Kristina Popova
Petar Vodenicharov
Snezhana Dimitrova
Women and Men
in the Past
KiistinaPopova
Petar Vodenicharov
Snezhana Dimitrova
WOMEN AND MEN
IN THE PAST
19 and 20 Century
Additional Teaching Materials for Secondary Schools
History sources collected by:
Umut Azak, Basak Tug (Turkey), Vojko Kunaver (Slovenia), Andrea Peto (Hungary); Mihai
Manea (Rumania); Violeta Achkoska (Macedonia), SoBJaDujmovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
Dhiiiiitri Bake (Albania); Kristina Popova, Petar Vodenicharov, Snezhana Dimitrova, Krasimira
Daskalova (Bulgaria); Milan Ristovic, Dubrovka Stojanovic (Yugoslavia)
Consultant:
Daniela Grabe
International Seminar for Balkan Studies and Specialization
South-Western University, Blagoevgradj 2002
Kristina Popova
Education
Work of Men, Work of Women
Politics and Emancipation
Petar Vodenicharov
Love and Marriage in Patriarchal Society
Love and Marriage in Bourgeois Society
Love and Marriage in Communist Society
Snezhana Dimitrova
Body
Ideal Woman?
Leisure and Beauty in Modem Times
Contents
Preface
Love and Marriage in Patriarchal Society
Body 19
Education 33
Ideal Woman? 45
Love and Marriage in Bourgeois Society 55
Work of Men, Work of Women 67
Leisure and Beauty in Modern Times 77
Politics and Emancipation 89
Love and Marriage in Communist Society 103
PREFACE
T
he purpose of the issue is to develop students' curiosity to the history of people living in
South East Europe, We approach the past not from the overall perspective of highest political
peaks but from the perspective of everyday life of common people.
Many of today difficulties of women and men to communicate and understand each other, to
find proper realization could be traced back into the past. We would like to teach young people
to be more sensitive to the presence of past attitudes, values and stories into their lives. We would
like to encourage them to seek better understanding of the others - the ones of opposite gender, of
different age and nation
Approaching the history of gender relations in South East Europe, we would rather try to
outline the common problems of people of Eastern countries than to present different national
traditions. We put greater emphasis on the things that connect men and women - love, profession,
and human dignity - than on the ones opposing them. Ideals of being "true" male and being
''true" female vary in different social groups and change in the course of time. We behave "like a
man" or 'like a woman" not so much because of our biological specifics but because of certain
social expectations and established traditions.
This book is the second one in the series of Additional history teaching materials. In 2001,
"Childhood in the Past" was published by M. Ristovic and D. Stojanovic (Association for Social
History, Belgrade). We would recommend also the academic volumes ''Childhood in South East
Europe", Belgrade-Graz, 2001 and "Gender Relations in South Eastern Europe" Belgrade-Graz,
2002. All of the books were developed as part of the project '' History and History Teaching in
South East Europe" coordinated by Kari Kaser (Department for Southeast European History,
University of Graz).*
We hope that our book will bring young people closer to the various life worlds of the past and
will contribute Lo better understanding and cooperation of the new generations of South East
Europe.
The Authors
*Book orders and furCher information: Project "History at^d History Teaching in SEE'\ Department For Southeast Euro-
pean History. University of Graz. Mozartgasse 3. A-SOIO, Graz, Austria: phone +43/316/380-2374, -2352, fax; +43/316/
380-9735, e-mail :dan(ela.3rabe@uni-gra^-at
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Love and Marriage
in Patriarchal Society
The w&cfding party was alt kin and vJHage event, Bulgaria, KovBchema, IdTOs
Family and Kinship
When we talk about marriage, we put
greater emphasis on the things that connect
men and women than on the ones separating
them - we talk about family, kinship, nation.
Christian religion rejects polygamy and affirms
the monogamous family - one husband and
one wife bonded together in sacred matrimony
forever. Later on, the monogamy model was
also accepted by people of other religions (Is-
iamic, Jewish) and in the 19'^ century it was
predominant on the Balkans,
But what we today perceive as a typical
family; a husband, a wife and two or three chil-
dren living in a separate home, having their
own budget and bonded by mutual love has
been an exception in the past. The family on
the Balkans in the still patriarchal 19 century
had been part of a bigger community - the
husband^s kin. Sometimes parents, their mar-
ried sons with their wives and children and
yet unmarried daughters used to live all to-
gether in one home and were working on one
farm (so called ''zadruga'^). The extended fami-
lies including several generations of direct and
indirect relatives were characteristic more of
the shepherd high-mountain regions of the
Balkans (Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo)
where they had survived the longest. The kin
solidarity helped the complex organization of
work, as well as the protection from outside
attacks and robberies.
Often extended families were transitional
9
phenomena, Manied sons especially after get-
ting children used to seek for separate settle-
ments and for their shares of the common land.
Father was obliged to help his eldest son to
build a house; only the youngest son was ex-
pected to live with his parents inheriting the
family house as a reward for his taking care of
the parents. Nevertheless living in separate,
most often neighboring houses kin related
families used to support each other. At the end
of 19 century,
the average
size of house-
holds in Bul-
garia was 5.6
people; fami-
lies in Serbia
were more ex-
tended - 8,6
people. A kind
of family indi-
vidualism was
typical for
Greece - new
niarried couple
used to move to
their own house,
which was of-
ten part of the dowry of the bride.
The choice of a spouse in the kin patriar-
chal family had not been so much personal
but mostly the decision of the parents: a lead-
ing factor in taking this decision had been the
diligence, amenability and wealth, all needed
for the mutual work and survivaL
Until World War I, a big part of the popula-
tion of South-Eastem Europe had been rural
and primarily agricultural (mostly in Serbia —
85% and least in Slovenia - 59%). The agri-
cuitural activities of men and women had been
strictly divided, yet connected and close. Tlie
mairied couples expected their children to help
them with the farming - 5-6 years old they
were already included in the aCTicultural work.
Scutari in 1901, Albania
With the exclamation "We have a boy-mower"
or ''We have a girl-harvester' the relatives used
to announce the birth of a baby boy or a baby
girk Families used to have a lot of children
(between 7 and 12) but there had also been a
high moitality rate because of the harder liv-
ing conditions and the lack of health care.
Romania and Yugoslavia had the biggest de-
mographic increase during the 1930s: 35-31
children of 1000. In 1910 average rural fam-
ily in Bulgaria
consisted of
6.1 members
and urban one
- of 4.5 mem-
bers.
The age to
get married had
been low, espe-
cially for the
girls: in Roma-
nia during the
1920s: 15
years of age for
the girls, and in
the wealthier
town families -
18 years of age.
But life expectancy had been low, as well: in
1900 men in Hungary were expected to live
for 36.6 years, and women a httlc longer -
38.2,
Patriarchal po wen, Common laws, Legis-
lation
Bali^an proverbs claimed that ''A woman
without a husband is like an unbridled horse'';
"Women are not worthy even to smell the
places w^ere men step". Men were granted
great power over women in the patriarchal
family: women after getting married had to
accept the husband's family name and place
of living; in case she had became a widow,
she was not allowed to inherit any part of the
10
Preparing the bridCj Albania, Pavie Yovanovich^ Croatian painter (1859 - 1931)
jointly acquired family property and goods;
the wife could not be engaged in trade with-
out the exclusive consent of her husband; the
husband could insult and beat his wife; in cases
of family arguments, the husband had the de-
cisive word and a few cases advanced to the
court; husbands were to represent women in
court.
According to the Bulgarian laws of 1906
female children inherited twice as less prop-
erty and cattle in comparison to male children,
despite the fact that boys had often been sent
to study and girls were to take care of the fam-
ily property. Wives, however, kept in their pos-
session the property that they had brought in
the family after marriage, and coitid entirely
dispose of it (even loan money, received from
sold personal property^ with an interest to their
husbands).
In Serbia, according to the common law,
the sroom had to offer a ransom of 25 srosha
to the father of his bride. King A. Kara-
dzordzevic issued a decree rejecting this law
as ''offending human dignity". According to
the legislature of Serbia (1844 - 1945) daugh-
ters did not have the right to inherit their par-
ents in case that there were male inheritors;
widows did not have the right to inherit their
husband's property - they had been allowed
only to live in his lands until their death; in
case of divorce, girls over 7 years and boys
over 4 years of age belonged to the father, only
children born out of wedlock belonged to the
mother and she was not allowed to ask for le-
gal recognition of fatherhood or money sup-
port. The common law tradition that daugh-
ters get small part of family proj>erty (''miraz")
opposed for a long time the official legisla-
tion.
in Romania, the Constitution of 1886
adopted the Napoleon's civic code: women did
not have any right of property (except in the
11
case they were widows without any son of full
legal age). Women could not be represented
in the court; they were not allowed to partici-
pate in taking important judicial decisions con-
cerning the lives of their children (keeping
them after a divorce or protecting them in the
case of family abuse).
In Greece, property, name and reputation
were also handed over from male to male, but
there were other local practices: in some
Aegean areas, girl used to inherit a house as a
dowry; property and name were handed over
in two directions: fathers to sons and mothers
the daughters.
The status of women in patriarchal family
was not permanent: most suppressed was the
young wife until getting her first child (she
had to work most and to obey all elder rela-
Peasant family, Macedonia, t930s
tives); while taking care of children wife was
granted some rights. Becoming a grandmother,
the woman achieved special privileges and
could even established a kind of a matriarchat
- some old women enjoyed smoking pipes and
riding horses as men did. In Albania, when
there was no male heir in family or close rela-
tive, one of the girls could achieve a status of
a man - she had to swear to stay virgin and
she was allowed to carry arms, dress and be-
have like a man (so called ''muzhka zhena"
'manly woman').
Engagement and Honor
The folklore of the Balkan people relates
with nostalgia to the premarital courting, the
passes made at girls at evening gatherings,
about youth desires and love. But the deci-
sion for maniage was based not so much on
the liking and love of the young couple, but
the considerations of the parents. The shy-
ness and chastity of the girls were highly
valued - the virginity of the bride celebrated
at the time of the wedding was promoted to
Ruarantee the continuation of the husband's
kin, and the 'Mishonest" girls were publicly
put to shame.
It was not common for a married couple
to talk about love feelings and erotic desires.
In evei^day life discussing the needs of the
body, especially sexual maturing of girts,
pregnancy and birth has been considered
sinful and nobody dared to attempt it. Sexuat
intercourse lead to pregnancy and birth,
there was no education about body and preg-
nancy. Children were the biggest joy and
support of their parents. Childless families
were considered punished by God and de-
serving contempt. It was not accepted to talk
about the erotic preferences and experi-
ences, especially those of women. The ex-
aggerated sexual powder and desire of young
bachelors was praised in songs, performed
in special carnival occasions.
12
Sources
1, Picture of an American painter,
"Her lord and master" (Albania)
Her /Ofd and master, Caton Woodvftle, Ameircan painter
(1856-1927)
Analyze:
What event was represented on the painting.
Describe the differences in outlook appear-
ance, expression and conduct of the husband
and wife, of the boy and the girl.
What were the relations between men and
women in the represented fatiiily?
Was the American painter's vision realistic
or romantic?
2, Travel Notes {Bosnia, 19 ' century)
"According to the Turkish customs, a
woman cannot approach the court by herself,
but has to appoint a man to represent her In a
conversation between men, it is shameful to
ask someone about his wife's or his daugh-
ters' health. The man is ashamed to mention
his wife's name when talking about her, and
calls her "my one". It was not only Muslim
women who where going out of their homes
with a covered face and body, but also the
Christian and the Jewish ones. It was not con-
sidered appropriate for a woman to pass
through the square alone. Christian girls went
to church only once - for the Holy Commun-
ion. This was a typical situation for the women
in the towns where Turkish customs were
strong.
It was different in the villages. The woman
could be the head of the family as well as in
charge of a village cooperative farm. From the
names of some of these women came the sec-
ond names of their children - Marichi 'the
child of Man', Katichi, *the child of Kati\ etc.
All the property belonged to the family coop-
erative farm and women could have their own
share of it and dispose of it as they think ap-
propriate. According to the Turkish land laws
a woman who is a daughter, a wife or a mother
could inherit the land, which was possessed
by her father, husband or son before their
death, and she even received a document for
that. Christian women in the villages did not
cover their faces, and in some regions neither
did the Muslim women."
V. Skaric, 'Turkish customs in social life"; In
^'Selected works", book 2.
* :^ *
"We learned that polygamy was not wide-
spread in these regions. By the way, it seems
that it is dying out in the other Turkish regions,
but it has never been rooted in here. As a rule,
the rich Bosnia men have only one woman."
A. Evans, "Walking through Bosnia and
Herzegovina in August and September 1875*'.
V Maslesh, Saraevo, i973.
13
Answer the questions:
L Why had women in the villages been more
independcfU than women in towns?
2. Why did not polygamy get rooted in ihe
Balkans?
Find out
Examples in history, literature, folklore of
strong "manly" women in the patriarchal times:
heads of family, outlaws, and others.
(ii
3. Travel notes (Bosnia^ 19 century)
^'While accompanying the Russian
Gilferding, a Bosnian man exclaimed loudly:
"Beautiful girl r To the sui-prised foreigner the
man from Saraevo answered: ''What do you
mean, why, Don't you see: The golden coins
on her neck will be enough for the rest of my
life!" There is one more peculiarity of women's
beauty that inspires Bosnia men. This is "fat-
ness'*. The beautiful girl and the fat girl are
one and the same thing/'
A, Eviins. ^'Walking tluougli Bosnia..., 1973.
4* Love folk songs (Bulgaria)
Comment:
Children in the village had usually slept in
one and ihc same room with their parents and
had witnessed their intimate relations; they had
also witnessed the sexual intercourse of the ani-
mals of which they took care at a very yoimg
age. That is why the young people's attitude to-
wards the body and the erotic desires was more
relaxed in comparison to that of the youths from
the town, for whom the body and its desires had
been a tahoo or had been discussed in a rnther
romantic fashion.
Answer the questions:
1. What images were used to describe the
girl's attractiveness? Why? What metaphors
would you use today?
2. Was the song talking about love or about
attraction?
3. Which of Ihe qualities of the beloved were
valued the most?
4. Were the descriptions of the beloved in
these songs expressions of obscenity or body
spontaneity?
5. Why did folk love songs usually describe
women's attractiveness and rarely that of men?
''My Mom and Dad to see
What sweetheart I love
At waist - thin popljyj^
Her face - fresh ct^cse^
Her eyes - black ^emes
Her eyebrows - whca
Her mouth - a silvei' ci
Her tongue - sells^S
'*When she went for water
her face w^as shining like the sun Jn
when she came back from the spdn '
her breasts were jumping
like the fish in the Vardar river ^
likeThessaloniki lemons.''
14
Compare;
Folklore love songs with this town love song
from the beginning of the century:
'7 WiLv drinking red wine yesterday evening
and there was noi a drop left
And sweary forehead I wiped
yesterday evening in Ana \s curls
I woiddn V desire even die Sultan 's daughters
When Ana *s kiss is burning on my lips
If there were a charmer i would stand before him
And ask for three things, die first I?c!ng Ana
Go awuy daylight, come desired nighi
Because I Jiave a date with nty darling Ana. "
What is the difference in the images and the
suggestions?
Mark the true statements. Back up
your choice:
• In iiira! patriajchal society young people did
not have eminent romantic love feelings, but prag-
matic "gastronomicar' desires,
• It was not accepted to talk about romantic
feelings in patriarchal society even if they ex-
isted
•The individual expression in patriarchal
society was restricted by a number of tradi-
tional language formulas.
•Health and wealth rather than feelinss and
beauty were important in patriarchal society.
• Beauty was valued in patriarchal society;
however the notions of beauty were different.
Find out
Several folklore love songs and analyze their
language. Describe the perfect girl and the per-
fect boy according to folklore. Can you point
out examples of romantic idealizations of the
love feeling, chaiTicteristic of West-European knight
poetry?
5. Woman oral autobiography
(Bulgaria)
''Our mother taught us to weave, to knit, to
cook. . . She told us nothinq about these, sirls'
things. I was 18 years old when my first men-
struation came. And my mother understood
because I was washing... She may have wor-
ried but she didn't ask me. Rags, cloths, we
folded them and there. We were ashamed of
menstruation at that time, not like now...
