Spotlight Karen Swartz - Gender, Authority, & the Anthroposophical Society: A Curious Case Study

Karen Swartz (Åbo Academy University) 

Interview Highlights: 

Karen shares some of her preliminary research findings regarding four women - Marie Steiner von-Sivers, Ita Wegman, Edith Maryon, and Judith von Halle (not three as I mistakenly mention in the interview) - all deeply involved within the Anthroposophical Society over the past decades and in the present day. While doing research for her PhD, Karen found that narratives surrounding these influential women were often curiously different in nature than those surrounding men. Additionally, their efforts were often not mentioned, or if they were, they were downplayed, as if to suggest the women involved did not play a pivotal, leading role in the work of the Society. She has now started a new project to explore this new area in greater detail. 

Karen notes how the status of the women who were involved in personal relationships with Rudolf Steiner also declined when they were no longer "favored" by him. Dr. Manon Hedenborg White's term "proximal authority" is referred to in this case, and Karen explains how she sees this perspective playing out in her case study. We also discuss how Judith von Halle's claims to Steiner's authority has caused upset within the Society, and the problematic response of the group to her attempts to forge her own autonomous path (that differed from how the group responded to men making similar claims). 

This discussion highlights an important issue of how women's roles/efforts/works are often marginalized and minimized as compared to men's, and how this case study can open up further important discussions. For example, why are these women spoken about as if they aren't fully autonomous, capable adult women as their male counterparts are (with reference to the women being referred to as 'helping angels'). What are the larger implications of this case study with regard to gender and authority? 

Theme music: Stephanie Shea