Socijalizam i feminizam na Istoku: neobični slučaj Jugoslavije
The Unusual Case of Yugoslav Feminism: Feminism and Socialism in the East

Author(s): Adriana Zaharijević
Subject(s): History, Gender Studies, Sociology, Gender history
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: Eastern bloc; feminism; emancipation; periodicals; socialism
Summary/Abstract: The paper starts from the well-established assumption that there was no feminism in the Socialist Eastern Bloc. Taking the “Comrade Woman” conference (1978), which was most definitely a unique event, as a starting point, the paper will follow the ideas of emancipation and liberation in the way they are articulated in academic and literary periodicals, from “Comrade Woman” up to the late 1980s. The written material is grouped into three sections, according to how the “women’s issue” is treated. Re-reading these texts will help us understand whether feminism had a place in the dominant socialist discourse of the time, or whether it was treated as a mere import from the West. The thesis that will be represented is that the Yugoslav case is truly “unusual”, since it was the only country where feminism developed out of socialism, in the constant negotiation of “Western” definitions and socialist reality.

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