Kristina JORGIĆ STEPANOVIĆ
Univerzitetski centar za interdisciplinarne i multidisciplinarne studije,
Univerzitet u Novom Sadu
Milica Đurić Topalović and the Woman Question in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Abstract: This paper discusses the views of Milica Đurić Topalović, one of the most prominent female socialists in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on the woman question. Her unjustly neglected works Woman and Politics and Woman through Centuries have been taken as examples of characteristic socialist discourses on women’s emancipation. Milica Đurić Topalović’s views greatly advance our knowledge about the relations between various women’s organizations in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the similarities and differences between their interpretations of the concept of emancipation and the solutions to the pressing issue of women’s suffrage
Key words: Milica Đurić Topalović, Woman Question, Women’s Movement, Feminism, Women’s Suffrage, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Summary
Current approaches towards the issues of women’s emancipation in Yugoslavia highlight the traditions which had preceded 1945 and the establishment of communism/socialism. The first notable feminist organization was the Society for Woman’s Enlightenment and Protection of Her Rights (Women’s Movement) founded in 1919. Its creation brings attention to the feminist landscape of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Although the main objective is the outline of the women’s demands and strategies, most notably within the feminist movement, attention should also be brought to those that were either opponents or allies of women’s emancipation. The works of Milica Đurić Topalović, one of the most prominent female socialists in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, enables better understanding of both the women’s position in the interwar Yugoslavia and the arguments used to promote women’s emancipation. Her works Woman and Politics and Woman through Centuries are great examples of not only the author’s views but also the Socialist Party’s discourses on the woman question. Furthermore, as the socialists and the communists were part of the same organization until the Vukovar Congress of 1920, her stances provide an important insight into the Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s attitude towards women’s emancipation in the following years.