During the first wedding night they close
us there in the cellar and when the groom does
his work, he goes out, calls the godmother to
come and see that you are honest. In the cel-
lar, where else, all were closed there. Cleaned,
wiped, on a straw-mat, what else? Only for
some time, until the work is done. I had gone
to him and had slept with him two weeks be-
Poor family,1920s, Bulgaria
(Blagoevgrad history museum)
15
Happy grandmother, Bulgaria
Answer the questions:
1. Whose was the initiaLive for sexual inter-
course in tlie family? Who felt responsible for
the unwanted pregnancy and suffered the con-
sequences of that?
2. Why had women felt old at 30 years of age?
3. Was the first wedding night an unforget-
table personal experience for the mamed couple?
4. Was the interviewed woman criticizing the
existing patriarchal order or was she expressing
her support?
fore, but we had protected each othen[.,.]
[.. .] Whi [e we are young we were doing these
tilings -every night, then, as you grow old, at 30.
when you have children, youi cares are only for them.
He hasn't wanted me in the field [. . .]
[...] "My mother had a lot of abortions -
probably over 10. She was visiting an old
woman that did it with a goose feather, she
pierced her, and then she used to come home
and wait. She was covered with blood, couldn't
move because of weakness. We, the girls,
changed her clothes and looked after her as if
she was a child".
Oral autobiograpliy, a woman
from the village of Teshovo, 76 years old,
recorded by A. Pasliova in i992>.
6* Story of a British
traveler in Albania (1909)
'*A man is responsible, too, for
his guest, and must avenge a
stranger that has spent but one
night beneath his roof, if on his
journey next day he be attacked.
The s;acredness of the guest is
far-reaching, A man who
brought me water from his
house, that I might drink by the
way, said that I now ranked as
his guest, and that he should be
bound by his honor to avenge me should any-
thing happen to me before I had received hos-
pitality from another. [, . J A woman is never h-
able for blood-vengeance, except in the rare
case of her taking it herself. But even then there
seems to be a feeling that it would be very bad
form to shoot hen I could not hear of a recent
case, I roused the greatest horror by saying that
a woman who commits a murder in England is
by law liable to the same punishment as a man",
^ :|i ^
*' Marriage is arranged entirely by the head
of the house. The children are betrothed in
infancy or />; utero. Even earlier, A man will
say to another with whom he wishes to be al-
lied, *'When your wife has a daughter I want
her for my son"[..J The girl may - but it re-
quires much courage on her part - refuse to
marry the man. In that case she must swear
before witnesses to remain a virgin all her life
,,.No man may strike a woman but her hus-
band - or, if she be unmarried, her father. To
do so entails blood, A woman in the moun-
tains, in spite of the severe work she is forced
to do, is in many ways freer than the women
in Scutari, She speaks freely to the men: is
often very bright and intelligent, and her opin-
ion may be asked and taken/*
E. Durham (1863 - 1944), High Albania 1009.
16
Comment:
In general in every family in the countryside hus-
baad enjoyed an unrestricted power not only over
fainjly wealth but also over family members. He
was entitled to sell and buy, exchange and donate
and manage the money of his family. He controlled
every aspect of his family. All this power derived
from hisownershipofall the family wealth. Be-
cause of his absoluLe power he was known as the
''head of the house' and the rest of the faniilv mem-
bers known as the 'family serves",
Al! the efforts of the head of the family were
Father with his children, Gramada village, Bulgaria, 1920s
aimed at the strengtliening of the economic and so-
cial position of his family, increasing family wealth
aiid family labor force. The family labor force was
maintained by encouraging marriages and not al-
lowing the sons lo live separately with their new
families, hi cases when any of tlie young wives could
not have children or could have only females the
head of house decided that the son could have a
second or even a third wife/'
A. Dijaka, "Marringe in Albania", Tirana, 1983-
Fill in the table:
Roles and relationships in the Albanian
patriarchal family
Husband
responsibilities rights
Wife
responsibUities
rights
Answer the questions:
1. Why did men have so much responsibilities
in the n-aditional Albanian society?
2. What was considered to be "man's honor"?
And what was considered to be " woman's
honor"?
3. The price of the male protection of women
was women's full subordination. What would
you prefer for yourself- greater security or
greater freedom?
Chose the right answers:
Which are the three basic reasons that lead
to the preservation of patriarchal family relation-
ships in the Albanian society till the middle of
th
the 20 century. Support your choice.
• The political dependence of Albania - 5 cen-
turies of Ottoman rule (until 1912) that lead to
the preservation of the feudal relations regard-
ing possession and production,
• Peculiarities of the traditional culture - the
male cult toward the weapon and the custom of
blood revenge.
• Economic underdevelopment - tack of in-
dustry; main source of livelihood for the popu-
lation remained the prinnitive high-mountain
stock - breeding.
• Predominant mountain relief, impeding the
17
consliuction of good transportation infrastnicture
and effective state institutions - court, police,
schools, municipalities.
• The influence of the traditional for the Mus-
lims Sheriat marital law and the allowed po-
lygamy (tip to 3 women),
• The predominant pail of the population was
ignorant.
• As compensation to the huiniiiations suf-*
felled during the centuries of political dependence
and poor life, men on ihc Balkans have developed
a particular cult towards honor and heroism.
mngtorootit out.
S, Dobroplodny, Bulgarian pedagogue, rS45; In:
"The wheel of life" Rajna Gavrilova, 1999.
"This mistake (the masturbation) dries out
and ruins the bodies of children, pregnant and
other women. It causes weakening of the waist,
the eyes and the hole body as well; impotence,
spasms, trembling of the arms and the legs,
epilepsy, apoplexy and death at the end. (Cold
showers, red wine and valerian are recom-
mended as remedies).
Greek practical medicine, 1845.
7. Pedagogical and medical
proscriptions of erotic behavior
'I felt that onanism had crept into the
school because one of my pupils rushed out
of the classes as he was crazy and after that
he was always sick and suffering to death. Just
imagine in how^ many town and villages of
Bulgaria this sickness, this desti^uctive pas-
sion, has sneaked into and nobody is even plan-
Answer the questions:
L Why did the religious prohibition of mas-
turbation as mortal sin start to be supported up
by pedagogical and medical arguments at the end
of 19centuiy?
2. Why children bom out of wedlock, childless
families and maj^turhatiori were considered to be the
hardest misfortunes in patriarchal societies.
3. What are the modem altitudes to these phe-
nomena?
Big family, l920Sj Bulgaria
18
Body
Histor>' is not only the history of political facts and the history
of thoughts but also the history of our human bodies. The history
of the body is the history of the adventures of our body as a place of
pain and desire, happiness and grief. It is the history of the society ^s
rules and prohibitions, which, through specifically developed so-
cial rites and cenain language forms, make the individual of a given
specific historic time to overcome and cultivate all emotions and
fevers associated with shame, awkwardness and fear.
The history of the body is a history
of ruling norms and taboos in society,
it is a history of fashion: the norm im-
posed on the body by the society in or-
der the differences of the social hier-
archy to get fixed, so as there was con-
trol on the relations between the sexes
in such a way that individuals were
aware of the limitations imposed over
the exposure of their bodies in public
places and private life.
The history of the body is also a his-
tory of laws: these concerning labor
regulations which imposed such limi-
tations that led to excluding women
from certain working places and defi-
nite professions, those regulating lei-
sure time and the healthful conditions
of work; such concerning the prohibi-
tion or allowance of abortions, violence
and crime against women and men. By
the implementation of all these laws the
state regulates the relations between
sexes and thus is able to control the
individual's attitude toward body. As a
consequence, the history of the body is
also the history of institutions such as
marriage, family, army, school etc.,
which impose the ruling values which
discipline the body in terms of the norms and attitudes of the time.
The history of the body is a history of the images and the con-
ceptions of masculinity and femininity of society, through which it
creates the ideals of physical beauty and morality, the principles of
"right" and * 'wrong" in order to regulate the social relations be-
tween sexes as a basis of the order and progress in society and the
state. It is a history of the ways in which illnesses and epidemics
19
change the attitude towards the body, rearrange
group's and individual's perceptions of the sex
so that the healthy body and the demographic
balance turn up to become basic values of the
society and state.
The history of the body is a history of the
manner in which scientific consciousness de-
fines it as a biological organism, and the medi-
cine encourages the creation of the public ideal
of "beauty" through determining what is
''healthy" and what is "ill", focusing rather on
morality values than chnical categories. It is a
history of the concept of the body as a place of
pain (birth, wounds, death.,.) and of the will for
overcoming it, beginning with sports that should
temper and discipline it.
The history of the body shows how and why
it becomes a place not only for biologically but
also for publicly fonned instincts. Let us try
together to outline some of the features of this
process in South East Europe. Here the body is
exposed to the influence of the public norms
and ideology of the patriarchal, bourgeois and
communist society. They are united by the com-
monly shared idea that a civilized individual is
the onej who holds its desires within the bor-
ders, outlined by the community. In the fol-
lowing sections we shall try to identify these
borders.
Men and Women in Everyday Life
In the 19 century there were a lot of limits
imposed on female body appearance and behav-
ior in the village culture and the early artisan
city. They aimed at preserving the patriarchal
sexual morality as a condition for a safe life
and social stability. The patriarchal people as-
sociated their views of the stability in the soci-
ety and of the safety of life with the durability
of the family and the smoothness of marriage.
The traditional values were more concentrated
on aspects that depended on the notion of a
happy family:
''To love, to have a house and to set up a
home is one of our best national features. The
Bulgarian youngsters did not like to scape-
grace; everyone thought to start a family on
time and settle in his own house; to take care
of the house was pride for both the man and
the woman. Marriage was sacred and holy,
and celibacy was something ahnost unknown
in Motherland".
Newspaper "Patriot" (28.02.1889) did not
approve of the newly appearing negative atti-
tude towards mairiage among the young people
of educated urban classes ,
We can get insights about the character and
essence of "happy" matrimonial life and "fam-
ily understanding" which illustrated the rhythm
of urban everyday life in South East Europe
from different sources (village stories,
people's memoirs etc.). Lots of descriptions
show that the idea of an ''unhappy" marriage
didn't exist.
Divorces were an exceprion rather than a rule
because adtilterics did not exist and there were
Peasant woman, Hungary
20
no fdinily crises, because of wife's adulteries*
Happy family life was of moral value and it v/as
achieved because there were rarely violent
quarrels at home as wives had to listen to their
husbands and they did not reproach when their
husbands were aiigry. Wives should respect their
husbands' status and put up with their financial
stability. These pictures depicted the 'liannony"
in matrimonial life, existing despite the fact
that the marriage was often the result of par-
ents' desire, which was accepted as a law and
where the longings of the heart were neglected-
Everyday behavior in public places and in
private life was also controlled. These restric-
tions were meant to ''protect' ' the woman in the
patriarchal worid from every temptation, vvliich
could push her off the track of her basic role
of mother, housewife, sexual partner and moral
supporter of the husband in the family. The
regulations of women's behavior in the 19 cen-
tury included:
• A woman was not allowed to look other
men in ihe eyes,
' A woman w^as not allowed to talk to a man
on the street without a witness, except if the
man was her close relative,
• A woman was obliged to talk to her husband
with bent head and always to listen to him.
• What did "happy family" mean to the patriar-
chal people?
• Guess what other restricUons could have been
imposed on women's behavior in public places?
• What might happen to women who did not
follow all these restrictions?
Here are examples of women who did not
follow these social norms. Let's see w^hat hap-
pened to these disobedient women:
Source 1. "Cramhnofher Nedelya was a
teacher in Prilep (Macedonian town,) dur-
ing the period 1886-1887. Her free behavior
a^id smoking did not appeal to the citizens
A married couple from Albania, 1875
who could not accept the idea that a woman
could afford to talk to men-teachers who were
not her relatives. They imposed strict control
on hen that made her immediately leave the
city after the end of the school year *'
HristoShaldev, "History of Prilep", 1916.
Source 2* "//j Plovdiv, one of the biggest
Bulgarian cities, prominent women and even
those of middle rank were forbidden to go out
of their houses alone. And if there was no
relative to accompany them when they were
going to pay a social visit, for example, a ser-
vant was following them,... For a woman, it
was impossible whatsoever to attend men's
meetings. This was even more impossible for
a woman-teacher on whom all parents' looks
were fixed, I often wanted to go to some of
the meetings held in the library' to attend pub-
tic readings of frvnous siories and other liter-
ary works, but I never dared to do such a thing''
Rada Kirkovich. memoirs, 1 927.
21
• What did these two women refuse to do (or
wanted to)?
• What did they finally do?
As we can guess it was not easy for a woman
to neglect the social rules and restrictions. In
order to control the body behavior of the indi-
vidual public places were also divided into femi-
nine and masculine ones:
• There were separate schools for boys and
girls,
• Pubs and cafes were meant for men only,
• There were public talking and working-
places only for men,
• There was a horo (folk dance) for men and
a horo for women,
• The tickets for the theater in some Bulgar-
ian cities were issued according to masculine
and feminine seats; ''The entrance tickets were
simple pieces of paper,, Mud had the letter M
(for men) and W(for womeny\
N. Nachev, '^Kalofer in the Pasf , 1927.
• What, do you think, was the aim of this strict
borderline dividing the space where men and
women could be expected to interact with each
other?
• What did people fear of if a woman and a
man were in a close contact - especially when they
could sit next to each other?
-physical contact?
-they would speak with each other?
-emotional contxict?
-they would speak about family secrets?
This "harmonious" order rested predomi-
nantly upon the giiTs and boy's obedience to
their parents' will and to the family interest
which limited the choice of a partner and, sec-
ondly, upon the woman's obedience to the role
assigned to her by society, namely a wife and a
mother. This obedience was achieved by *wrap-
ping' her body by prohibitions that regulated
her everyday attitudes: including the shame and
fear of her own body: This is why according to
the norms of the patriarchal culture, the body
should be covered by cloths, which had to make
invisible its erotic desires; the body movements
should be restricted in such a way to avoid
any emotional contacts: touch with eyes, giv-
ing a hand and touching the knees were prohib-
ited. These norms made feelings and the sexual
desires in something shameful, the prohibi-
tions for getting in contact between genders
created fear of one's body. Through the shame
and the fear the relationships between men and
women were regulated in patriarchal society,
'*Fear of a man, fear of strangers, fear of
her own self fear of everything. Was this a life?
Just like animals: be bom, give birth, die'\ said
the heroine in a famous play performed many
times every theatrical season to a large audience
in Sofia at the beginning of the 20 century.
This is a text from Ivan Hadzhijski, a Bul-
garian historian and sociologist of the patriar-
chal and modem society, which describes the
influence of the Turkish mentahty on everyday
life of the Bulgarians.
Source 3. ''Because of the influence of
Turkish sexual conception over the craftsmen
towns some restrictions for women existed
which did not aim at their personal humilia-
tion: the Turks, one of the most interesting
people because of their views, guarded sexual
chastity using all possible means.
First: beginning with the idea that the ap-
petite from watching is the preparation for
eating, did not allow either another man to
see the woman or the woman to see another
man. There was no more fruitful means to
achieve this than high fences and latticed
harems.
Second: when a woman was to go out she
wrapped her body in no less than 20 meters
of fabrics and she put a veil on her face.
Third: if by accident a man made a mis-
22
Market place, Sarajevo, 1920s
take with his first wife, or if she did not meet
the expectation of feminine chastity arid moral
values, he had the right to have a second,
third, fouitb etc. wife in order to correct the
mistake and thus to compensate for the miss-
ing values of his previous wives. Thus the
Turkish men can find everything within the
family.,, and feel no need of adultery. "
1. Hadziiijski, Way of life and Spirit of Bulgarian
People, Sofia, 1995.
• What was allowed and what was forbidden
for women to do in everyday life?
• What did the author mean by "'the Turks, one
of the most interesting people because of their
views*'! How did he value their attitudes to
women?
■ Do you agree with him thai "these restrictions
did Rolaim at their (women's) personal humilia-
tion"?
• What could you say about his own values and
his attitude tow'ards women?
The division of the space in the patriarchal
world into male and female provided women
with the opportunity to communicate between
themselves. Things that were not connected
with the family were discussed. These were the
things that challenged the female imagination
and dreams, provoked by the narratives of their
husbands returning from distant places. Usu-
ally, this happened at weekends or on holidays
when women used to go to church and had free
time to be together and to speak to each other
after the sermon-
Here is what the Bulgarian politician and dip-
lomat, M. Madjarov , wrote about such a day in
mid 19 century, describing his home town:
Source 4. '7/ seems to me that the women
in Koprivshitza gain their public knowledge
and development in the churches, but not from
the church readings that are hardly listened
to, but from the talks. Due to the regular go-
23
ing to church every woman in Koprivshtitzo.
meets at least ten other women and talks with
them about many different issues. Everything
that the men have brought back home and
have experienced while being abroad is re-
peated there. They know lots of things about
Alexandria, Anadola etc. The towns
Tzarigrad, Smirna, Aidun (the biggest towns
in Ottoman Empire) etc, are known not only
by name, but also by their climate, folklore
clothes and customs. A woman is speaking
about a town and another five women are lis-
tening. Then another starts her story and this
is how they are exchanging information. The
islands in the Mediterrcmean and the Aegean
sea are much more familiar to the women than
the towns in North Bulgaria. Tzarigrad, Al-
exandria, Smirna are nearer than Pleven,
Elena, Razg rad (Bulganan towns)".
