МЕЂУНАРОДНИ КОНТЕКСТ ОСНИВАЊА СРПСКОГ НАРОДНОГ ЖЕНСКОГ САВЕЗА 1906. ГОДИНЕ
THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SERBIAN NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNION IN 1906

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the influence of international feminist organisations – specifically the International Council of Women and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance – on the establishment of the Serbian National Women’s Union. Those were powerful organisations, attracting, through strong agitation, national associations in Europe, the US, and Australia as new members during the first decade of the 20th century to abolish the unequal private-legal, economic, social, and political position of women and men. The mission of dr Käthe Schirmacher who, as a representative of the International Alliance, held a series of lectures in the Balkan capitals, including Belgrade in 1906, encouraged the establishment of the Serbian National Women’s Union, and the re-examination of the position of women in the Kingdom of Serbia. The lecture that Schirmacher held at the Belgrade University was the first public lecture in Serbia about the women’s movement in the world, the aims of the emancipation of women, and feminism. The Union was joined by the existing humanitarian women’s associations – the Women’s Society, Princess Ljubica Society, Circle of Serbian Sisters, Motherhood Society, and the Society of Jewish Women. Although until 1909 the Union did not carry out any major activities, its leading female representatives worked, in the meantime, on defining the course of its work, objectives, and requirements. They dealt with changing the position of women in the state services, amending articles of the Serbian Civil Code which pertained to the inheritance of female children, the business capacity of married women, and the position of children born out of wedlock and their mothers. The Union joined the International Alliance at the congress held in London in 1909, and the International Women’s Council at the congress held in Stockholm in 1911.

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