Original scientific paper
THE FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN'S PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CROATIA DURING THE INTER-WAR PERIOD (1918-1941)
Dubravka Peić-Čaldarović
; Croatian History Museum, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Up to the Second World War, most women worked at low paying, low skill agricultural and industrial jobs. But women could also be found working in higher qualified professions, especially those that were traditionally allotted to them in society, such as those in the fields of education, social welfare, nursing, and the creative arts. Organizations concerned with women's emancipation reflected the different socio-economic and educational level of working women. Such organizations as the professional union of healthcare workers, for example, declared themselves to be apolitical but they became increasingly involved in union activities and politics in the period before the Second World War. On the other hand, other working women's organizations kept their demands strictly limited to economic or narrowly professional matters. According to the historiography, rural women who were poorer and less educated were subject to proletarianization in urban areas, at the same time, however, they had opportunities to participate in relatively creative activities. These activities went beyond the framework of their everyday domestic lives. For example, they worked at cottage industries and could sell these products at the market place, which supplemented domestic income. As a result, the emancipatory objectives of Croatian women from varied socio-economic backgrounds during the monarchical period had more in common than has been recognized thus far.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
214024
URI
Publication date:
4.3.1998.
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