(M. Madjarov, Memoirs, 1942)
Let's remember that the division of public
space into male and female was one of the ways
trough which the bodily behavior and the rela-
tions between men and women were controlled
in the patriarchal world.
• Why did the women have the need to com-
municaie wiih one another in such a society?
• What were women interested in?
• What did men's nan'ati ves abont foreign conn-
tries^ stocks and gifts evoke in women?
• Do you think that female curiosity about the
outside world, about distant places with exotic cus-
toms and fashion would influence their attitudes to
their own world: tlie house and family?
• Did they try to change their clothes and ttie
interior of their houses?
Men preferred women to be only housewives
and to do tlie work considered by them as fe-
male.
Source 5. ''If the machines enter Turkey,
Sliven will suffer most. A machine for 10
groshes will vv^^^v^ as much as 150 women
weavers per day. Then woman will be re-
leased from her work and will be free to take
care of her twusework which she is meant for
by God, i.e,: to cook, wash her Imsbond's
shirts, make bread and look after her chil-
dren and home. In Kalofer women are skill-
ful weavers of wool and fabrics known all
around Turkey... Here women are devoted
only to weaving and cannot cook, prepare
breads wash shirts... ''
L Bogorov (Bulgarian intellectual):, Some Days in
Walks around the Bulgarian Places.,.
• What female skills were valued by men during
that epoch?
• Why were not femafe's craftsman skills ap-
preciated?
Of course, it would be also interesting to
know what men did in their Free time. Here are
two sources revealing their everyday life in
typically male places:
Source 6, '*Men in Veiiko Tunwvo (the
fonner Bulgarian capi tal) crowd in the cafes dur-
ing the winter, where they spend their time
playing games, hi some cafes there are no
newspapers or other readmgs. On holidays
during the summer they go to the vineyards,
or visit the near city\ or walk along the river
on weekdays. Youngsters drink during these
walks which is not good. "
P. R. Skveikov (Bulgarian writer), LS85,
1 . How did the tnale everyday life in a crafts-
man town look like according to these extracts?
Try to iinagine some of the family narratives told
by these people and their atiiLude towards their
wives.
2. Did they, in youropinion, have a hard life?
3. Try to imagine what men used to talk about
during their walks.
24
students of F^m^fe school "Carmen Silva", 1936, Romania
Boys and Girls: Getting in Cuntact
As w'C know, the restrictions in ever>' day
life of the 19 centuiy did not create spaces
for social communication betweetithe genders
before marriage, thus depriving them from the
opportunily to get acquainted with each other.
One of the results was the shame and fear of
the emotional and sexual desires of one's own
body, which was common behavior of women
and men from that lime.
These feeHngs of shame were, for example,
expressed in the songs about the shepherd who
did not dare to face and touch the maid chosen
to be his wife by his mother during the first
marriage night. In the semi-craftsmen and
semi-farming village the engagement was con-
ducted when the boy-shepherd was absent and
he had not even seen the girl.
Source 7. "Very often in the wealthy shep-
herd families the engagements are negotiated
when the diildren are infants and the weddings
when they grow' up... the boy sees the chosen
girl when he comes back for the wedding\
W. Dimitiov,Thehistoryaf a village nearKotel
• Could you even think of such a marriage to-
day? How would you feel in this situation?
■ Do you know other examples of maniage con-
tracts (e.g. from other social classes)?
Source 8. 'The girls in Sliven (Bulgarian
town) are of medium height, have roundfaces,
black eyes, hut they run like goats from men
and hide from them. They can be seen only
from a distance and on holidays at the gates
of the houses. Bui if you approach to them,
they run and hide, Vety often they slam the
door if they tiotice that somebody is looking
at them with cunosit\K., "
L Bogorov, Some Days...
■ What do you think, why did these girls behave
inihisway?
The shame and fean which detennined the
emotional and sexual attitude were a result of
all the liinitations which hinder women and men
from getting in touch befoi^e maiTiage and fi^om
25
students, Bosnia
expressing openly their feelings. Even at places,
where girls and boys were supposed to get ac-
quainted with each other, such as weddings,
drinking fountains in the villages, family visits,
walks to the bakery and to the shops in the cit-
ies, the exchange of glances and words was only
possible under the rigid supervising look of the
mother, a married relative or the old match-
maker This supervision controlled their bod-
ies, guaranteeing that they would be within the
restrictions of patriarchal morality, i.e. the
girls and boys would not touch their hands,
would not look each other in the eye, would
not talk about their intimate feelings.
The deviation from these norms was pun-
ished in the toughest manner, through pub-
lic reprimand. IvanHadzhiiski noticed: 'The
disgrace, The collective denunciation of
sofuebody is a 'citizen V death \ it is the
worst punishment, which often provokes
shame in the guilty person ending up with
madness or suicide''.
• What did **a citizen's death" mean? How did
other people Clhe society'') react?
• Do you know si mi hir examples from modem
times?
• What is socially "forbidden" today in your so-
ciety?
The following story was recorded in the
memoir book of an Bulgarian artisan from the
middle of the century:
Source 9. '"T!ie son of the most famous
chorbadzija (a wealthy man) in the tovim was
a schoolboy and he wrote some words ad-
dressed to a schoolgirl.,. Ii was, of course, a
childish deed in which there was nothing ob-
scene. The father found all about it, got furi-
ous and beat his son in front of all the teach-
ers and students. The boy could not bear the
shame, got sick and died. The father was sony
for his action but it was too late'\
26
A girl masked in ban suit, Tirtiishoara, 1 9205
• Wliy tlid Lhe father react in this way?
• Can you understand his reaction - from his
point of view, at his time, in his world?
Tvan Hadgiiski gave an example of public
ostracism of a girl when she refused to follow
the reslrictions and norms of the community
where she lives:
Source 10. " Here is the short story of
the first Troyan (Bulgarian lown) *prosuiute\
It is about Peua from the upper side of the
town who agreed at the price of a sleeveless
jacket to go with the boy who gave it
to her to the village center, dressed
in the same sleeveless jacket. Noth-
ing else. Pena ''put this shame on her-
self" and took this sleeveless jacket
but died unmarried stigmatized as a
''djadiya " (prostitute). And really she
did something which was not allowed
even to fiancees''
Imagine how the girl lived, what this
social punishment meant for her everyday
life,e.g, when she went shopping or when
she wanted to go to church or to speak to
other people.
Ask your parents and grandparents if
they know similar examples from their
yoLitli.
What about unmarried motliers, illegiti-
mate children and unmarried couples to-
day? Are there any differences today be-
tween the city and the country?
The social values of this time de-
manded women and men, girls and
boys not to express their wishes,
^ dreams and feelings and especially to
hide everything concerning their
bodily wishes, desires and problems.
For example, the prominent Bulgarian
poet Kiril Hristov, author of the first erotic
verses in Bulgarian, wrote in 1940 about his
meetings in the end of the 19 century: '^Our
meetings were very short and not in private...
There were exceptions otily in moon nights
when the blind street became deserted and
asleep. We were walking side by side, not dar-
ing to hold hand in hand, talkitig about the
least important things, only not about haw
much we love each othen "
Do you know other examples (e.g. films, nov-
els) which describe a similar situation?
27
With the following text we can get insight
of the male fear of the "threat of outside enter-
tainment":
Source 11. ''The woman from Gabrovo is
still a housewife and caring mother. Her plea-
sures are in ! he frames of these things. She
does not know the humiliating pleasures of
the outside world that has been ruling the
women from Turnovo and ruining the fami-
lies there. Devoted to her work in the house,
the woman in Gabrovo teaches her children
order and assiduousness. While the women
from Turnovo, devoted to outside entertain-
ment, lead their children in the same way and
teach them to seek pleasures with all means'\
T, Ikonomov, Impressions from Traveling, 1871 .
1. Did lie exaggerate the threat of outside" en-
tertainment as walks, visils, gatherings for talking
and gossiping, participating in female organiza-
tions.,.?
2. What kind of influence over the female be-
havior did the author have fear of?
3. Try to define the conservative values de-
fended by the author.
But there were also a few situations where
these strict rules were ''abandoned", for ex-
ample at holidays and weddings, even in the pa-
triarchal world:
Source 12, ''TJiere is a gathering of men
and women, servants at Easter At holidays all
the women and men from Veliko Turnovo go
for a walk to the vineyards. Everything is
lightened by fires at vintage: the women,
mainly maids from the mountain villages,
gather grape during the day and at night play
horo. It is a merry view -fres, bagpipes, and
the happy voices ''iihuu'\
PetkoR.SIavcikov. Bulgarian writer. 1885.
''The weddings are the top of all the enier-
tainment. The women and men play together
New married, Bosnia J 920s
a horo cmd so on. At odier time such "strong **
emotions are forbidden, impossible because
of the rules ,.. TJie horo is ours, folklore. We
all know it, and there we are free and equal.
All the chisters from the people gather to-
gether with small or no dijferences in the
clothes '\
^'Balls and horo". Newspaper "Patriot^", 1 898.
• "ftTiat ki nd of emotions were allowed to men
and women at the time of holidays that were not
allowed in the everyday life?
• How did the celebration affect the relations
between men and women?
• Compai^e this entertainment with the one from
Uie 1930s.
•What has changed in the relations between
boys and girls? Wliat were the restrictions that are
gone?
• What new culture did the new dances create
and how did they change the attitude of girls and
boys towards their bodies?
28
And here is an example of how
young people started changing the tra-
ditional ideas aboot the girl's outlook
and behavior in pubhc;
Source 13. '7 got atiached to
Lucy. .., a tall thin brunette with sen-
sitive Kps and lively devilish eyes.
She was an emancipated woman^ who
smoked, drank at bars and ex-
changed dirty jokes with her
friends.... She was a genei^ous crea-
ture, wonderfully free, ready to help
her friends.,. She loved Sava truly.
Her manner of living, lack of self-re-
strictions, her language were com-
pletely different from ours, but that
made her more interesting to us the
'bourgeois* boys,,. She reacted with
a mix of humor and curiosity to our
mentality, may be sometimes wanting
to be like «i:_. When the riuvor
reached my mother she was fiorri-
fied,.. 7 did not sleep all the mght\
she wanted me of the threat tliat such
''affairs" pose to the honorable
youngsters like me and Sava "
Sl Giuev, Memoirs; **LeLopissi'\ 1996/7/8
• What was the author's attitude lo Lucy's be-
havior?
• Was this altitude a threat to the conservative
values? How? Why?
•Confront these Miberar perceptions of the
1930s of the 20 century with the 'conserva-
tive' ones?
But even in the big cities where the strict
patriarchal norms became more relaxed after
the First World, boys and girls still felt uneasy
to express their personal feelings. That's why
they sought additional means to convey their
desires and moods of theirs bodies: poetr>^ love
depiction on greeting cards, phrases from love
Hiking in Vitostia Mountain, 1930s, Bu[g$ria
novels and from the newly appeared sound
films. More frequently they turned to the guitar
and the mandolin.
After the First World War the number of
women, going to libraries, was almost the same
as that of men according to the statistics of
Bulgaria and Slovenia. In addition their inter-
est was redirected from novels and poetry,
which were still the favorite female readings,
to philosophy, history, psychology, sociology,
and medical magazines. Along with the tradi-
tional female magazines about housewives, edu-
cation and fashion, which supported the tradi-
tional female role, the girls' interest moved
towai^ds knowledge, revealing the secrets of the
genders and the wishes of the body.
29
• How is this today ? Ai^e there still differences
in the reading and leisure interests of girls and boys?
• Which kind of youth journals did you read
when you were younger? Which kind of readings
are you interested in today? Are there any differ-
ences between girls and boys? And if yes, why do
you think there are differences?
Let's see how strong shame and fear of one's
own body were experienced according to the
personal memories of girls and boys from this
time. Here is the story of a 15 year old boy left
in *'Once upon a time in Sofia. The 1930s and
1940s in the view of a man from Sofia". This
boy was BozhidarMihajlov, a famous Bulgar-
ian cinema critic.
Source 14. ''Tlie orator explained to us
the secrets, connected with the reproduction.
He used analogous examples from the life of
hens, doves, and horses... No, we the children,
were not thefmit of the God blessing, hut of
the most banal animalistic and rude contacts!
I was shocked, ashamed, offended, angry at
my parents. I went home and threw myself on
the bed, shaken by cries and tears I do not
know how further we have gone in respect to
the sexual education of our children and
grand children. But I know that in some coun-
tries the unavoidable discoveries, linked to
the gender are made very painlessly and
naturally for the parents and the children.
Books are published that gradually introduce
the children to this new world. They help them
to penetrate without any stress or traumas for
their childish psyche into the intriguing se-
crets of the being. But then, in the 1930s, the
sex was a taboo, which nobody dared to in-
terfere with. The fear and inexperience of the
parents, the hypocrisy and indifference of the
society were allies in the name of silence, to-
tal silence. The whole care was passed to Her
Majesty the Street - the street with its extraor-
dinary breath, with the known and unknown
30
in it, the evil and good that is hidden In it,
with till its secrets and seduction, But I want
to admit that my brother turned to be a rare,
happy and unexpected exception in this peda-
gogical desert . I was in the 7th or 8 grade
when one day (I still believe that he did it by
his initiative) Mitko left a big volume on the
table^ near the textbooks,
- it is high time for you to read this book
and learn some things - he pronounced these
words airily and left my room in the attic.
I locked at the book and read "Dn August
Forel The Se^'ual Question '\ I was surprised
and impressed. Tliis event did a real revolu-
tion, which comprehended not only mine, but
also the neighboring streets. The sexual edit'
cation In the quarter was on a scientific base
from this moment on. My lectures in front of
the illegal auditorium were conspiracies -
hidden in the nook of some yard. I made the
corresponding images with a nail on the sand
and after that I erased them very carefully '\
Why was the boy so shocked? What could he
have preferred ?
And how is it today? When did you leam about
"reproduction'' and how? Could you speak about
these topics at school?
What roles do television and movies play in the
field of sexual education today?
Public prohibitions limited the sexual de-
sires and love feelings of women and men in
family. Generally the family was the only le-
gitimate place of sexuality and intimate expe-
rience of men and women till the First World
Wan Love before marriage was not tolerated
by the public opinion and was often defined as
IT> CTPOEhH"b HOBA /ItTHA { Kr^HA/lH?? .KHRQ-B
MMEOH-b T-bPHOBCKH- Bl^ KBAPTA/lAKOHbOBMUA
Ef
Advertisment of the new summer bath, Sofia, 1920s
31
sinful by the traditions of the patriarchal soci-
ety and of the Orthodox, Catholic or Islamic
religious norms.
Bat, at the same time a new phenomena en-
couraged overcoming tlie old pubhc norms
legitimizing the new attitude to one's body. This
was the cinema. Its influence over the imagina-
tion became more strong and effective than the
power of the novel literature image, hi the mem-
oirs of boys and girls from that period films
were outlined as an important factor for "c/i>
appi'aring of the obsolete shame of the
youngsters to express their feelings^^.
Source 15. ''The rebellion against shame
from the physical essence of the body and the
inherited norms for behaving happened very
cautiously as late as after the First World Wan
The example, given by some bald and proud
girls from Sofia who bathed in the sea with
tight bathing suits, was accepted with re-
proaches and resentment by everybody. The
joy that the released from the clothes body
felt under the caress of the sun rays and sea
waves, was named shameful, nasty, deprav-
ing pleasure. The mixed sunbathing was pro-
claimed cynical lewdness. This prejudice was
not gone even 16 years laten
In a summer day in 192 h when I was go-
ing to the only beach at the old monastery
*St. Constantine\ I met the Minister of Jus-
tice... When he spread out his hand to greet
me, he angrily said:
- K., what is this scandalous, shameless and
outrageous attitude and how does the au-
thority stand it?
- What do you mean?
- Don't you see that down there men and
women are bathing?
- So what if this is a pleasure?
