ЖЕНЕ У ИМЕ НАЦИЈЕ: КОНГРЕС ЧЕШКИХ СЛОВЕНСКИХ ЖЕНА У ПРАГУ 1908. ГОДИНЕ
WOMEN IN THE NAME OF THE NATION: THE CONGRESS OF CZECH SLAVIC WOMEN IN PRAGUE, 1908

Summary/Abstract: In the context of nationalism and feminism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the paper examines the place, role, and meaning of Slavic identification advocated at the Second Congress of Czech Slavic Women, held in Prague in July 1908. The congress was attended by forty-six delegates, representatives from the Austro-Hungarian provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, parts of present-day Poland, Croatia, and Slovenia, as well as from Russia and Serbia. The event was organized by the Central Association of Czech Women, founded in 1897. Alongside it, more radical groups such as the Czech Women’s Club and the Committee for Women’s Suffrage were also active, placing greater emphasis on feminist demands. The women’s movement in the Czech Republic was ineclosely tied to the broader struggle for national emancipation in the Habsburg Monarchy, particularly to the political parties advocating Czech national rights in the Reichsrat in Vienna. The congress discussed topics that constituted the widest possible understanding of the field of women’s activity within a national context. The official program included: a review of women’s work in general and their future tasks; women as homemakers, women in the family; women in public work; women in social work; women in meritorious work; women’s education and women’s rights. Czech speakers were the most prominently represented. Some representatives such as Delfa Ivanić from Serbia, used the platform to describe the private-legal, economic and social position of women in their country. Belonging to the corpus of Slavic peoples was visually emphasized through the accompanying programs. A distinct Slavic female identity was affirmed in opening speeches by renowned female writers. In emotional speeches, Slavic sisterhood was mentioned, a notion also found in international women’s movements. The emotional intensity, rooted in the denial of national rights of women representatives from the Habsburg Monarchy or stemming from the unresolved national question was transformed into a specific construct of a broader female Slavic identity. Judging by official reports, the Second Congress of Czech Slavic Women in Prague in 1908 stood at the intersection of feminism, pan-Slavism, and individual nationalist movements in both concept and reception.

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