USSR / YUGOSLAVIA A women's movement in an embattled nation
AT PRESENT it is difficult to
•write about the situation of women in Slovenia, and even harder to write about their situation in Yugoslavia as a whole, especially if we try to look at women as a single united group over and above the existing differences. Furthermore, the political landscape of Slovenia and Yugoslavia has changed fundamentally in recent years, and there are almost no serious studies of the impact of these changes on women.
changes on women.
Before talking about recent developments I want to make a few
Important historical points.
More than 40 years of Socialism and the much stronger weight of tradition are very important for a "small nation" such as Slovenia. It would be useless speculation to decide which is the more important for our theme. The conditions that determine the situation of women in the postwar period were created by a specific mixture of tradition and Socialism. They are hard to understand from outside. Nonetheless I will try to do the impossible. VLASTA JALUSIC
T WAS NOT so long ago here that
- from the legal point of view - almost all Slovenian women shared the situation of Austrian women. Although it was somewhat worse than in Austria, both were subject to Viennese law until the break-up of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. Furthermore the earliest feminist initiatives in Slovenia were in every respect under the influence of the Austrian feminist organizations (for example, the radical women's movement around the turn of the century).
There have been women's organizations and women's unions in Slovenia since the 1870s, but feminism did not have a direct or important influence on the majority of Slovenian women. Despite some individual cases where feminist ideas had a public impact, there was no mass women's movement. This was true even in 1901 when the radical feminist periodical Slovenka was appearing in Trieste and the Social Democrat, Karel Linhart — one of the few men who at that time took the side of women — promoted the writer Zafka Kveder as the leading figure of Slovene feminism. There were many reasons why the Slovene women's movement at the turn of the century could not achieve a wider resonance. However, I believe that it would be true to say that the so-called "need for national 13 unity" was one of the basic factors. This
YUGOSLAVIA argument was deployed more than once to push the specific interests of women into the background. In the "psychic landscape" of the Slovene nation there is a very insidious and potent picture of the "woman-mother" Who appears very early on in our literature. The central feature of this "womanmother" is her readiness for self-sacrifice, that mostly serves to preserve national identity at the individual level. In the national fantasy, this generous and indestructible woman stands up as an imaginary protector against the external enemy. She is always at hand when national unity is needed. In this way, the difference between the sexes within the nation is exorcized. In times of danger the political leaders of the nation have sought to conjure up a closely-knit community, structured like a family.
An example of the liquidation of the demands of women into the "national interest" is to be seen at the time of the founding of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) in 1918. The new state registered a retreat with regard to women's rights in many fields, not only because women did not have the right to vote, but because many women, for example, teachers in Steerland, lost the right to vote that they had previously won in struggle. There was a danger that the old Serbian patriarchal family would spread throughout the whole territory of the kingdom.
### Apolitical and defensive attitude
The few historical studies of the position of women before the Second World
War give the overwhelming impression that these women almost always took an apolitical and defensive attitude including with regard to their own situation. The exceptions were periods of great danger.
This picture is certainly true if we look at things from the point of view of traditional historiography. But there are in fact also signs very early on of opposition amongst women, although, again, these did not result in a mass women's movement.
It is questionable whether we can take the mass women's organizations that were founded in the Second World War as exceptions. In my view, the basis of these was precisely the previously mentioned "women's duty" to sustain the roots of the nation. The Women's Anti-Fascist
League arose as a result of an agreement between several political currents in Slovenia, although it became a semiindependent organization of women workers under the control of the Communist Party.
The introduction of Socialism after four years of struggle against the occupation, which was also a kind of civil war, meant 14 that the CP seized power. On the one hand • Socialism brought about a definite break with tradition but not a real modernization of society. Quite the reverse: the self-management system could develop even on the basis of a non-modern society, in which there was neither civil society nor politics in the real sense. Thus, the old ways of thinking could thrive on a new basis.
