Clara Jaschke

Clara Berta Anna Jaschke (either 1848 or 1858 - 3 January 1912) was one of Prussia and Germany's first women railway workers and a campaigner for women's rights.

Early life Clara Berta Anna Jaschke, known as Clara (sometimes spelled Klara), was born in either 1848 or 1858 in Schweidnitz, Silesia, (now Świdnica in Poland) the daughter of a stationmaster employed by the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company, which meant that she was familiar with railway work from a young age. Women were only allowed to work in certain support roles on the German railway at the time. From 1870, unmarried women (often from railway families) were employed as telegraphists and ticket sellers. The pay for women was lower than for men, and women were only paid and employed on a daily basis, rather than on a proper contact. and 1875 Women were not allowed to work directly on the railways, being relegated to lower grade, day rate office based work. The low pay of a daily worker was insufficient for the women colleagues to live on. Jaschke felt that this low pay and insecure employment rights in comparison to men's pay for equal work was unfair, and she began a campaign for equal rights between men and women.

In 2018, the Pro-Rail Alliance introduced an annual Clara Jaschke Innovation Award, which recognises achievements by women in the rail industry.

In 2022, the council of Bad Zwischenahn in Lower Saxony decided to name a new road after Clara Jaschke in a commercial area of the Bauerschaft Aschhausen not far from the Kayhauserfeld service station on the Oldenburg-Leer railway line.