Hatred of Women and Contempt for Women

By Grete Meisel-Hess

Grete Meisel-Hess (1879-1922) was one of the most provocative feminist voices of early twentieth-century Central Europe. Born in Prague and raised in Vienna in a wealthy Jewish family, she emerged as a fierce critic of the misogynistic pseudo-science that shaped public discourse in her era. Her 1904 work Hatred of Women and Contempt for Women is a bold, incisive response to Otto Weininger's 1903 Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character), dismantling its claims with sharp wit, psychological insight, and a modernist urgency that anticipates the coming wave of Expressionism.
Meisel-Hess wrote at a moment when debates about sexuality, emancipation, and social reform were exploding across Europe. Her essays and fiction challenged double standards, exposed the social roots of sexual morality, and advocated for women's autonomy long before such ideas gained mainstream traction. As a Jewish woman navigating the male-dominated intellectual world of Vienna and Berlin, she understood deeply how systems of exclusion reinforce one another-and she fought them with uncompromising clarity.

This new translation brings Meisel-Hess' forgotten polemic to contemporary readers with fresh immediacy. Hatred of Women and Contempt for Women is not only a rebuttal to Weininger; it is a vivid document of feminist resistance, cultural transformation, and the intellectual ferment that helped shape modernity. For readers interested in women's history, Expressionism, Jewish intellectual life, or the roots of modern feminist thought, this book offers a rare and electrifying rediscovery.

Supplemented by "What Interest Does the Women's Movement Have in Solving the Homosexual Problem", a speech given in 1904 by Anna R ling Theo Anna Spr ngli].

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HFGXMB37
• ISBN13: 9798191733128
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"