In the new system, women obtained so-called "formal" rights, such as the right to vote and other forms of legal equality. However we have to remember that these had to exist without the rule of law and other political and human rights. In a state where everything that is not expressly permitted is forbidden, and where political freedom is labelled counterrevolution, the right to vote and the so-called "formal equality" mean very little. Furthermore, the suppressed traditions, connected with the general duty of women to work resulted in women bearing a double burden. Women devoted even more time to matters of survival and turned even further into private life.
Women as "revolutionary potential"
A feature of Socialism is also the fact that women are considered in the first place as "revolutionary potential", as "yeast". They are to "emancipate" themselves first of all as workers and pursue their rights only through their workplaces.
Women's organizations and political associations of women are prohibited, since they "split the working class" and introduce "bourgeois feminism". It was for this reason that the only women's organization in postwar Yugoslavia (the semi-autonomous Anti-Fascist Women's
League) was disbanded in 1953 - not because it had too much influence on women, but because in itself, as an organization defined as being "of women"
was a "danger" to social and political uni-
If it were possible to assess the situation of women according to how many of them are employed, Slovene women would be at the forefront. Almost every adult women is employed. However a closer view reveals a less rosy situation.
• Some 70% of assembly-line workers are women;
• Women's incomes are some 25% below those of men whatever their level of education or training;
• Women perform some 26 hours of housework each week;
• They take very little part in political life. This is especially true at the higher levels where the most important decisions are taken: here there are almost no women
(on average, under 10%);
• There are groups of women who suffer special discrimination, emigrant women from South Yugoslavia, or the so- called "non-Slovenes" of whom some have never finished primary school.
Although Slovenia in comparison with
International Viewpoint #180 • March 12, 1990 the rest of Yugoslavia, or even with some adavis even with some West European states, has good legislation concerning women, there have been no progressive policies on women for years. Furthermore, many leaders of the CP and of the opposition have started over the past few years to talk about women exclusively in connection with the declining birth-rate. Most of the media have followed suit, getting people worked up about the "dying out" of the Slovene nation. This has led to a situation in which for the first time there is a real national understanding amongst nearly all the forces involved in the struggle for power, to the effect that all insist that Slovenia has a pressing need for a "population policy".
In spite of the official "unacceptability" of "women's separatism" throughout Yugoslavia since the mid-1970s there have been an increasing number of feminist "explosions". In Zagreb since the mid-1970s there has existed a Women and Society Section that has introduced feminism on the academic level. There has also been a women's group in Belgrade, although it has only been active sporadically. However I think it would be true to say that Slovenia is one of the few socialist countries where feminist groups have appeared along with other opposition groups. Women's actions, to be sure, attracted public attention, but previously they also had a moral significance. But this only lasted up to the point where the national issue came to the forefront.
Great importance of existing women's groups
It has to be said that the women's groups 'formed after 1984 have not exactly drawn in vast numbers of women. Nonetheless their formation and their small actions are of great importance for the future.
They have achieved:
1. A real legalization of the idea of "feminism" which had previously been an insult. This is shown by the fact that the
CP and also the Socialist League have "recognized" that feminism has played an important role in history.
2. The establishment - and the confession - of an understanding that Socialism has proved in no way superior to "other systems" as far as the position of women is concerned.
The high point of feminist activity until now came in 1985-87. The first organization to be founded was the Women's
Group of the Slovene Sociological Society, followed by the Section and the Lila-
Klub in the Students cultural centre, where a lesbian group was also set up later. Actions against the introduction of compulsory military service for women, together with the peace group, in 1986; a big demonstration against nuclear power in Ljubljana in 1987 (the year of Chernobyl); different women-only open events (which caused a sensation among public
YUGOSLAVIA
DOST MAM
*, segue
Secisive a vestij
Porti
"mir reicht's"
"I've had enough!"
revolution and separatism.
Women - not only Albanian, but also Serb and Montenegrin women - become in this way a lever for Serb policy. An example of this is the way in which the question of rape has been presented in Kosovo not as an issue involving all women to the same extent but as a national issue. In Autumn 1987 Serb and Montenegrin women demonstrated because, allegedly, the Albanians were the main perpetrators of rape in Kosovo. (This was the first of the big Serb-Montenegrin demonstrations!)
