1919, and served until the early 1930s, devoting herself to women's issues and social legislation.