' A pleasure! This is not a pleasure, but
debauchery!
The other day. at the regular time, I started
for the beach.. A harsh voice surprised me
some meters from the stairs: 'Stopf ' There was
an armed guard.
- Forbidden for men! ... Only women can
bathe here.
... The rebellion of the minister sounded
to me like a dead frippery,
D.Kazasov,p.309-310.
1 . What was the attitude of the author towards
the patriarclial norms?
2. Who were the rebels against these norms?
3. Which were the new places where the body
was released from the traditional norms of behav-
ior?
Final Questions:
1 , Let's remember how the boys and girls com-
municated in the patriarchal society. Were there
places where they could contact and get acquainted
with each other?
2, Compare Uie ways and places for communi-
cation today with those from the past. What is the
biggest change in the attitude to the body for the
last 200 years?
3. What ai'e the means and ways through which
the young people start to overcome the norms of
the patriarchal culture?
4. How do tlicy start to get along with their bod-
ies, understand their desires and then express them
freely?
32
Introduction
Education
Throughout the historical development of education a clear
difference in the treatment of each of the sexes can be seen.
This is the case with the structure of educational institutions
- schools, courses and universities, as well as with the regu-
lation of the access of children and young people to these
institutions, the syllabus design of school subjects and the
design of teaching materials.
Apart from the analysis of ra-
cial, class, national and other
constraints the history of edu-
cation may also involve a gen-
der analysis. What is more, the
school itself (even the kinder-
garten) is an important step on
the way of the preparation of
young people for their future
roles of men and women. In the
educational institutions young
boys and girls were very often
encouraged to play certain types
of games or discouraged to play
others practicing the roles that
would confirm their future iden-
tification as men or women.
When the institutions of mass
education in the bourgeois so-
ciety were established, the ac-
cess to these institutions was
regulated and the results
achieved by the students were
considered as an important pre-
condition for achieving social
progress in adulthood. The sup-
porters of the so called educa-
tional idealism in the 19 cen-
tury held that the primary so-
cial equality was the equality in the opportunities for edu-
cation while the rest of the social equalities were second-
ary in character. Whether educational institutions imposed
a differentiation of the sexes or they insured equal treat-
ment of them was of vital importance for the developmen-
tal opportunities of the individual.
33
Girls and boys used to play in separate groups in the kiiicfergarten. Nord Bulgaria, 194Q
*7 won 7 aliow you to become a nun. Yoii II be
a lay person. No girl knows how to read,^'
Education and Gender Relations
in Traditional Societies
Educational institutions for women in Eu-
rope were established under the influence of
the ideas of the Enlightenment. Of great im-
portance was the idea of the Swiss education-
ist Pestalozzi who analyzed the connection be-
tween the family and social Ufe stressing the
role of the mother as an educator. These views
outlined the scope of the education for women
placing it, however, in a certain social con-
text, defined by focusing on the family fimc-
tion of women.
Education in South-East Europe followed the
specific characteristics of the different parts
of the region. Because of the specific condi-
tions in which Christian population lived in the
Ottoman Empire, the education Ibr women
started first in the convents where girls were
given some literacy training. The convents were
the places where most of the first generations
of women teachers were trained. In the middle
of the 19 century they laid the foundations of
secular education for women and established
the first women's schools. At the beginning
many famiUes were reluctant to the idea of
education for women. The general opinion was
that the girl should receive training mainly in
skills needed for housekeeping or family
farming and literacy was needed only if she
was being prepared to become a nun. Many
families were sceptical even as far as boys'
education was concerned, but more and more
vocational opportunities, requiring literacy
appeared. For example they could become
priests or merchants. The change of attitudes
towards girls' education was due mainly to
the ideas of the enlightenment and the under-
standing that society needs educated moth-
ers. These were the ar^^uments of the mid-
19 century women's societies to start the
education of young women and to sup-
34
The First Graduates of the Girls' College, 1913 (From Zehra Toska's personal archives)
port the girls who wanted to continue their
studies;
''The ignorant person is an wurinimed tree.
Education is a fortune which can neither be
damaged by moths nor can it be stolen by
tfueves'\ Wrote one of the founder members
of women's societies in Bulgaria,
However in some regions of South-East
Europe it was as early as the 19 century when
literacy was acquired by much greater sections
of the popuhition including women. Such re-
gions were mainly parts of Austria-Hungary
where education became compulsory for both
scKes as early as the 18 century. In the rest of
South-East Europe the percentage of literate
Eh
people increased in the tirst half of the 20
century. The growing literacy rate for women
can be illustrated by the example of Turkey
where the share of literate women rose from
less than 10% to over 70% in less than two
generations.
Ratio of literate population
by census year and sex
Census year
Female %
Ma e %
1935
9,81
29,35
1955
25,61
55,94
1990
71,98
88,81
35
Ratio of female population
in literate population
Census year
Ratio of female pop. in
literate pop. %
1935
26,35
1955
30,78
1990
44,21
Woman in Sialistics 1927-1992, State Institute of
Statistics Prime Ministry Republic of Turkey, 1995
a
Every year I cried and begged them to let
me attend high school. . . "
Modem Society: Education and Life Plans
At the end of the 19 and the beginning of
the 20 century truancy was a frequent phe-
nomenon especially in the countryside. The
situation was especially difficult in mountain-
ous regions where boys and girls had to walk
for miles to go to school. Because of reasons
like illness, work etc, peasant chi idren were very
often forced to stop going to school. This held
true especial ly for girls. Very often girls had to
substitute for the mother and help her look af*
ter younger children. The change of the atti-
tudes towards school and education in general
for girls presented an important change in the
way of thinking which was very often associ-
ated to a personal drama experienced by many
people. With the expansion of women educa-
tion to higher levels the high schools for many
girls turned into places where they discussed
their future plans and let their imagination soar
beyond any limits. For many young women edu-
cation and vocational training was the only way
to achieve independence aud find the opportu-
nity to help their families. Many girls aspired
to job positions to serve society and to a pro-
fessional career: as teachers, doctors or nurses;
later on as pharmacists, lawyers, architects aud
engineers. Having been educated women for
Exam time at Belgrade Urriversity, 1990s (Transitions, 1998}
36
many of them meant that their moral duty was
fo help others , that was why many of them got
interested in social services. The increase of
the variety of social ser\4ces positions at the
end of the 19 century enabled women having
proper education to start careers as clerks and
officers in the social services. Further educa-
tion became ki real necessity and the question
for university education for women was raised.
Women's access to higher education was
widely discussed. Some of its opponents ar-
gued that women w^ere incapable of deep thought
and had no scholastic aptitude. Others supported
the extremist idea thai higher education and the
stresses of university studies could prove fatal
for the 'weak' female organism. Other moral
considerations existed as well It was claimed
that high education for w^omen would destroy
the family. Family life might be endangered by
women's involvement in social struggles and
this, in turn, would ruin the values of mother-
hood. Therefore a great part of the discussion
on gender equality w^as focused on the stixiggle
for the right of higher education.
There was Jiocountiy in the region in which
women's access to higher education was given
without furious social arguments and this was
to underhne how fundamental for society this
problem was. For example in Ljubljana Uni-
versity in 1919 women students comprised
only 3% of the total number of students while
20 years later, in 1939 they were almost 20%
and today they are 59%. In Hungary the
struggle for higher education for women
started as early as the 1870s- The first Hun-
garian women to become university graduates
finished their education abroad: this was the
case with the first Hungarian lady doctor Viima
Hugonnai. Almost at the same time in Swit-
zerland the first Bulgarian, Dr. Anastasia
Golovina, acquired a degree in medicine. In
Turkey it was in 1914 when the first women
were allowed to attend university. In Bulgaria
this happened as early as 1901. As we can see
Albania, 1970s
even before the First World War women man-
aged to assert iheh^ presence in the universi-
ties all through South East Europe. Even with
the first generations of university students,
there were considerable differences between
the genders regarding the changes brought into
the students' lives by their university studies.
For example in the mid- 1920s a Sofia Univer-
sity students' survey showed that out of 2601
male students 245 were married while out of
1004 female students only 32 were family
women. Obviously taking care of the family
affected the academic work of men and women
in a different way. This reiterated the need for
special amenities for student mothers. Another
disproportion which had survived for a long
time at university education was the ratio of
men/women from the countryside . The same
survey established that 518 men came from
the countrv while the number of women was
only 28. On the other hand though, in spite of
37
First book, 1915
such disproportions universities turned into
places where both sexes could communicate
on equal terms and where new forms of social
life and new youth culture emerged.
Although after World War 11 the countries
in South-East Europe shared the general ten-
dencies towards egalitarian education for both
sexes, it should be bore in mind that many of
the regional and social differences in the edu-
cational opportunities were preserved to the
present and were even widened. This particu-
larly refers to the regions which are involved
in military conflicts as well as great social
problems like unemployment and high rate of
emigration. These differences refer to the ac-
cess to education in the areas of the foreign
languages, computer literacy, or modem voca-
tional education.
Sources
It was not common for girls in the 19
century to get a higher education
1. The memoirs of Saba Vazova (1832-
1912)
[.,.] In 1847 they got me engaged and then
my brother Gueorgui, who had graduated
Greek and French in Plovdiv, found out that I
want to learn how to read and write.,. 1 was
14 then. I couldn't get enough reading. If I
was knitting a sock - the book was with me; if
I was doing the housework or helping my
mother with the baby - the book was in one of
my hands all the time. My mother often scalded
me that I was not careful with my work and I
was wasting my time reading. She used to say:
7 won > allow you to become a mm. You'll be
a lay person. No girl knows how to read. It's
only Nedelya Gulyuva who does. Do you want
to be like her? Is that why you won't let that
book go? Take the sock right away. '
When it was a holiday [ usually took care
the rooms to get tidy then I got dressed and
after that I used to sit down with a book in a
quite room, I kept on reading all day long. I
read through Plutarch, Telemach, Robinson
(Robinson came in the inner pages of a pa-
per), I devoured song books and many oth-
ers... After that, when I read through the pa-
pers that were received by my elder brother,
I learned the news and often on holidays our
relatives came in the afternoons so that I could
read to them or tell them the news.
Answer the questions:
1. Where did young S, Vazova learn how to
read and write?
2. What was the difference between the edu-
cation of the girls and the boys in the family from
the 1850s?
38
3- Why did S. Va^ova b&c:onn& literate at the
age of 14?
• Because she did not want Lo learn;
• Because she was poor;
• Because h was generally corLsidered that lit-
eracy was necessary only for those girls who would
become nuns;
• Because her parents did not ±tiik their chil-
dren needed to ieam;
• Because it was only then when her brother set
to iinprove her education;
4. What is the difference between the life of
the girl in the mid 19 century and Ihe life of the
girl in modem times?
5. \Vh3l skills were valued by the girl's family?
• To be able to keep the house tidy;
• To be able to cook;
•To be able to knit;
• To be a good student;
• To help her mother;
• To entertain guests;
6. Can girls today knit socks? Is this skill nec-
essary nowadays? Can you knit?
7. What kind of books did S. Vazova read?
Are these books interesting to young people of
today?
2, Memoirs of Efrossinia Nikolova,
born 1885
From ^'7 am a double mother: Grandma
F rosea tells stories'\
A whole week passed I am not allowed to
go to school. I keep on crying and begging
mother to let me continue going to school. I
promise VU help her, FU do whatever she asks
me to do.
Mother only says: 'Don't cry. You've had
enough education. You see, you know how to
write letters to your father. Vm illiterate. So
what? Tm still alive! I need you to help me look
Group of village girls at practical school, Bulgaria, 1930s
after flie baby. Your grandma lives too fai* away.
Winter's coming...
I can't stop crying, keep on reading my les-
sons, my friends from school came and asked
mc what the matter was. They told me that the
teachers asked them why Frosca was playing
truant.
I kept my school bag like something sacred.
I often read my textbooks. My younger brother
Miho used the same school bag to go school,
but he wasn't eager to learn, he wasn't as good
as I was.
Questions:
1 - What were the reasons for the girl to be stopped
Tom going to school?
2. Point out those parts of the text which show
hat the girl was really willing to go to school.
39
3^ Biography of Vilma Hugonnai
(Hungary)
Vilma Hugonnai Gyorgyne Szillassy read
an article in the journal ''Hon" edited by Mor
Jokai on Switzerland where women were al-
lowed to study. She was reading and educat-
ing herself but her only son became 6 years
old and her mother in law took over the edu-
cation. Her husband did not understand why
his wife was not satisfied with the traditional
way of living as a noble woman. She was al-
lowed to go to study by the family council
consisting of only male members but without
financial support. She used her family jewelry
to cover the costs of her 6 years of study; she
became a vegetarian because of financial rea-
sons. She graduated in 1 879 and returned home.
In Hungary she made attempts to notify her di-
ploma, the committee accepted her application
for a Mature, but did not notify her diploma,
because w^omen were not allowed to work as
doctors. She was advised to study midwifery in
a course that she did with great dignity after
she had al ready graduated as a doctor and started
to practice as a midwife. In 1884 she divorced
and spent all her life for health. The decree on
opening the Faculty of Arts and Medicine had a
point on notification of Diploma and her de-
gree was also notified but she had to pass three
exams at the age of 50, and she was given the
degree on 16 May 1897. She died in 1922.
Answer the questions:
1 . What circles of Hungarian society did she
come from?
• Did she stick to the traditional life path of
women? To what extend?
• Was her husband able to understand her as-
pirations?
2. How did she solv^c the problem of Jacking
any financial support for her study at Universit}?
• Where did she decide to go after graduation?
Why?
3. Wliat did she practice? Was her diploma rec-
ognized? How old was she when she was finally
recognized as a physician?
4. How did her family react?
5, Was she correct to her family when she left
them for several years?
• Was her fami ly correct to her when they left
her without any financial support?
* What are you ready to offer as a sacrifice to
real ize your dreams to study?
6, How lihould someone act if his/her family does
not support his/her personal endeavors?
Mark the right statements:
During the 19 century:
a. Women were not allowed to study university
anywhere around Europe
b. Women could not dispose of their own prop-
erty
c. Divorce was not permitted
d. Husbands opposed to the university degrees
of their wives
The idea that woman are not able to get a
public work or scientific career was also
spread by some teachers in the school. The
famous Yugoslavian writer Branislav
NusiCy gets us back in the time of the 1870s
with his remarkable sense of human
4. The autobiography of Serbian and
Yugoslavian writer Branislav Nusic
(1864)
[...] But when the teacher (of Mathemat-
ics) had to explain us the meaning of zero,
we were really confused, the teacher was
set in a difficult situation too. He tried vari-
ous ways, but either he couldn't manage to
explain it to us or we couldn't understand
him.
Courses in culinary art, Girl's School for practical agriculture, Bulgaria, 1938
"Zero, children, is nothing, but still it can be
something- When it's single, if s nothing, it's
not worth a bean, but if you put it next to num-
ber ORCj it becomes ten. and if you put it next
to two, it becomes twenty, God knows why but
it's like that. It can't be explained easily. But
now - for example my wife..* Before she's
married me, let us say, my wife was ni ], but now
with me, now she is the wife of the master. Is
that right?"
^That's right!" replied the whole class.
After that explanation, of course, all of us
started to (hink his wife as a zero, and every
number ten seemed to us as a maiiied couple.
In our children's fantasy the married women
from our town appeared to us as zeros, and the
digits next to them were their husbands. Even
certain people seemed to us as certain digits.
For example, the county governor and his wife
looked like number 90 to us.
Answer the questions:
1 . In what historical time did the story hap-
pen?
2, How did the teacher describe the zero? Do
you think this is tlie best explanation of the mean-
ing of zero?
3- What lesson were children taught? Was it
only about Mathematics?
4. What do you think about the teacher's
attitude towards women?
5. How did the author feel about this lesson.
Was his attitude reflected in the text?
6. What do you think about the statement,
that woman wilhout husband is zero, nothing?
Mark the right answers:
Why did such a parallel occur to the teacher of
Mathemalics?
- Because his wife was not highly educated;
- Because his wife was economically depen-
dant;
41
-Because his wife' social position was deter-
mined by his own one;
- Because he had an occupation, and his wife
did not have any
- Because in his circle there were no women,
having high social status.
- Because the children would understand such
an explanation.
Some girls had (he chance to go to school and
also to participate in study trips.
The following paragraph is/rot?} an essay
titled ''En route to the Eternal City'' by
th
Zacharina Nicheva^ a student in the 8 clnss.
5. Students fram the First Sofia High
School for Girls shared their experiences
during their trip to Italy in 1929.
