Yugoslav Women in Politics

Abstract

According to its normative principles, the delegate system ensures the working people's direct presence in the assemblies (communal, provincial, republican, and federal), as well as a functional linkage of short- and long-term interests of individual sections of society and of society as a whole. This lends special interest to women's participation in the delegate system. This article examines the findings of research conducted in Slovenia, particularly concerning the special social status according to women active in the delegate system, the nature of their participation, as well as their attitudes to active political participation. Now that Yugoslavia is undergoing a crisis, pressure is brought to bear on women to yield their places on the labor market to men and—although the principle of sex equality is given much prominence in the country's life—to concentrate on traditional women's roles.