Tobacco Industry Changing Lives: Women Workers at the Turn of the 20st Century

Abstract

Tvornica Duhana Rovinj (TDR) – the Tobacco Factory in Rovinj is one of the first industrial plants in modern Croatia. More than a century-old tradition of cigarette production has enabled the TDR to impose itself on the world market and to continue its successful business. TDR has also established a particular cultural and social identity transmitted by its workers, the Tabacheine (women workers) in particular. In 1872 the decision had to be made whether the factory should be built in Koper (modern Slovenia) or Rovinj. An abundant female labour force was the crucial reason why the factory was built in Rovinj. Ever since then, women’s everyday life has been turned upside down. High wages and respectability achieved by working in the Factory have, for all intents and purposes, created a new social group. Men were not the exclusive providers for the family and they also lost their exclusive right to choose their spouses. Based on historical documents and interviews with interviewees from Rovinj and its surroundings, the paper retraces the development and changes in this small community; ethnic, social and gender differences generated by the development of a specific industry which is situated into a larger social and historical context enabling comparison with other societies involved in cigarette production. Thus the aim of the paper is to detect possible cultural and social patterns or unique examples of women’s emancipation. Furthermore the paper traces the significance of different aspects of remembrance, pointing to possibly idealized visions of the past.