Who was Käthe Leichter?

Käthe Leichter (née Pick, born 1895 in Vienna) is one of the pioneers of Austrian women’s politics and social policy. She studied law and political science in Heidelberg and Vienna between 1914 and 1918. In 1919 Käthe Leichter became a research assistant of Otto Bauer’s in the committee of nationalisation and a consultant for the Ministry of Finance. Between 1925 and February of 1934 she was head of the newly-founded department for women’s labour in the Vienna Arbeiterkammer (Chamber of Labour), where she was in charge of sociological investigations of women’s labour. She published a large number of newspaper articles, essays and books, e.g. Frauenarbeit und Arbeiterinnenschutz in Österreich (Women’s labour and women workers’ protection in Austria) in 1927; Wie leben die Wiener Heimarbeiter (Vienna’s homeworkers and their way of living) in 1928; Handbuch der Frauenarbeit in Österreich (Manual of women’s labour in Austria) in 1930; So leben wir... 1320 Industriearbeiterinnen berichten über ihr Leben (This is how we live... 1320 female industrial workers talk about their lives) in 1932. Käthe Leichter was also a member of the women’s committee of the Socialist party and the first woman to be elected a member of the works council of the Arbeiterkammer.
From February 1934 on, Käthe Leichter joined the banned revolutionary socialists, gave lectures and participated in information and intelligence services. In 1938 she was arrested and sent to the concentration camp of Ravensbrück in 1939, where she was killed in 1942.