To i^ee Italy for real was for me something
that I could not even imagine; in my earliest
dreams this country was one of the most beau-
tif til visions, for her 1 had created a whole new
world, she lived in my soul and developed there.
And now, I am going to this country from which
Goethe departed with great sorrow and loved
more than his own cold land. Where Shelly was
laid to rest in peace, where Pencho Slaveykov
left this world, he, who was the philosopher of
our poetry, the greatest idealist in life.
[. . .] We are walking along the straight well
paved and broad street and the ruins rise at
our sides. [...] T close iii} eyes; the street -
bi^oad and clean, , . A motley crowd of aristo-
crats, salesmen and slaves... The proud fig-
ure of the tribune evokes whispers and greet-
ings... Heavy iron door is slammed and the
young proud patrician is hidden behind it.
We are leaving Ostia antica, throwing fi-
nal glance of farewell at the old Rcgina and
hiding to the port itself.
[...] The wind is playing with the green
leaves of the palms, olive trees and Italian
pines. Their sad whispering accompanied by the
ringing murmur of the see waves rises up above
Physics Students in Vitosha mountain, 1930s
42
Students, Bosnia, 19^0s
US to merge with the noisy joyful Iciughter of
young Bulgarian kdies getting ready for a snap-
shot. We are leaving Ostia, then Rome too... I
threw ten cents in 'Di Trevi' fountain saying
*Good-bye' !
Questions:
1. What emotions were expressed by the
school girls before their departure to Italy?
2. How would you comment Zacharina
Nicheva's education?
• In what way did the girls' education affect tlieir
perceptions in the foreign countiy?
• WhaL impressed them in Rome?
3. What couldn't they notice in Rome? Re-
call who ruled Italy at the time. How can you
explain the fact that the political and social prob-
lems o( the time were not mentioned?
• She was not aware of them because they were
not discussed in her family;
• Her teachers did not expect her to discuss
poUtical and social issues;
• She wanted to impress her literature icucher
and to prove that she was an excellent student*
4. What would attract your attention in a for-
eign country?
• The life of young people ;
•Social issues;
• Tourist sites;
• Clubs and public entertainment;
•Fashion;
5. In what way can education influence Ihe
schoolgirls' imagination?
6. Describe a city in a foreign country and
try to find out what influences your percep-
tions.
7. What has changed in the opportunities for
communication between young people in Eu»
rope since the time when the essay was writ-
ten?
43
School's excursion to Black sea cost, 1926
Here you will find another example for a
girl who had a high education and started a
career as musician
6- Biography of Suna Kan, T\irkey
Suna Kan was born in Adana, Turkey. She
started playing the violin at the age of five and
gave her first public concerts when she was nine
years old, performing Mozart's A major and
Viotti's A minor violin concertos. She contin-
ued her studies in Ankara under Izzet Albayrak
and Lico Amar. In 1949 she was sent to France
on a scholarship, under a special law passed by
the Turkish Grand National Assembly. She stud-
ied w^ith Gabriel Bouillon at the Paris
Conservatoire and graduated in 1952, winning
the First Prize. Later on, she received the title
''State Artist' from the Turkish government.
She was also awarded '^Chevalier dans I'ordre
National du Merite'' from the Government of
France.
Suna Kan's extensive concert tours have so
far covered most parts of the world, including
England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Russian,
China, Japan, South American countries, Cmada
and the United States, She has performed with
many international orchestras such as the Lon-
don Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Bamberg Symphony, Residentie Orchestra
(Holland), Moscow Symphony, French Na-
tional Radio Symphony (ORTF) under great
conductors like Istvan Kertesz, Arthur Fiedler,
Walter Susskind, Hans Rosbaud, Gotthold
Lessing, Louis Fremaux, Michel Plasson. She
also collaborated with celebrated artists like
Yehudi Menuhin, Igor Bezrodny, Pierre
Foumier, Andre Navarra, and Frederick Riddle
in performing double concertos.
At present, in addition to her concerts,
broadcasts and recording activities, she is a
professor of violin at the Bilkent University
Faculty of Music, in Ankara.
Questions:
L How old was Suna Kan as she started to
play violin? How old was she when she gave her
first publicconcert?
2. What did Suna Kan achieve and how do
you estimate these achievements?
• In what sphere of the musical art dad Suna
Kan show?
• Why did she have to start to playing that early?
3. How does the state support the talented
boys and girls?
4. What kind of the public recognition did
Suna Kan get in Turkey?
5. What other Balkan female musicians do
you know?
6. In what type of musical genres are the
Balkan musicians most famou;^?
7. Do you have a favorite performer or a band
in South East Europe?
44
Ideal
Woman?
After 1850s when still traditional values were taught to girls,
there was also, step by step, a change of the female image. Men
journalists explained the crisis in marriage and the newly ap-
peared tendencies of negative attitude towards family life dur-
ing the 1880s in the big Bulgarian cities with the fact that the
educated abroad or at home officers and intellectuals could not
find a spouse with a proper upbringing and culture. The stories
of the newly married couples, which cannot find the imagined
happiness, encourage celibacy. Journalists, lawyers, officers, and
politicians from different politic and social circles in South East
Europe were also considering the inequality in upbringing and
education between the two sexes to be the reason for unhappy
marital life. But they supported the educaUon of women to the
extent, to which they could become worthy partners of their edu-
cated husbands at the building of family harmony .
Let's read the letter from 1846 which Vassi! Aprilov, Bulgar-
ian educationist, wrote to his sister in respect to the choice of
wifefortheirnephew, a student of medicine in Paris.
Postcard sent by a soldier to his beloved during the Wortd War One, Bulgaria
Source L ''His wife should be educated,,., hiow how to
read and write Bulgarian books, arithmetic, geography, history
45
and a little bit of Greet Therefore, you should
choose a clever, witty giri with honorable and
dignified parents, pretty and nice, and then
suggest her father to start educating her in
the things above...'''
Why did the student need an educated wife
according to the author?
In which fields sliould women be educated?
Pavel A, Rovinskij, a researcher of the so-
cial life in Montenegro in the 19th c, wrote:
Source 2. "A// the graduates from the Fe-
male institute in Cetinje (the old capital of
Montenegro) got married... Some of them got
married to accountants or to highly educated
men. The number of the intellectuals in
Montenegro mcreased in some spheres of the
public and state life. There is a rule for them
to get educated wives such as the graduates
from the Female institute. Thus the institute
performs one of its tasks to prepare for the
educated Montenegrians well educated
women partners in life... Another important
issue is that the educated
woman introduces to her
home what is absent now, but
needed, for the man of cul-
ture. Only if the woman and
man are on one and the same
degree of intellectual devel-
opment, there could exist to-
tal solidarity and under-
standing...''
Turkey J 930s
What changed at the end of
the 19 century e, g. m
Montenegro concerning girls'
education?
Guess which the reasons and
the aims of the change were.
What do girls and boys leam
today?
- at school; al home; from
their friends;
Are there any differences in
the education of girls and boys
today?
The same tendency ap-
peared in the Bulgarian village.
The village bachelors from the
end of the 19th century pre-
ferred for wives those girls who
had been sei^ants because they
are ''more educated, more in-
dustrious and more orderly \
as Dimo Kazasov, a well-
46
known Bulganan journalist md politician, wrote
in his memories.
Thus servirg was considered a kind of edu-
cation and training for girls. The wealthier
parents in the village sent their daughters to
study the order of the city house, the meals
and manners of the citizens. Tlie poor ones
sent their girls to serve in order to provide some
money for living and to support their fami-
lies, The earned money very often were the
poor girls' trousseau, and what thev had leamed
in the citizen families helped them to find a
better spouse.
But there were also, of course, cases when
serving became Ehese girls' misfortune till
the end of their life because they became vic-
tims of offenses, love deceit and se\ual vio-
lence.
ploitation of young people (e.g. as au-pair girls,
in summer jobs today etc.)? ^^
During 1860s the first Bulgarian female or-
ganizations defended the need of education for
girls in order to fulfil their role of ''worthy
mothers and worthy partners" of men. In or-
der to conduct this role, i.e. to be ''worthy
mothers and worthy partners" of men who
were already receiving their education abroad,
these organizations tried to convince women
that financial sources, efforts and labor should
be invested in another kind of dowry: spiri-
tual wealth. The women of these organizations
were convinced that the lime was about to
come when the great amounts of dowry and
gifts would not be treasured as much as edu-
cation and enlightenment.
Do you know current situations with similar
problemis? (not only in your country but in whole
Europe)?
Do you know examples of other work ex-
Discuss with the whole class: What is more
important: a great dowry, a good education (and
what education?) or botli? Find arguments from
history and from present time to back up for
your opinion.
Womefi's amateur theatrical play in Szabadka, Subotica, 19t4
47
It is clear that the dominant perception of
the female role in the 19th century was that of
a mother and a proper partner of her husband.
The first female organizations adapted their
activities for women's education but only con-
sidering their family roles Therefore their edu-
cational policy was directed towards inciting
qualities that corresponded to the ruling ideal
of woman during the patriarchal and early
craftsman 19th century. The girl was to be
turned into "meek, nice, neat and obedient
maiden" and after that into a mother, a saint,
devoted to the family, husband and children.
This ideal influenced girls's attitudes to their
own bodies and their public behavior
Let see the notes of Rovinskij about the edu-
cational influence of the Female Institute in
Cetinje, founded in 1869:
Source 3 . ''In recent times some freedom
in the attitude of men towards women has ap-
peared in Montenegro, although the women
understand and accept it in a different way.
Some of them like it because they feel free, and
others stick firmly to the old Montenegrian
opinion on these relationships. The gradu-
ates from the female Institute in Cetinje are
from the last ones. Sofia Petrovna educated
them extremely in puritan spirit. They are not
impressed by wealth and noisy entertinn-
ment... The domestic coziness is above every
other pleasure for them... I know a
Montenegrian who is a graduate from this in-
stitute. She married a man with high educa-
tion and high status in the politic world. He
is rich and lives in a city in middle Europe,
where life is blooming. She enters the high
society together with her husband. She is
pretty and well educated and leaves a good
impression in this society. She could l\a^e a
nice place in that society but spends her time
at home with the narrow circle of her
husbands friends ^
How did the graduates react to the change of
the male ideal of women? Did they agree?
What were the reasons wme Montenegrian
women to oppose to such changes:
- no interest in intellectual things;
-* a changed behavior was not accepted by
the society;
- a changed behavior was not accepted by
themselves;
- the husband didn't allow;
- their peer group (other girls and boys) didn't
appreciate;
- women were not enough educated;
- parents didn' t appreciate.
The female place in the society was still de-
termined by her role in the family as mother
and tutor of children, runner of the private
farm, spreading around love and gentleness.
Isabela Gruici, 1897, Romania
Wives were equal to husbands in the organi-
zation of the funiiJy economics and fann. Very
often women had greater influence in maiiag-
ina the household than nnen.
Banat, 1920s, Ramaria
Source 4 , '"My grand grandfather was
a simple man ", wrote the Bulgarian poJitician
and diplomat Mihail Madjarov in his memoirs,
*'aud managed only the outside work: buy-
ing cotton and selling theprodnctioih but my
grand grandmother did all the rest. She con-
trolled his money, did bis accounting, man-
aged his working shop and dealt with the
craftsmen work as well as the trade... But
there were other cases - my grandfather the
priest M. was a contrast to his father. He
managed not only the church and outside
worky but also that work that at the time was
considered Jenduine,.. "
What was the position of the grandmother in
the family? Who was more important, the grandfa-
ther or the grandmother?
Do you know other examples where women
had this kind of role in marriage (sometimes also
due to male absence during wars)?
Nevertheless, women had proved their abili-
ties as managers of the family farming and
housekeeping they were excluded from the
spheres in which the law, material and eco-
nomic bases of the social life was founded, till
the end of the 1 9th centurj^ Women had no place
and rights in the public life. They were repre-
sented by their husbands or men-relatives (fa-
thers, brothers, uncles). Therefore women re-
ceived no franchise rights and the opportunity
for education and professional realization that
could make them equal to men in the public
life: engineers, architectures, traders, lawyers
in the newly formed national states in South
East Europe.
No matter that the rights of the Bulgarian
women according to the "Trade Law" from
the 1980s of the 1 9th century guaranteed her
the possibihty to conduct this activity if she
had her husband's approval or if she was a
widow and had inherited his business. Despite
these rights the Bulgarian woman was rarely a
trader because the society did not support or
encourage such women's activities. At the
same time the law suggested this activity for
the married woman, whose guarantee in the so-
ciety was her husband's agreement.
The outlook of women also depended on
their role and the morality expectations of so-
ciety. Modem beauty ideal didn't exist and that
is why for example during the 19th c. the pale-
ness and wrinkles on her face were not a prob-
lem for her self-confidence. Because her
wrinkles were considered to express her ma-
ternity and martyrdom, they were highly es-
teemed by the society. In the 19th century the
physical beauty was connected with the virtues
49
of patriarchal society: goodness and assiduous-
ness. '^Beauty" was linked to the notion of lively
and physically healthy body as well as to the
goodness and assiduousness of the girl that
guaranteed the educating of the children, neat,
clean home and a prosperous farming. The
French traveler Xavier Marmier who had trav-
eled around Montenegro in the middle of the
19th century wrote:
'\,, the Montenegrin girl loses her
youth freshness because of her way of
living, her face gets sunburned and
wrinkled very early, but her body is
fabulous.'^
It was more important for women to
be able to do physical labor which ''can
be endured only by an absolutely
healthy body''. In his travel book, named
"High Albania - A Victorian Traveler's
Balkan Odyssey", Edith Durham pointed
out:
''Women's work in such a house is
extremely heavy. They have scarce an
idle minute save when sleeping. They
fetch the firewood and all the water; and
as they tramp to and from the spring
with the heavy water-barrel bound by
woolen cords to their shoulders, they
spin or knit incessantly. They weave and
make all the elaborate garments, doing
the wonderful black braiding of men's
trousers according to traditional pat-
terns. Even the braid itself is hand-
plaited in eight threads over a half-cyl-
inder of basketwork, which the flatter
holds on her knee, tossing the clicking
bobbins one side to other, and pinning up the
finished braid with swift dexterity. Dozens of
yards are needed for one costume; but it is a
work of art when finished '\
• What kind of hard work did women to do ?
• Whal other hard work can you imagine?
• Here were described typical female seasonal
works. What season was the author speaking
about? And what work do people do nowadays in
diis season?
• What do you think men did in this season?
The woman was required to be healthy and
strong, to have meek character and to provide
the continuance of the kin. These notions of
Peasant Mother^ West Rhodopy, Bulgaria
woman: mother, housewife and comrade de-
termined the attitude towards the feminine
body: it became a source of physical health and
beauty, providing the continuance of the fam-
ily. That is why Xavier Maimier, a French trav-
eler on the Balkans in the middle of the 19
century, underlined in his ''Letters to the Medi-
terranean and Montenegro'' ,
50
Source 5. '' These dignified women are
steady and can be relied upon. They are
grown rigorously from their childhood in the
rigorous school of labor and assiduou.mess.
Our storytellers should think of an extraor-
dinary story to put them in some kind of
love scene where they are spreading lilac,
sank deep in golden rays and cicmds, atid
in their imagination and dreams. The ro-
mantic love in this lands of divine nature
is an exception and even in the folk songs
ii is a miracle, A mistake, called in the
world of civilization mistake of the heart,
that makes some mocked at and others felt
sorry about, here is a deadly punish-
meni,,y
What was the real situation of women in
Montenegro according to the author and what
was the attitude to romantic women and lo\''e?
What did reality demand from the physical
appearance of women and what did the ro-
mantic ideal?
For example the choice of a wife begun
with the survey of the girl's body and as
the descriptions of the everyday life during
the 19th c. explain us 'if there is a pubhc
bath in the village, it is easy to know whether
there are any wounds on the maid'^s body".
Thus the ideal of the ''beautifur: healthy
body, good nature, mild character and nice
outlook - was bom.
A progressive step on the way to the healthy
body and also to subduing the sufferings of the
fetnalebody was the managing of the fear and
shame that defined the relationships between
the patriarchal man and woman and their own
bodies. This fear and shame did not allow ac-
quainting with the bodily pains and sufferings
and showing it to a outside look e.g. of a doc-
tor. Only the local medicine woman and the old
quacks had access to the ill body in the patriar-
chal world. The revealing of the secrets of the
female body and the discovering of the body
as a biological and physiological organism in
Bulgaria started on the pages of the newspaper
"Female world" from 1 888 on. The ideal woman
now had to know much more about her body
Bulgarian Family, Trojan, 1880s
and how to keep it healthy. The articles in this
newspaper were signed by ''Your Granny". Her
figure continued to embody the notion of com-
petence, knowledge, power and authority till the
end of the 19th century.
