Women in Yugoslavia - Interwar Period

Interwar Period

At the end of the war it soon became clear that the women’s part in the war or resistance efforts would not be rewarded. “Almost all the laws regulating the status of women remained the same, and economic conditions, slow economic development, unresolved national relations and social problems, all contrived to make women the most disenfranchised citizens in the country.”

Women suffered the most from severe economic conditions. They worked for much less pay than their male counterparts, within factories and domestic service alike. For instance, “in the clothing industry and commercial services, women could expect to make a maximum of 50% of men’s wages.” While only a small number of women actually worked within industry, their conditions were so harsh that they were some of the most active in strikes.

From a political perspective, many women ascribed to the Communist mantra because it “was the only one that called and consistently strove for a political and social equality of women.” Women felt marginalized by religious and conservative ideologies that stressed the importance of the woman as a housewife and mother. The first Conference of Socialist (Communist) Women of 1919 symbolized the growing need that women felt for an entirely new political system. Interestingly, a large number of bourgeois feminists even began to subscribe to the Communist view “that the emancipation of women would depend on the radical transformation of society."