Српски народни женски савез и Међународна алијанса за право гласа жена.
Serbian National Women’s Union and International Woman Suffrage Alliance

Excerpts from reports from the Alliance’s Congress held in London in 1909 and Stockholm in 1911

Summary/Abstract: The work represents a critical issue of parts of the reports about the participation of female representatives of the Serbian National Women’s Union at congresses of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance until the start of the First World War (London 1909, Stockholm 1911). The parts of the reports dedicated to Serbia indicate the manner in which Serbian women presented themselves within the international women’s movement, as well as the perception of the leadership of this feminist international organisation about Serbia and its movement for the emancipation of women. Participation within the international women’s movement differed from hitherto practice of presentation of Serbian women in the country and abroad. Women’s associations which constituted the Serbian National Women’s Union participated in international cultural events, world and Slavic exhibitions, where they presented themselves in the context of customary female gender roles (most often as keepers of needlework tradition). This representative plan was one of the most significant features of their peacetime public visibility on the eve of the First World War. However, congresses of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance faced Serbian female representatives with completely different challenges – public appearances in a foreign language, speeches and discussions about topics containing social criticism, including ambitions and expectations of the Alliance’s leadership that active struggle for the improvement of women’s position was led in each country. It is noticeable that at the beginning they tried to use the international scene as a national political platform, but were prevented. Their later appearances conformed to the objectives and interests of the movement.

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