‘Proletarians of all countries – who washes your socks?’. This was the powerful slogan which launched the international feminist conference ‘Comrade Woman: The Women’s Question – A New Approach?’. As befitted its title, the event that took place in Belgrade’s Student’s Centre in 1978 indeed represented a new approach to the so-called ‘women’s question’ in socialism, and marked the beginning of a second wave of feminism in Yugoslavia. Despite the immense political, social and cultural importance of women's and feminist movements in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, there has not yet been any comparative study of these movements following the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
In answer to the research question, ‘What are the most salient ideological and organisational characteristics of women's movements in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia in the period from 1978 until 2013?’, I propose a cross-national and cross-temporal analysis of Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian women's movements. The presentation will be structured as follows: the first part will describe the major ideological and organisational characteristics of the emerging women's movement in Yugoslavia in the late 1970s. The subsequent three sections will describe the movements on the territories of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia from 1991 until 2013 following the collapse of the common state. The analysis of each movement will reference the socio-political context (access, allies, the political system, the degree of repression); the base of the movement (organisations, networks, initiatives, actors, parties); and campaigns and discourses (repertoire, self-representation, type of action). Lastly, I will use a cross-country analysis to highlight the most salient differences and similarities, and we will conclude by offering recommendations for further research.