Double punishment for
"nationalist" rape Not once was it mentioned that in Serbia rape is not a crime within marriage and it was also forgotten that in the Serbian legal code rape is defined twice accordine to opinion); various theoretical discussions and publications about feminism; the first meeting of Yugoslav feminists since the war in 1987; and the Women's Helpline founded this year are only some of the — in my view very impressive — activities of the feminists of Slovenia.
Even so, it is today clear that the initiatives mentioned above have now fallen away — only the lesbian group and the helpline are still functioning. There are, of course, several reasons for this, but I see the chief reason as being that these groups were set up in a period when they appeared to be not only feminist initiatives but also as a part of a broader alternative society to that of the bureaucratic power monopoly.
Women rejected by former allies
Feminism was, in this context, a form of struggle against Socialism, and feminists were at this time acceptable for oppositional groups which were in fact strongly traditionalist. But as soon — as in the case of the trial of Jansa and co.! - national feelings got the upper hand, women's groups were no longer acceptable as allies for many. And this is the direction in which things have continued. With the exception of the Greens and and the previous (now independent) CP youth organization, the political organizations of the opposition are arguing ever more strongly that women should be pushed back into the kitchen. Paradoxically, the reformist currents in the CP and Socialist Union have taken on some feminist demands such as the demand for quotas in the Spring elections; a Women's List has even been created by the Socialist Union.
There are an increasing number of signs that the latest conflict between Serbia and Slovenia will lead to an increase in the polarization between the CP and the opposition. The conflict with Serbia is the only means that the CP has of gaining legitimacy, since it can present itself as democratic and generally acceptable only in comparison with the Serb party. The more severe this conflict becomes, the better can the Slovene CP hold onto power and demand support.
For the opposition this means that it has to be united for the elections if it is to have a chance. But this means abandoning all the pluralism that was fought for so hard. It is clear what this means for women. It is no accident that the most important questions on which there are differences of opinion among the recently formed opposition groups are precisely questions such as the population policy, abortion and part-time work. Different traditions and levels of development
The differences inside Yugoslavia are as big as the differences between North and South on a world scale. It is only in Croatia that the socio-economic situation of women is comparable with Slovenia. Different traditions and levels of development mould the differences between Kosovo, where the majority of women are Albanian, and Slovenia. Since Kosovo is symptomatic of the general political and social situation of Yugoslavia, I will briefly look at the situation in this so-called "autonomous region"
In 1986 in Kosovo only 5.5% of women were working outside the home. Serbian women (Serbs make up only 12% of the population) were proportionally overrepresented. A very strong Islamic tradition and very strong laws governing morality affect the daily life of the Albanians. Demographers have claimed that the very high Albanian birthrate is the most important reason for the underdevelopment of Kosovo and Serb nationalism has scored its greatest successes by blowing this issue out of proportion. The birthrate has been presented as a threat to the Serb nation and a weapon of countercode rape is defined twice: according to the second definition, rape is a national offense, and the punishment for a "nationalist" rape is on average twice as high as for "usual" rape.
This background explains the theories that see in family and social policy a means for correcting the birth rate upwards or downwards. The idea that lies behind such theories is that in Yugoslavia there are too many Albanians, too few Slovenes or Serbs and so on. And it is clear with all these theories that, whatever the "level of democratization" in the republic in question, women are viewed solely as a means to an end.
In conclusion, we can say that Yugoslav women, with the worsening economic situation, are getting ever poorer and ever more burdened and have ever less to do with politics. It is as yet not possible to say if and how they will will become critical of the present national policies. When the free elections take place this year in Slovenia we will see whether women are going to support a national policy that intends to introduce so-called reforms at their expense. * 1. Ivan Jansa was a joumalist arrested along with others, including an army NCO, in June 1988, for "possessing military secrets". Jansa had written articles 15 criticizing the Yugoslav military. A massive campaign for their release ensued in Slovenia (See /V 147).