CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Grubački, Isidora |
|---|---|
| Title | Political Transformation of Interwar Feminisms: The Case of Yugoslavia |
| Summary | This dissertation focuses on the changes and transformations that Yugoslav feminism experienced during the interwar period, which was marked by political instability, the Great Depression, the crisis of liberal democracy, and the rise of ultranationalism and fascism. The main objective is to examine how feminists organized and conceptualized feminism during this time. The research is guided by three key questions: the role of domestic and international political contexts in shaping Yugoslav feminisms, the extent of cooperation and political alliances within Yugoslav feminism, and the main ideas and concepts of feminist political thought in the interwar period. The dissertation aims to contribute to three historiographical strands. Firstly, it addresses the prevailing binary division between "bourgeois feminism" and "proletarian women's movements" in Yugoslav historiography on women's movements and feminisms during the interwar period. Secondly, it engages with the broader international historiography on interwar feminisms. Lastly, it situates the story of interwar feminisms in Yugoslavia within the historiography of political history during that period. The dissertation is organized into five chapters. The first chapter explores the history of the Alliance of Women's Movements (AŽP) and argues that "cultural" Yugoslavism was the main ideology of Yugoslav feminists. The second chapter examines Yugoslav women's participation in the Little Entente of Women and highlights their perception of it as a feminist organization. The third chapter focuses on Yugoslav women's involvement in the Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme (CMF), placing the history of the AŽP in the context of the Popular Front alliances against war and fascism. The fourth and fifth chapters delve into the political transformation of interwar feminisms by analyzing the changing meanings and uses of the concepts of feminizam (feminism) and novi feminizam (new feminism) and exploring the approaches to peasant women. The study reveals that interwar feminisms were closely intertwined with both the domestic and international political contexts. Rather than being shaped by interwar political developments, feminists actively built their movement in response to the volatile political climate. They did so by building alliances, across ethnic-divides, across political (primarily communist-liberal) divides, and through international organizations. The dissertation also argues that the 1930s were not a period of crisis or demise of feminisms, but rather a time of significant continuity and change in terms of organizing, feminist agendas, and conceptual frameworks. |
| Supervisor | Trencsényi, Balázs; De Haan, Francisca. |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/grubacki_isidora.pdf |
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