New women in a new state

Abstract

This paper intends to explain not only the origins of the modern woman in a changing political and social environment in a newly established state after First World War, but also the development of ideas formulated by women in their intellectual endeavors, through their influence and criticism, and their hopes and expectations of the new state. It focuses on Croat and South Slavic spaces in the process of unification of the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 (called the Kingdom of SHS, Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929). This period saw the unprecedented involvement of women in political and public life with the aim of achieving political and legal equality. Examining the complex structural changes that took place amidst great economic, social, and political commotion, the paper encompasses the personalities and ideas that challenged the established understanding of the status of women and analyses the ways and forms of some of their social and public actions. The most important among them was Zovka Kveder Demetrović, a journalist and editor of a prominent women’s magazine Ženski svijet/Jugoslavenska žena [Women’s World/The Yugoslav Woman] whose advocacy of women’s issues is the focus of this paper. It informs the reader on new possibilities of understanding the intellectual and political contribution of women, and identifies the most important, if generally unknown, women authors from the region whose work contributed to the general advancement of women’s issues in the aftermath of First World War.