So, during the summer of 1888 ,,Your
Granny" tried to make it popular in the newspa-
per, ^reviewed by women for mistresses and
misses*', the means of the contemporaiy medi-
cine that could find and examine the different
states of the female body. She encouraged the
51
Health counseling of the mothers in the village, Maoedonia, T94€
women to visit ^female doctors'^-gynecologists.
Of course, the newspaper policy was to turn the
female body into a living organism, conduct-
ing its basic social functions: continuation of
tlie kin, giving biith and raising children. Women
w^ere to overcome the shume and fear from their
own bodies, to realize the advantages of the sci-
entific methods in comparison to those of the
folklore medicine. All these influences lead to
the decrease of high female mortality at giving
birth, so typical for the whole 19th century.
Mortality at birth was relatively high during
the whole 19th century and it remained a sig-
nificant biologic and social trial for the female
body. Here is such a description from Xavier
Marnier written in 1854:
Source 6. ,,The Montenegrin women will
continue her long walking or some of the house
work even when she is to be a mother. She is
taught that it will be just a moment even if
she is in the field far away from any help or
support, alone with her pains and exhausted
from her efforts. AH will happen very quickly,
she will wrap the child in her dress and carry
it home. If she gets sick, she should patiently
suffer the pain till God feels mercifid to take
her life. There is no doctor and no pharmacy .'*
Source 7. **Then she remembered the
third one, Katerina, and the day of her birth.
When the soft and warm night evening made
the colors of the plum tree invisible, she felt
the first pains. Then she got scared. She was
scared because she was alone at home, alone
in the bay, alone in the whole workL People
are so lonely in front of the death. Then she
understood that everyone comes to this world
as a lonely and naked being ,
When Apostol came, she laid her hands mto
52
his as of her husband. When it became dark
she started to wrinkle from pain. She cried
and prayed to give birth to a boy.
-Pray God, ApostolK she screamed from
pain, Prey to be a boy!
4 will prey for you!, he grabbed her hands,
not knowing whom to pray\
- Why should 1 prey for a boy? I do not
care. 1 want you to sunnve the suffering...
-Pray for a boyy in order not live my life of
a dog!
-A girt said the grandmother and sat her
fat ass on a chair.
-A girl, she cried helplessly She laid on her
wet pillow, Shefdt sorry for herself and the
n^w womaUy who was just born to continue
her suffering ".
Y Yazova, Bulgarian writer
of interwaf period; "War \
1 . Let's remember the changes that appeared
in the social perception of Ihe wojnen virtues,
2. Who were the carriers of these new per-
ceptions? Why did not they consider it enough for
the woman to bejusL a good housewife?
3. Which was the dominant notion of the
woman in this period? What were her positions
in the borders of her home?
4. How did the basic notion of a wife and a
mother influence the perception of female
beauty?
5. What were the demands from the female
body during this epoch? Why was the physical
strength valued just as the female morality?
Source 8, ''At this time Neda (the name of
the girl a heroine from a novel) was almost
15, Her hair was silky blonde, , , her eyes black
as rnorelloSy her lips red and tiny, her face was
white and round like a apple. Her face never
got sunburned even though she worked alt day
under the sun. She was thin and tali . - She wore
nether too long, nor too short bony tails, the
way the other girts did. She had measure for
everything. . . Neda dressed loo sitnply, but too
nicely...''
L. KaraveLov , Neda, 1868.
1 . WlMt was tlic literal^ ideal of a beautiful girl?
2. What was the difference between this litera-
ry ideal and the „rear* woman?
3. Compare this image with the ideas of the
girls from the 1930s about how should a woman
look like.
Source 9< ''The sexy^ creatures were the
pennanent theme among the high school boys
as well as in the youngsters ' dreams. Except
for momentaty scenes, caught from a foreign
film or seductive color photos of semi-naked
ladies, for example^ in the American calendar
Bosnian student in the garden
''Esquire'\ which was quite popular then, I
had not seen a pinup-girl: every boy\s dream.
We should not forget that the erotic fantasies
of a ieenager can be extremely imaginative!
Here is the ideal mature woman: she was 25,
with jaunty stride along the golden
Sabiha Gokchen, the first woman pilot fn Turkey ,1930s
Sozopolian sand (Bulgarian sea resort), long
legs, blond hair, bronze ten and tempting
forms. "
S. Giuev, Memoirs. In "Utopissi" 1 99OT/8.
Source 10. "/ am giute satisfied for be-
ing a woman and it wiU be hard for anybody
to prove the contrary The women who desire
to be men do not know what a thing is the
woman; how much she costs, which her place
in the family and society^ is, which her aim is,
what her present and future are. In the old
times, when women had no rights and was in
mental darkness, such a wish could be ex-
cused because then the man gave no rights
to the woman. He imposed laws which were
heavy and unjust for hen Also these laws
granted him privileges and constituted in
the woman disgust towards her gender and
the hot desire to be a man who could do
everything. The women should never want
to be men because men have the advantage
to kill one another in battles and deal with
trade, T!wv are troubled by codex, scien-
tific magazines and other dry and fruitless
theories while we, the women, possess the
most honorable and superior qualities. We
give birth and direct the first steps and
deeds of our children's bodies, hearts and
souls; we encourage the great and genius
tnen in there glorious struggles; we sacri-
fice voluntarily our happiness for the sake
of the others\ If we, the women, knew that
the prosperity of our motherland, society
and families depended on us, that we were
the most important cycle of the society, that
men became bold and courageous fighters
and lovers because of us, we would never
want to be men and envy their virtues'\
'*A man or a woman", signed by "YourGranny*\ In
the newspaper "Female world". 01.03, i 898.
1. Which aspects were important for her fe-
male identity? And why did she value iTiore the
women's position than the male's one?
2. How did this ideal identity carry the con-
servative values in the modem epoch? What roles
would it preserve for the women?
3. Which of these perceptions will liberal femi-
nism change in order to build a new ideal about the
roleof women in (he society?
54
Love
and
Marriage
m
Bourgeois
Society
Jugoslavia, postcard, 1930s
Bourgeois Small Family^ Romantic Love
Althe beginning of the 20 century capitalist production
started to replace traditional family farming and crafts on the
Balkans. More young people were looking for work and edu-
cation in the towns. The new production conditions changed
love and marriage, as well. The marital age increased - men
who could no longer rely on the inherited property and family
support, had to find first appropriate work and earn enough to
build a home and support their own family. Often wives had
to work as well in order to sustain the family budget.
The period of premarital flirting increased: the feeling of
love became valuable in itself; the relations
between those in love became more senti-
mentaL The personal requirements for the
"beloved person of one's heart'' - manners,
character, profession, political believes - in-
creased. More often the newspapers were in-
foirning about young people "who have com-
iTiitted suicide because of unhappy love". The
patriarchal dominance of men was replaced
by the idea of chivalry —male patronage over
the ''tender half of oneself and service to
the ''beloved woman of one's heart". The re-
fined behavior of young girls and their abil-
ity to make their home a cozy family nest
was highly valued. In their spare time young
couples socialized more with their friends
than with their relatives - they used to go to
the movies, on excursions, for walks. . .
The number of children in the family de-
creased (2-4). They were no longer ex-
pected as useful helpers in the family farm-
ing, but were valued because of themselves
and as "the nation's future". The relation-
ships between parents and children became
more emotional, child's personality w^as
respected - the child's birthday was cel-
ebrated, parents were looking for suitable
toys, clothes, schools and friends for
^ their children. Family care for the chil-
dren increased, as well as the price of bringing up a child.
The small bourgeois family gained independence from
the kin-patriarchal patronage: its primary goal was no
longer just the continuation of the husband's kin, but "the
55
family happiness'', and '*the good upbringing of
children" as well.
The family, however, became more depen-
dent on the crises of the capitalist market and
the unemployment, on the political ideologies
and struggles, on the scientific and technical
achievements. The inevitable inclusion of
women in the capitalist pro- ^
duction advanced their
emancipation and
professionalisation. Work-
ing women became more
independent, new perspec-
tives opened in front of
them- they could get real-
ization not only as wives
and mothers, but also in
their professional and so-
cial activities. Some of
them chose to dedicate
themselves completely to
the professional vocation
and ''in service to the na-
tion'*. But for most of the
wives the work burden was Timisoara, Romania, 1923
doubled - they were ex-
pected to work hard not only at the factory, but
at home as well keeping to their traditional role
of good wives and mothers. The numberof ''old
maids and bachelors" also increased; these
were people who wanted to get manied but
could not do that because of their high expec-
tations (they had not yet met their "Mr. or Mrs.
Right"), or because they did not have secure
incomes and could not support a family.
Motherhood - Medicine, Laws
The decrease in birth rates at the beginning
of the century started to cause social anxiety.
Society saw a way out of this situation in the
development of social support for poor moth-
ers, the affirmation of family values, the de-
velopment of science. It was believed that with
the development of genetics, medicine and so-
cial statistics people would finally be able to
master their evolution and the national state
would rationally plan its population: families
would assure the preservation and improve-
ment of the nation by raising an optimal num-
ber of physically and mentally healthy children.
The number of children decreased, but the
social care for their birth, up-
bringing and education in-
creased. All marriages, births,
cases of child mortality, ill-
nesses were strictly registered.
Medicine imposed new health
and hygiene norms for
children's upbringing. Births
and abortions took place in the
hospitals under doctors' super-
vision. Abortions were re-
stricted. Child mortality de-
creased sharply. Life expect-
ancy increiLsed - 54 years for
men and 67 for women (Hun-
gary).
Special labor laws supported
the birth and upbringing of chil-
dren. For an example the law for
the protection of pregnant women and women
in child birth in Bulgaria from 1905 provi-
sioned 55 days vacation for them and payment
of half of their salary, and th e law for the social
security form 1924 increased the paid mater-
nity vacation to 84 days including also medical
and financial support.
The representatives of Christian femiiusm,
which was the official feminism in most of
the South-East countries, pleaded for pohti-
cal and educational emancipation of women,
but pointed out that the right to professional
realization of women should not disturb their
realization as mothers. They opposed to the
idea of institutional upbringing of children in
kindergartens and homes which was promoted
by the revolutionary feminists and fought for
the right of working women to be provided by
56
the state, so tTiey could bring up their children.
They believed il was only the coziness of the
home, the parents " love and wamith that could
educate in children bolii morals and love nec-
essary for the nation's progress. Women's pro-
fessional realizadon sliould be appropriate for
their female nature and should not interfere
with the family values. Women's pailicipation
in social life would contribute to its cultiva-
tion in the spirit of motherhood and charity.
Women's charity organizations started to help
for the upbringing and education of ''deprived
nadon's children'- poor children, orphans,
immigrants' children, etc.
Male and Female nature - Cultivation of
Sexual Drives
ih
At the beginning of the 20 centur}^ the hu-
Secondary school £tudent,Bulgaria, 19205
man body - its genes, reproductive functions
and erotic feelings became subject to an in-
creased scholarly interest. People discussed
not only the social problems of the gender and
the family, but started to talk for the first time
about ''sexuality and sex"; new ''scholarly"
definitions of the biological peculiarities of
men and v^omen, their body desires, and erotic
actions.
The sexual-health education emerged. The
pedagogues were trying to protect young men
through magazines and lectures from ''the
vice of masturbation", which was considered
to exhaust the organism and kill the will, and
girls - from unwanted pregnancy poindngout
to the destructive effects of STD and abortion
on the reproductive health of young women.
The differences between the two sexes were
underlined and exaggerated as genetically pre-
determined and absolute. Female nature was
considered as more sensitive and dependent
on sexual impulses and desires. The socially
useful behavior demanded that w^omen should
overcome their sensual nature through the ema-
nating role of motherhood and social charity.
Male nature was considered to be more ra-
tional and strong-willed than female: Man
could overcome their sexual drives and de-
velop their personality through professional
and military service and self sacrifice - for
the family and the nation.
At the beginning of the century the small
nuclear family - an educated and professional
father, an educated housewife and two-three
children bonded forever in a love union was
affirmed as a national ideal. Family coziness,
mutual spouses' fidelity and care for the
children's future were considered to provide a
shelter against the uncertainty of the capitalist
labor market, political conflicts, sexual temp-
tations.
The Families of the Poor. Paid Love
Eh
At the end of the 19 century not only boys
57
but poor girls, as well, headed toward the towns
- to became housemaids in rich homes or work-
ers, keeping a hope to save money and get a
profession or find "the beloved one of their
hearts^and man7 him. But soon they had to get
accustomed to exploitation and unemployment.
Many innocent girls became victims of pimps.
At the beginning of the century prostitutes in
Bulgaria were mainly foreigners, but during the
1920s and 1930s the brothels were full with
poor girls from the villages - mainly house-
maids (51% of the registered prostitutes in
Sofia in 1934 were from the village, 33%
housemaids and 31% workers). Miserable life
and poor sexual education contributed to the
dissemination of STD, which reached a threat-
ening rate. The statistics of examined prosti-
tutes in Sofia showed
that 53% have had gon-
orrhea, and 24% syphi-
lis (1934).
Thenumber of ''de-
cent" wealthy husbands
who were tempted to
search for secret enter-
tainment in the brothels
was on the increase.
Poor boys who had
found their luck in gam-
bling and crimes spent
most of their money on
indecent women and
feasts.
The theme of the
cold prudence and cru-
elty of the capitalist
town killing the hopes
tution of starving wives and the misei7 of home-
less children - was described in many novels
and poems.
During the 1920s and 1930s prostitution,
city crimes and the increased number of sui-
cides were accepted as the biggest threat to
marriage in bourgeois society. The feeling of
hypocrisy of the official ideology praising the
family coziness and devotion to the nation was
spreading around; new ideas about love and so-
ciety became popular. Freud and his followers
substituted "the almighty and mysterious sexu-
ality'' for the genes and social will as the lead-
ing force of civilization. The Balkan philoso-
phers and writers started to explain the social
tensions and conflicts in the capitalist society
with the repression of sexual drives and lack of
Dragan Berakovic (Jugoslavia), Bread, 1937
of romantic love and high ideals and pushing
the more sensitive people towards suicide
turned into a leading theme for the Balkan writ-
ers (IvoAndrich, Konstantin Pavlov). The dis-
integration of the family in worker's suburbs -
the drunkards' scandals and fights, the prosti-
fulfilling erotic life of leading politicians and
intellectuals
The followers of Mamism call for a social
revolution, which will make love and family
free from the ''chains of capitalism*'.
58
Sources
1. Family picture (Bosnia, 1920s)
Analyze:
Describe the iirrangcment, clothes and expres-
sion of the father, his two sons, daughters-in-laws
and grandsons. Is this a big patriarchal family
headed by the old father with his subordinate sons
and daughters-in-law living together in the village?
2. A novel (Croatia, 1930s)
"He was a representative of an insignificant
factory for stamps with the pompous name
''Ekcelsior"" and with the insignificant salary
of 30 kroni per month. He has been traveling
day after day, year after yean When he started
he was young, and now his hair is white and
he is still traveling from village to village, from
town to town with a suitcase in his hand...
...Offering his stamps, he walked into the
room of a gentleman who welcomed him cor-
dially. He was a young man who had been mar-
ried for a couple years and who was now en-
joying his life with his young wife constantly
caressing hen In the afternoons, his wife, beau-
liful, tender, came into the town to meet him in
front of his office and they walked along the
High Street, or had fun in
the company of friends,
and if the weather got cold
or it was raining, he -
young and in love, joyful
- took his bike and rode
home for the coat, caming
back with a smile of a man
in love and hugging his
wife...
,., And when he saw the
nice household, the fine
porcelain, the silver
dishes, as he felt the
gentle warmth of the
room, as if some kind of
luxury was emanating
from every small thing. . .
(The hostess asks the salesman about his family,)
- Oh, my heart is still free! - and these words
were said in such a voice that it was obvious
that this man was still longing to give some-
body his heart,,
- You mean you are still thinking of getting mar-
ried! ? - the hostess exclaimed unwillingly. , .
YLeskovar{186l-1949X
Croatia, 57j3W5^, t977.
Answer the questions:
1 . What are the spouses' responsibilities in the
young family?
2. What are the relations between them?
3. Why had the sales person not managed to
make his own family? Would he have stayed alone
in the patriarchal society?
