Women and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945
- Book Review,
by Barbara Jancar-Webster
American Historical Review, February 1992
"...Trenchant, well-written, and thoroughly researched...."
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Women and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. By Barbara Jancar-Webster. "A useful introduction to a fascinating subject...."
Book Description
The participation of women in the Yugoslav National Liberation Movement is one of the most significant events in modern history. In no other country in the world have women played such a decisive role in the achievement of victory over an occupying enemy and the creation of a Communist state. Women and Revolution In Yugoslavia is the first book in English on women's role in the Yugoslav partisan movement of World War II. It is based on research in primary sources in Yugoslavia and on the author's interviews with Yugoslav women who fought in the war. The book examines the various functions that women performed in the fight against fascism and German occupation--as soldiers, as members of the Yugoslav Communist Party, and as part of the effort to provide support to those on the front lines. It also traces the evolution of the woman's movement and analyzes women's postwar status. Many women partisans view their participation in the war as the decisive factor in the liberation of all Yugoslav women, as having opened the door to their equal participation with men in the building of the new Yugoslavia. But at the end of the 1970s, a new generation of Yugoslav women began to challenge these assumptions of emancipation, calling for radical changes in existing social values and institutions and an end to the patriarchal order. Jancar-Webster reconciles these radically different positions into a realistic picture of the gains made by women through their participation in the war.
From the Back Cover
About The Series: The history of the twentieth century has been marked by frequent revolutions and mass popular resistance to oppressive, dictatorial regimes. Although much has been written about these conflicts, with rare exceptions, the actors considered in each drama have been almost exclusively male. To redress this gender bias, the Women and Modern Revolution Series examines women's role, as well as the function of sex/gender systems, in the revolutionary process. Each volume addresses the causes, social components, ideologies, organizations, goals, and results of revolution but also answers such questions as: What is gender-specific about revolution? Does revolution mean different things to men and women, and if so, why? What motivates women to become involved in collective rebellions? What are their contributions and expectations? How are women changed by their involvement? And finally, how does gender interact with other historic forces to determine the outcome of a revolutionary movement? Each volume in the series discusses these themes within the framework of a particular country's unique history and culture and traces the growth of feminist consciousness in that nation.
About the Author
Dr. Barbara Jancar-Webster is a professor of political science at the State University of New York, Brockport. She is the author of Women Under Communism (Johns Hopkins University Press), Czechoslovakia and the Absolute Monopoly of Power (Praeger), and Environmental Management in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia (Duke University Press).
Excerpted from Women and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941-1945 (Women and Modern Revolution Series) by Barbara Jancar-Webster. Copyright © 1990. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter 3...Conclusion How can the role of women as fighters, and the impact of this role upon the consciousness-raising process, be fairly assessed? The data and interviews indicate that women sought the role of fighter as indicative of higher status, commitment, and adventure. When they were admitted into the partisans, they proved excellent, dedicated fighters, full of courage and daring. For the women active in the prewar Communist underground, admission was nine-tenths of the battle. The prewar programs both of the women's movement and of the Communist Party demanded that women be permitted to perform male roles. The male role par excellence was that of the warrior. Thus, the older generation of urban-born women Communists accepted woman's fighting role as proof that the program had been achieved. For the younger generation of peasant women, the wartime warrior role represented both a continuation of a valued patriarchal tradition and an uprooting from this tradition in the Communist leadership's insistence on the equality myth translated into specific norms of conduct. This insistence expanded the women's sense of personal worth, giving them a perception of equality never before experienced. For both generations, then, the role of soldier represented the culmination of the first stage of consciousness-raising in the scheme of Gerda Lerner. For the Party leadership, on the other hand, the woman warrior represented the unique point of women's emancipation in Yugoslavia. The Party's androcentric vision allowed women admission to the most exclusive male role but could extend no further. The above analysis is in no way intended to minimize the role of the woman fighter in the National Liberation Struggle or to cast doubt on her contribution. On the contrary, it suggests that perhaps the hierarchical organization of the military and the total demands of obedience on the battlefield may be an ideal arena for women to achieve a sense of self as competitors for male roles, but an inappropriate theater for women to achieve a sense of self as women. Through their participation in the partisan forces, Yugoslav women proved to the world that women could fight as soldiers in a modern war as well as or better than men. The last words of a Montenegrin woman partisan before her death before a German firing squad, as recalled byVladimir Dedijer in his memoirs, encapsulate the partizanka's place in history. "I am proud to follow a man's footsteps. From my blood shall liberty spring." Inspiring as these words are, they militate against women thinking and acting in a woman-centered world, where self-realization is not predicated on identification with male roles. It is significant that the legend of the woman partisan, bound up as it is with Yugoslavia's fight for freedom during the Second World War, has been able to dominate the definition of women's liberation in Yugoslavia for over forty years. Only now is a new generation of women beginning to look critically at that legend from a woman-centered perspective to set it in its proper context.
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