1948: Women Obtain Equal Cigarette Rations

Precarious supply chains after the Second World War meant that Austria’s population were issued with ration books, for example food stamps, for obtaining food and luxury goods, as well as fuel for heating. Ration books were also introduced for cigarettes. These had already been rationed in Austria’s western provinces since 1945 and in Vienna from January 1946. Men aged 18 to 65 were given a “M(en’s)-Smoking Card”, with which they got 40 cigarettes per month, and women aged 25 to 55 a “W(omen’s)-Smoking Card”, which entitled them to 20 cigarettes a month. This regulation adopted and magnified the gender discrimination that had predominated under Nazism: from March 1942, women over the age of 55 had only been given cigarette ration books if they could prove that they were smokers or that they had an unmarried son or husband serving in the German Wehrmacht (armed forces).

In 1947, in the now democratic republic, a complaint was filed with the Constitutional Court against this unequal rationing by two Viennese women: Frieda Schöberl, because as a woman over 55 she had not been given a “Smoking Card” at all, and Hildegard Suscher, because she had only received a “W-Smoking Card” and therefore only a half ration. Together, they each demanded an “M-Smoking Card”. The complaint was rebuffed by the Constitutional Court judges, under their president Univ-Prof Dr Ludwig Adamovich sen. The judges ruled that men had a greater need of tobacco products than women, and therefore the male sex was to be granted this privilege (“Cigarette Finding”).

However, as early as February 1946 this disparity in the distribution of cigarette rations had become a topic of debate in parliament. But while influential speakers acknowledged an awareness of the problem, women were placated to the effect that as soon as more tobacco could be imported, the disparity in rationing would be addressed. The supply of tobacco was finally secured through imports from abroad in 1948. And from 29 March 1948 onwards, women did receive the same tobacco ration as men. So while women had suffered disproportionately from the supply shortages and insecurities, the disparity was in fact ultimately eliminated.