4. What new opportunities for love and mar-
riage does the bourgeoi.s town give?
5. What people were deprived by the new bour-
geois social order?
59
3- Political speech of a Christian femi-
nist (Hungary, 1920s)
"When I call the attention of the Nalional
Assembly to protecting women's vital force it
is not merely because of women. We, Chris-
tian women, view this problem not like radi-
cals, from purely women's angle, based on class
struggle principles, but from the point of gen-
eral interests. We consider women's vitality as
a source of national vital force. ... If men's
economic interests suffer a loss, harm is done
to the women too. But if the woman's strength
is exploited and she sends her children off to
life with reduced vital force, that loss cannot
be compensated, nor balanced, nor repaired any
more,. .We seek strong men with strong aims,
but we can provide this country with strong men
with strong arms only if there are strong and
healthy mothers".
First speech by Margil Slachta in ihe Parlianient on 23
April, t920. In: I. Mona: Margii Slachta. 1997,
Answer the questions:
1 . Where does the concept of ''force" used to
describe the connection between the nation and
motherhood come from?
- biology, etonomics, physics, politics, reli-
gion, everyday life?
2. How is the nation figured out and why? - as
political, economic, religious, l")iological unity? In
kin, spiritual or productive terms?
3. Wliy are the words "strength", "strong",
"force", "vitality" so important for Uie autlior?
4. Picture, *^Aii afternoon in the
garden^' (Bosnia, tlie 1930s)
Answer the question:
Have not women lost the traditional calmness
and delight in life because of their emancipation?
60
Work in groups;
Separate into two groups - the first one should
search forargumet^ts about what women and men
won from women's emancipation and
professiona]i7.aiion, and the second one should
search for arguments about what they lost. Orga-
nize a discussion.
5. Articles ^Bulgaria, 1920s)
'The wotnan is a family heroine, but
through her husband and children she has a
significant influence on the well-being of
society. -.There he is - a poet or an artist. We
admire his works; but do we know the muse
that inspires him? Do we know how he reaches
this clarity, this warmth and beauty in his
works? Let's go to his home and look into his
family life - and we shall discover the source
of these qualities: they are only the artist's
sensitive soul's expression of that warmth,
clarity, the whole poetry his family is
breathing, . -How many poetic souls have died
only because there has not been a woman by
their side to take off the burden of everyday
struggles, and manage to keep their refined
way of being impressed by the small things
and the foolishness of everyday life, "
Our press about the woman.
In: "Christian woinan'\ 8, 1923
"Children love stories. That is why, never
refuse to tell your child a story even if you
have to make it up. ., Be aware of you behav-
ior, your child is watching you - don't contra-
dict yourself. Children are very observant. Be
kind towards the housemaid, compassionate
towards the miserable. Don't show slaughtered
animals to your child. Let love towards every
living creature become strong in your child.
Later in life children will try to decrease and
eradicate all cruelties.
Always think first before saying something
to your child... But once you say it- let your
child know dial it will be as you said, there would
be no turning back. That is why, do not ever
quickly ignore and reject your child's desires
without thinking them oven Whatever he or she
wishes for - if it is possible, appropriate, and
good- allow it. You should not be your child's
enemy, or else he or she will turn against you
and start to live a secret emotional hfe.
Go out with your child in the town or village
often enough. Explain everything that he or she
asks about along the way. This is very impor-
tant especially in the period of acquiring the
first impressions about life, i.e. between 3-6
years of age.
Advises to the young mothers.
In: "Christian woman", 2-3, 1923.
Answer the questions:
1 . What are the reasons for wives to take their
husbands' everyday burdens?
2. Which fixed gender roles could you find
in the text?
3. What is the difference between the tradi-
tional patriarchal and the new bourgeois expec-
tations of the woman's role?
Mark the statements. Back up your
choice
Which of the following statements are charac-
teristic of official Christian feminism and which ones
- of revolutionary feminism from the beginning of
the century?
• Women should be educated so that they can
educate their children better and be equal partners
of their husbatids.
• Women should be educated so that they may
achieve personal professional career.
• Women should be organized politically on the
national and international level and engage in pub-
he debates, so that they can protect their own rights.
• Women's rights cannot be opposed to the rights
of men, cliildren and other mcmbei^ of society.
61
• Women may work for the progress of society
not only through political struggle but also more
quietly and modestly, into the social foundations -
through children's education and the beneficial in-
fluence on their husbands.
• Public kitchens, kindergartens and homes
should take over the cares for children, so that moth-
ers may have more time for work and for them-
selves.
• Working mothers should be provided with
more vacations and social support, so that they may
be able to bring up and educate their children,
• Main purpose of the life of men and women is
the professional career and the gaining of more
material goods (improving the standard of hving).
• Egoism and materialism cannot make women
or men happier because they have a more honor-
able call: self-sacrificing love for the family, nation,
humankind.
• All professions ai-e equally appropriate for men
and women.
• Women should engage themselves in profes-
sions that do not contradict their femininity and ma-
ternal calling.
Organize a discussion:
Which of these arguments are right according
to you?
6. An article on the
"scientific" differences be-
tween men and women
Bulgaria, 1941
The detachment of man from
nature is due mainly to the pecu-
liarities of his sex. He is less
connected to the process of rec-
reation and has a lot of time to
get elevated on the road of the
abstract and the less
primitive*, *The whole sexual
perception of the woman, her
entire readiness for love is re-
flected in her skin< The way of differentiation
that she has undergone is short and still as close
to nature as at the beginning of the sex
differentiation.,, The woman uses her skin in
the same way as her predecessor did a thou-
sand years ago. That is why in spite of her four
late perceptual abilities - hearing, taste, smell
and sight, the woman is most sensitive, weak-
est and most vulnerable sexually through touch-
ing. This is the source of the logical interpre-
tation of the established tmth, that the woman
loves physically strong men, and that the idea of
masculinity in her is equal to physical power, not
to say to body clumsiness and roughness in man"
Dr. AI Minchev, Philosophy overview, 1941, 5.
Fill in;
In the popular culture the opposition (man -
woman) is often thought as opposition (spirit - na-
ture), (abstract thinking - ), (self control -
),( - X( - )^..
Work in groups:
* Describe: Male prejudices about women. Fe-
male prejudices about men. Explain what the
sources and reasons for these are.
•Search for examples: popular novels, adver-
NNjieDd. noldCfBi m npciyHi
ff
u.
Kiier. iby6»M^ 8
itpcKO D^Ti Pmiaapi
BvrKfiVHB Qlod'IDHC^^n nth HrilH^HflVWJIUl r
(oiie, nDc;KJii>e noB(>«TH, iiHitaitne tf*^^
t.B ^pmnlljCK^ pO^l- Ho-BT«TII 3B. ttpO-
JiamaMe
i{cpatiii/<3, SI H3AM-
tfytH ciDOMate id MO'
cat v/K^t ipex^
Ciffpyvirm
■eMt Be Aw Kfvt^
t/tfcto u i\fHr Out
Plasjranje erotizma posfe \ svetskog rata preko reklama fao vld
" fniodernizacije". Ogias Strucno^ salona midara, Beogratl. 1937.
irotjsm was used in th« advertisements in po$twar lime as an expre$$ion cf
modernizatior, Belgrade, 1937
62
tisemenls movies, songs, which st i [1 support these
prejudices.
• Search for altemalive novels, advertisements,
movies, soagj^, which contradict th&se prejudices.
7* A novel, *'The maid*- , Ivo Andrich
(Yugosla\1a)
"Her father (after an unexpected bank-
ruptcy) called her to come close, rose with an
effort, caressed her hair as he used to and said
in a calm voice:
- Do you know, son, you and I will have to
talk, I thought that I wovild endure and live
longer, that it will not be necessary to leave you
like that. . . Yourprofit does not depend on you
only^ it depends on other people and a variety
of circumstances, but your fmgality depends
entirely on you. Towards it your whole attendon
and all your strengths should be directed. You
should first of all kill in yourself all those so-
called nobleness, generosity, and compassion,
[.. .] It was rather unusual in those times, a
woman, and even more at this early age to work
alone, go around the state institutions and ne-
gotiate with businessmen. But her case was
thought of as an exception and was accepted
like one. Everybody knew well this thin girl
with burning black eyes and yellow face, poorly
dressed, having no fondness of fashion or any
female need to adorn or beautify herself
[, . .] And years were passing by. The young
woman was prematurely turning into a sharp and
capricious old maid who had become obsessed
with money, her life passing by between the
house and the warehouse, entirely preoccupied
with her business, with no entertainment and
Family of a notary, Rumania ^19t0s. The third EuroF>B Founcfation, rimlsaara
63
friends and without feeling any need for them.
Her only and regular going out, which was not
immediately connected to her work, was the
visit to her father's grave. . ,
(The old maid becomes heartless and thrifty
and dies alone in mental disorder),
Ivo Andrich, a famous Yugoslavian writer,
*Thc maid", i978
Comment:
The capitahst change of social and family re-
lations leads to a change in the traditional ideals
of masculinity and Femininity. Unusual person-
alities appear in Balkan literature from the be-
ginning of the century (Yordan Yovkov, Ivo
Andrich, Y Leskovar etc.): ''feminine'* men -
sensitive, dreaming, helpless, especially attached
to their mothers - suicidal poets, political Uto-
pians; and also the figures of '*manly" women -
most often the only daughters of their fathers —
overpowering wives, thrifty old maids, radical
feminists.
Questions:
• Why is the father calling his only daughter
"son"?
• Do you agree with Ivo Andrich that wor-
shiping the capitalist idol of Money and stingi-
ness, especially by women, ruins all human liirks
~ friendship, love, family, nation, and makes
people unhappy.
8< An article about prostitutes (Roma-
nia, 1923)
"... Everywhere in the restaurants, cabarets,
show places, on the street, and everywhere you
look you see these creatures, who, under dif-
ferent masks [...] sell their dirty love and they
always offer an unexpected gift to our Don
Juans,..
The police records provide evidence for talks
about 606 prostitutes and cabaret artists who
had worked here since 1919. Now, in the broth-
Dear Miss Vitka,
Nevertlieless you don't know me I dare to write you a post
cart to wi&h you a Marry Christmas. I wish you joy and
success. Let s your life be crowned with roses. Please take
my greetings of the heart
You fellow tenant: Pavlov Slavcho, Gorna Dgiumaja, 1928,
ouigdria
els here there are around 50 *'girls*\ about as
many as cafechautant artists, 40 who work on
their own between different hotels and 80 who
practice unofficially this profession. . -
The public garden and bushes along the main
boulevard are the main places for the prosti-
tutes who often prefer all kind of decadent
things. As the sun goes down you can see
couples who get lost among the trees and
bushes. In the same places jerks attract simple
girls, usually factory workers, because they
want to "rent the bushes'\ There are also some
carri age drivers who lure such poor girls to get
in and send them to the biothels which are so
many in Constanca.,,". (Article in the paper
"Marea Neagra " (Black Sea). 1923),
64
Answer the questions:
'Who is responsible for ihe prostLtution accord
ingto the author?
^ What is Ihe author's altitude towards prosti-
tutes, pimps and clients?
9. An autobiography (Bulgaria, 1934)
'*In contemporary Europe Btilgaria is a clas-
sical example representative of sexual dissat-
isfaction and a crazy love hunger. The word is
about the quiclcly and unsuccessfully impro-
vised 'Mntelligealsia". Bm among the common
people the picture is also inconsolable. While
'"^male widowhood'' in any other European
country does noi by any means decrease the
man's chances of getting married again, in
some remote regions of Bulgaria a widower,
even being young, has to go from village to
village: to look for a wife and consider him-
self happy if he finds a *'fright'' every one
would run away from to marry him. My heart
bleeds for our people when I see in the news-
papers pictures of young, handsome boys who
have killed themselves because of love. In
another place whole dozens of beautiful young
girls would be rurming after them. In this
wonderful county on the Balkans they are
driven mad by some female clerk, worker or
housemaid, spoiled by a number of admirers.
The love dissatisfaction unheard of in any
other place in Europe destroys at an early stage
the nerves of the ''Bulgarian intelligentsia". It
makes it not only unproductive, but also harm-
fuL The lack of love delight at a young age is the
reason for this gloomy picture of the political,
social and cultural life of small Bulgaria."
Kiril Hrislov, Time and Contemporanes, 2001 .
Answer the questions:
In what LetTiis Was the author considering roman
tic love and its consequences?
What was the difference between Bulgaria and
the rest of the world?
What was the author's attitude towards Bul-
garian intelligencia? Why?
Chose; I agree / I agree to a cer-
tain extent / 1 disagree
• Bulgaiian men are sexually shy by nature,
• Bulgarian men are sexually suppressed be-
cause of the loss of tlieir patriarchal advantages.
• The low salai'ies and unemployment suppress
the erotic life of the intelligentsia.
• Widows have greater chances of getting mar-
ried than widowers.
• Men kill themselves because of love more of-
ten tlian women because tliey are much more ide-
alistic than women.
• Men kill themselves because of love more of-
ten because they are more irresponsible and spoiled,
• The capitalist society is more adjusted to
women's pragmatism than to men's nobleness.
• The fatal women in capitalist society have un-
resUicted power over insecure men,
• Women in capitalist society are more exploited
than men - at the work place, as well as in love
and family.
Comment:
The official bourgeois ideology considered pay-
ing too much attention to the sexual drives as un-
worthy; submitting to the sexual urges was consid-
ered as loosing self-control, degradation to primi-
tive nature, exhausting body and mind. According
to the representatives of psychoanalysis and sym-
bohsm of 1930s reflecting on the suppressed but
powerful subconscious drives allow people to mas-
ter them. The problems of social injustice started
to be represented as psychological and sexual
problems. For their solving individual therapy was
required ratlier than social solidarity and action.
Answ^er the questions:
Which drives do vou know?
65
Are there good drives and bad drives? Which
ones could be useful?
Write an essay:
"'How we could better master our sexual drives
- neglecting them, reflecting on them, using them
for a noble purpose, just let them free?"
10. An article, the Communist press,
(Bulgaria, 1921)
"In her absence of rights the woman shares
the worker's fate* But in her case, this fate is
twice harder. Being in a stale of economical
dependence on the husband* the woman is con-
nected to her master for the rest of her life. There
is no way out of her subordination, she finds
herself always face to face with her executor,
like a victim. And he wants to possess not only
her body, but her emotional life, as well
Marriage was the destiny of the woman, the
family - ''the holy family'' - was supposed to
absorb her But what this maniage and this
family - one of the pillars of modem world -
actually look like? Nothing else but a two-
sided prostitution. Whether Madame (in the
brothel) unites the sides or the church sancti-
fies the union, it is all he same: where selling
and buying of a human body exists, there is
prosdtution. And marriage stands on material
considerations, not on personal inclinations:
the family is an economic, not a moral
unit. ..We cannot imagine the capitalist world
without prostitution: it is characteristic of it
as a necessary evil. Without it, as without re-
ligion and militarism, it would not be able to
uphold. That is why the Christian state supports
it and regulates it".
'The woman arid communism", G. Bakalov, 1921.
a mla ¥are ^^^ ui^^f^^-^Ap^
Fill in:
With a revolutionary zeal the author, communist
from the beginning of the century, has turned up-
side down the basic values of bourgeois society
exposing the holy monogamous marriage as hid-
den prostitution, the beloved husband as ,
the family love as .,....., the personal marriage
choice as , the church wedding as ,
thecoziness of a family home as. . ..
Answer the questions:
1 . Metaphors of what sphere has the author
used to denounce the bourgeois family? Why?
2, Can you imagine a world without the mate-
rial necessity, state, army and family? Is such a
worid possible or is it just a fantasy?
Search for examples:
Are you tiware of some nonstandard forms of
people living together?
Write an essay
"Life in a rich and rational world without
stranse fantasies and desires''.
66
Work of Women,
Work of Men
Introduction
The division of work according to gender
goes far in the past. Some work roles of men
and women seem so constant that people have
often tried to derive this divjjsion from their
biological differences or endowed predispo-
sition toward them. Phrases like: 'This is not
men's work" or 'This is not women's work"
speak about such popular attitudes . Some
work activities and professions are gender
marked Some of them, especially the ones
associated with positions in power are often
related to the male sex only.
