Serbian Women’s Movement in Austria-Hungary from the Second Half of the Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries: Ideology, Organisations, and Leaders

Abstract

This article explores the development of feminist ideology and the formation of the Serbian women’s movement in Austria-Hungary in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The emergence of the movement can be explained by the views put forward by the leaders of the Serbian political youth group Omladina, who outlined the role of women in nation-building processes, as well as in the formation of Serbian identity and the achievement of sovereignty in particular. The leaders of the socialist and liberal movements used the principal Serbian female images — assistants and mothers — for ethno-political mobilization. The image of the mother was of major importance for preserving a Serbian identity under the Habsburg rule, in the face of the threat of assimilation after the Compromise of 1867. The participation of women in solving national problems and their social importance led to the dissemination of feminist thinking and the subsequent emergence of the women’s movement. The article suggests that Draga Dejanović (1840–1871) and Milica Tomić (1859–1944) played an important role in this development. It was in the early 1870s that Dejanović advocated equal access to secondary and higher education and developed the idea of “enlightened motherhood”, which encouraged liberal figures of the national movement to defend the interests of women. In addition, mono-ethnic women’s groups pursuing humanism and education were established, providing women from privileged social strata with culturally acceptable means of participation in the public life of the Serbian community in Austria-Hungary. The Serbian women’s movement had undergone a significant ideological evolution perpetuated by the magazine Žena (“Woman”) and its editor-in-chief Milica Tomić. The article suggests that Milica Tomić initiated a realignment of the movement away from purely national goals and towards greater emancipation both on a social and a legal scale.