THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN: INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES AND NATIONAL PRACTICES IN 19th–CENTURY SERBIA AND IN YUGOSLAVIA

SERBIA AND THE BALKANS: THREE CENTURIES OF EMBRACE WITH EUROPE,  [pp. 355-382]  

AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И): Ivana Pantelić

 

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DOI: 10.46793/7494.189.355P

ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:

This paper sketches segments of the history of women’s emancipation in Serbia in the second half of the 19th century and Yugoslavia. The text addresses the development of the women’s struggle through women’s and political organizations over a period of more than a century. The main goal is to present the emancipatory processes with an emphasis on the socio-cultural influences from Western Europe and Russia, which were an integral part of the formation of the feminist movement in Serbia and Yugoslavia. The history of women’s emancipation in Serbia is intertwined with various ideological influences. The pioneers of the history of women’s emancipation and feminism in Serbia were the first Serbian socialists, led by Svetozar Marković. The paper presents his hybrid concept of feminism, in which the ideas of Western liberal thought and Russian socialism were dominant. The second generation of Serbian socialists, from the early 20th century, was influenced by German socialists and their teachings on gender equality. The period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia is presented from the perspective of liberal feminists and their transnational and international networks. The paper also discusses the Soviet influence on pre-war women communists. The period of socialist Yugoslavia is presented through the Soviet concept of “emancipation from above” or state emancipation, but also through New Feminism, embodied in the generation of feminists born after World War II and coming of age during the transformative 1960s. New Feminism was fully grounded both theoretically and practically in Western European and Anglo-American second-wave feminism.

KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:

feminism, women’s emancipation, socialism, internationalism, transnationalism, communism, Serbia, Yugoslavia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT / ПРОЈЕКАТ:

This research has been supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Ser- bia, project no. 7747152, Cultural Transfer Europe-Serbia from the 19th to the 21st century – CTES.

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