[1] Accounts of Mayreder's family, social atmosphere, and insights to her personality are recorded in a series of diary entries, the first of which is dated 28 April 1873; she was fourteen at the time.

Her autobiographical diary entries covered a range of topics from her every-day life to her feelings on war.

This act of defiance was not only a social statement, but a personal dig against her mother, who believed it was a woman's duty to derive her sense of self from her husband and sons.

[1] Her exposure to people such as these allowed Mayreder to come in contact with those who acknowledged the discrepancies between men and women in society and encouraged her to pursue involvement in the sociological issues she believed in.

This was a collection of essays that refuted quotes from "accepted" philosophers and established authoritative support, a style of writing that was inspired by the ideals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During World War I Mayreder published articles and reports in which she advocated a pacifist approach in various media outlets, including Neues Frauenleben and Internationale Rundschau.

[5] Furthermore, Mayreder founded the Kunstchule for Frauen und Madchen (Art School for Girls and Women) with Olga Prager, Marriane Hainisch, and Karl Federn.

[8] She met Rudolf Steiner (with whom she entered into a long and extensive correspondence) through women's rights campaigner Marie Lang.

Rosa formed a warm friendship with Wolf and developed one of her stories as the libretto for his opera Der Corregidor,[10] which was first performed in Mannheim in 1896.

It was also in Lang's circle that Rosa met Marianne Hainisch with whom she worked in the Austrian women's association "Allgemeiner Österreichischer Frauenverein", which was formed in 1902.