Where are the significant gender-specific
differences in work rooted in? Agriculture,
which used to be traditional occupation for
most people in the past, provided the basis for
a more complimentaiy division between men's
and women's type of work. Later on, the pro-
cess of industrialization made a big part of
work activities move out of the home. House-
work which was done exclusively by women
remained unpaid in contrast to the work con-
ducted outside the house, so it was not valued
enough. It was estimated more or less in moral
categories such as care, duty, expression of
love for the family, a source of joy for the
housewife, etc. Along with this, thousands of
women from the poor classes of society were
forced to work outside their homes, including
the newly opened factories, in order to pro-
vide a living or to support their families. This
turned out to be another source of problems,
namely, how would they manage to combine
their duties as mothers with these at work?
The third problem was connected with the
Harvest-time, 1930
67
women's access to the well-paid professions
requiring university degrees. The competition
there was severe and ihe restrictions that
women had to overcome had been the subject
of longtime struggles and debates. Thus women
from all social categories were affected by the
new situation on the labor market, although in
different ways.
Today it is difficult to imagine that during
the 19 century the working day in factories
was extremely long and no difference was
made between men and women, and children.
Usually social insurance in cases of illness or
accidents was not provided. The lack of a la-
bor code was a threat to women^s safety and
pregnant women and mothers were most hkely
to lose their jobs. Labor codes, which specifi-
cally regulated the conditions of work for
women and children, was implemented in tlie
countries of South East Europe at the end of
the 19 and the beginning of the 20 centaiy
In this period different countries introduced
regulations aiming at shortening the working
day for women and children, prohibiting the
niglit shifts for them as well as preventing the
recruitment of women for positions which
were proved to be dangerous to their health.
Also, there were some alleviations for women
in the last months of their pregnancy and breast-
feeding mothers. On one hand the alleviations
could be interpreted as a positive development
of the legislation regulating women's labor, but
on the other, some feminist organizations ac-
cepted the prohibition of night shift work -
sometimes better paid - and the work in ?ipe-
cific industries as new restrictions imposed on
women.
Working in the Villages
Labor legislation had not been at ali con-
cerned with village women for quite a long
time. They had to do extremely hard agricul-
tural work which included also the produce of
such necessities as food and clothes, which
were made usually by hand. Knitting and
weaving in the household were traditionally
done predominantly by women, which did
not mean that they were released from do-
ing hard manual work on the field. Accord-
ing to a survey, conducted in the rural regions
in the 1930s, chopping wood for the house-
hold took about 5% of the w^omen' time de-
voted to housework. They also had to carry
heavy loads: i.e., they were responsible for
bringing w^ater homeas there was no running
water facilities in village areas. Gradually, es-
pecially after the First World War, several
public organizations such as women's asso-
ciations, child protection organizations as
well as some municipal and state authorities,
started to anticipate the problems of village
women and their families. Summer kinder-
gartens were opened in many villages at the
time of the most intensive work on the fields.
With the development of new technologies
the introduction of some labor saving facili-
ties relieved the housework to a certain ex-
tent. Although, this led to the restructuring
of women *s labor, it also added of new house-
hold chores connected with the maintenance of
better sanitary conditions in the house and the
garden, taking more responsibilities of the
children's education and care for the home
comfort and cosines.
Professional Labor
The development of the state administra-
tion and the constant mushrooming of the civil
service offices in the South-Eastem countries
at the end of the 19 century was accompa-
nied by the opening of office positions that
were mainly meant for women, namely typ-
ists, secretaries, accountants, telephone opera-
tors. During the First World War the percent-
age of working women went up, but this trend
seemed to be controversial and unstable. After
Rose-picking, Ottoman empire, IBBOs (F. Kanitz}
the war and especially in the second half of the
1920s the authorities in many countries made
attempts to drive women away from their job
positions. Laws were implemented according
to which women employed in offices were to
be either made redundant or were forced to re-
tire. The laws regulating this process in some
countries affected also the teaching profession.
These laws were in operation until the end of
the Second World War and in accordance with
them men were given priority when employed
as teachers and additionally, their salaries were
higher than women's. Inequality was espe-
cially recognizable when married women
sought employment as they were supposed to
be financially supported by their husbands and
thus a job position for them was supposed to
be of no importance. Most often, it was the piin-
69
ciple of the financial support of the
family that shaped the labor policy
of the state authorities and not the
quaUties or the abilities of the in-
dividual for a professional develop-
ment in a given sphere.
It was in the period between the
two wars when women decisively de-
clared their will to have the right of
professional choice as part of their
future lives. Female students' essays
and questionnaires conducted in the
1930s revealed that only about *4 of
them planned to stay at home and be-
come only housewives and mothers.
The surveys showed that about one
half of the female students were go-
ing to continue their studies in the
fields of medicine, pharmacy, nurs-
ery and obstetrics. In the question-
naires the students shared their
willingness to become even pilots,
architects and engineers. A great
number of them wanted to become
lawyers, which at that time was a
profession banned for women and
which made women's organizations
to fight for their rights.
Not all of these plans were sue-
cessfuUy accomplished especially
after the beginning of the Second World War
in 1939. Still they revealed what young
women's attitudes to labor in the 1930s
were.
Socialism and Women's Labor
In the countries where after the end of the
Second World War socialism took over, la-
bor legislation regulating the equality of gen-
ders was adopted. The intensive construction
of plants, dams and roads needed a lot of work
force. This gave opportunity to many young
women to enter new professions including
even those of technicians. The images of women
workin£T in the Field of construction, as crane
operators, tractor drivers and machine opera-
tors became emblematic of the new socialist
regime. The network of social establishments
releasing women from the burden of house-
work or even replacing it, however developed
very slowly. In the 1950s and 1960schildren
of working w^omen were often looked after by
tlieirgrandmothersusually living faraway from
their homes. Slow, inconsistent and irregular
was the change in men's attitude to the house-
work, so the essentia] burden still came on
women's shoulders. Despite the pro-
70
duction of labor-saving appliances and their
availability on the market the proportion of the
housework still remained high because the de-
mands of the home, in terms of cleanliness
and comfort were also increased. The lack of
feminist movements and organizations handi-
capped the possibility for a public debate and
restricted the discussions over the newly
emerging problems of gender equality in the
sphere of labor.
After the changes that took place in 1989
women's positions deteriorated in several ways.
At present, women are more often affected by
unemployment and the collapse of the system
of social care. Moreover, unemployment in-
creases the intercompany competition for job
positions and reinforces the rivalry among
women of different generations.
Sources
Many young girls in the past had to serve as
housemaids in other families in order to
support their own families. In the following
table and texts you can see how their num^
ber hud changed and haw one such girl
experienced her service.
h Number of paid domestic
servants in Budapest
Year
Number
1910
67922
920
50895
1930
61632
1940
58853
Questions:
L As it can be seen from the table, many of
the girls worked as housemaids at the end of
the 19 and the first half of the 20 century.
Which social circles did most of them come
from?
2. How do you explain the decrease in the
number of housemaids during the 1920s and
the end of the 1930s? What events took place
in Europe at that time?
3. What kind of jobs could the young girls
from the poor social classes have?
4. Guess what problems and dangers could
the life of a housemaid bring to ayoung girl?
5. How do you imagine the relationship be-
tween the landlady and her housemaid?
The girl-servant (right) is sliil a little child and pfays with the dotis
of her master's daughter (left), Bulgaria, 1943
71
2, Excerpt from the memories of
Neika Doseva (1930s)
"I have been a servant since I was seven. Hun-
ger made me do it We were three children. Our
father could not feed us. We didn't own any land.
That is why he was a shepherd. My mother was
paralyzed. They could not take care of us chil-
dren, so they had to send us as servants. When I
was leaving it was as if had a frog in my throat.
1 was going lo the home of strange people, to-
tally unknown to me. So, I left for the home of
the dentist in Balvan to be his housemaid,, ."
D . Liingazov, It was not a life, biii a sad stor\\ 1 987
Questions:
1 . Why Neika couldn't stay in her family?
2. How did she feci without her family?
3. A big number of poor giris from South East
Europe today go to work in other countries. What
dangers could they face? Do you know any orga-
nizations that try to help such gids?
3, Table: Age structure of the domes-
tic servants from Vakarel region
(Bulgaria)
Questions;
1 . At what age did the girls fronn the village of
Vakarel become domestic servants?
2. At what age was their number the largest?
3. How long did a girl work as a domeslic
servant?
Domestic
servants
From 10 tu 13
years of age
From 14 U> 20
years ofaae
^rom 2(J to 25
years of age
25 years o^
age aiui Lip
Total
Year
numbers
%
num icrs
%
niumcrs
T
numhcrs
^-f
numbers
%
1920
lfi
11
05
75
17
12
2
/
100
i 926
■
24
18
97
72
3
9
35
100
72
Men and women had different occupations.
You can see some differences in the following tables
4. Percentage of active working population in Tiirl^ey according to the data of
the census (12 years of age and over):
Census year
1^70
1 990
■
Female
Mule
Female
Male
Tokil
100
[00
100
100
proJ'essional wotkers
2.40
4,46
4,64
5.48
Adminisiralive, e>:<?cutive and
muiiagcrial wi^rkcr^
ij.08
0.86
0.20
1.36
C!eiit;al and related workers
l.2ri
2.94
3.74
3.95
Sales workers
€.29
4,80
1.09
7.56
Service workers
0.81
5.48
1.34
8,07
Agi'i cultural, aninial liusbiuidry
;ind foicMry workers, fishermen
and huiUcrs
88.65
53.18
79.74
35.03
Non-agricultural workers and
iransporuiiion vehicle operators
6.51
28.28
6.22
3 1 .70
Uneinployed, seeking a job
-
2.83
6.85
Questions:
1. In what work sphere is the biggest dispro-
portion between men and women?
3. In what spheres do most of the employed
women work?
- among the people working in the professional
andscientifiC'techTiical sphere
- in the administration and entrepreneurship
~ in trade
- in agricuhurc and forestry
- in transportation
4. In what spheres do most of the employed
men work?
5. Which proportions have remained the same
since the 1970s
6. What are the trends in the 1990s
7. How would you explain the fact that ac-
cording to the table the percentage of the un-
employed men is higher?
5. Statistics of the number of male
and female teachers in Bulgaria
Year
Male
teachers
Female
teachers
1910
6831
2575
1020
9070
5382
1926
10732
9543
As you can see from the fable, the ntimber
of male and female teachers in 1926 was nearly
equal
Questions:
1_ Can you judge which generations were af-
fected by diis change?
2, What is the situation today in your schoo!?
73
6, Picture from the second half of the
1930s
Questions:
1 . Look at the picture above. What does it
show?
2. How would you explain the comparatively
big number of women in tliis profession in the 1 930s
3. Which professions (e.g. phannacyjgel femi-
nized during the last decades?
7. Miksa Falk: Emancipation of
Women
In; Women's Profession. Excerpts from the History of
Feminism in Hungary 1777-1865. 1999, Budapest,
Kortars. ed- Anna F^bri
'\..OLir age is an age of emancipation when
all chains are shaken off, lowered heads are
lifted up and all shackled forces try to break
free,.. So, emancipation is everywhere, all over
the world, in each segment of society. Does the
sun of our enlightened age not shine on women
alone? Is she alone condemned to take eternal
care of her husband's tiny domestic needs, of
her children and of her kitchen? Is she alone, m
a time of general hberation, at the feast of
Freedom's revival, to remain a slave?
Oh no, wc do not wish women to be slaves,
we only wish them to remain women: that they
would not divest themselves of that incompa-
rable ornament Nature had bestowed upon them
and we wish they craved not for such adorn-
ments that w^ould cease to be adornments on
them..;'
Questions;
1 .What tenns have been used in the text to de-
scribe women's siniation?
2. Can the hoLij^ehold work be compared to
74
''slavery" and ^hy?
-because it is not paid
- because it is compulsory
- because it is for someone else's benefit
3. A lot of people (men and women) do not
view household work as ".slavery". What satis-
faction does it bring?
- it is a care for one's ov^^n home
- it bears the feeling of fulfilled duty to the people
close to oneself
- it is traditionally expected to be done by the
woman
4. Make a table of household activities and
of the way they are distributed in your family.
Look at the table you can see the Gender
stratification in the academic sphere in
1987-1988 including types of institutes of
higher education and scientific positions
8. Table (Bulgaria)
1 . How has the proportion of women in aca-
demic hierarchy changed in Bulgaria? What is the
percentage of women at the liighest academic lev-
els?
2. How could you explain these changes?
- women do not have ambitions in the academic
sphere
- women face difficulties in their academic ca-
reers, because they have obligations with the house^
hold work and witli children's' upbringing
- women advance with difficulties in the aca-
demic hierarchy because of the prejudice against
women-scholars
- women are more suitable for art work than
for scholai^ly work
3. In what spheres of science is the percentage
of women the highest?
4. How would you explain this stratification?
-by tradition
- by the specific attitudes of men and women
toward particular professions
- women are admitted more easily in these
spheres of science that need less investment
Type of Institution
Total
Fe-
male
FuB
Profes-
sor
%
Fe-
male
Associ-
ate
Profes-
sor
%
Fe-
male
Assist-
ant
Profes-
sor
ft/
Fc-
male
Lectur-
er
%
Fe-
male
Universifies
artd Teacher
Training
Tota
3,091
42,2
238
7.6
628
28.3
1,407
54.5
818
41.7
^emalc
1,304
18
178
767
341
Economics
Tota
M81
36.4
103
3.9
282
19.9
551
37.6
245
66.5
Female
430
4
56
207
163
Technical
Total
5,631
25.5
35!
4.8
1,158
16.2
2,352
29.6
1,770
30.1
Feinae
1.433
17 .
187
696
533
Medicine
Total
4,224
46.5
187
13.5
387
23,5
2,416
48.8
1,234
54.0
Femac
K962
25
91
1,180
666
Agricuitufv
Total
537
28,9
116
7.8
115
20.9
219
26.9
123
51.2
Female
155
9
24
59
63
Arts
Tota
916
51.1
113
22.1
126
38.9
159
5U.3
518
60.6
Fcn\i c
468
25
49
80
314
Sporls
Tola
325
2H.9
24
16.7
57
35.1
162
24.7
S2
36.6
Fctnac
94
4
20
40
30
Total
lota
1 5.94 I
36.7
1.132
9.0
2.753
22.n
7,266
41.7
4.790
44.1
Ft^male
5,846
102
605
3,029
2,110
Slatisticul guide for higher and college education in Bulgaria, Sofia, 1989.
75
The fact that women couldnH get qualified work
seems to be quite "old'* but even today and
mote and more today- after the change of the
political system - we can see such situations
9. Excerpt from the interview with
Tatiana Bora^ 33 years old, Romania
[...] "Yes, I am a mine worker. 1 never
worked down under in the mines, but helped
to design the galleries and did several jobs
in the mine over more than 16 years. I al-
ways felt like I was a niine worker. It was my
whole life from the time I got out of schooL
It was really the only life we knew here in
Jiu Valley. But I lost my job there in spring
of 1998- I was made redundant. I don't have
a job at Lupeni mine any more.
I was confident when I first left the mine,
I wanted to try something new. I wanted to
work in the radio and TV station. They told "
me there was ajob there and 1 applied. There
was ajob all right and I was qualified. But they
said when I appHed I was too old. For women
in Romania today, if you are 30 you are too old.
You might as well not even bother to look for a
job. You go in and ask for an interview and they
tease you about your age. They only like young
women. Probably they know they can push
them around more if they are just young. But
also they like very pretty women. It is that way
all over Romania. They want thin women too,
and my husband says I am a little bit too heavy
to get ajob, maybe. But I have lots of skills
audi work hard. I can use a computer some, I
would have been good at the radio and TV sta-
tion. I have a good voice for talking on TV, I
think. Anyway, that is over with. The mine is
over with, and the other chances are over with,
I am lucky because I found this job with the
Agency for helping the unemployed mine work-
ers. I feel like I am helping in a small way. But
you know, there is not much any one can do
here. You can try though, I do that. 1 try to
»»«rpp
B, Andreevic, Soop kitchen N 4^ 19J6 {Jugoslavia)
cheer people up and encourage them* But life
here is very sad.
In Bucharest there are more jobs but they
say right in the newspaper: "Women over 30
should not apply/* They say things like
''Women who apply for this job must be at-
tractive and voung and look good in western
clothes." [,..]
Judith R. Dushku, Romanian women tell transition
talcs: oral stories ofRomanian women ofthe post-
Gommunisl decade : ETachcva. T, Nedin: She on the
Balkans, 2(K) I.
Questions:
1 . What is the occupation of Tatiana Bora?
2. How did she feel about her occupation?
3. What are the reasons for her discharge?
4. What kinds of women are privileged accord-
ing to her?
5. Do you know similar cases?
6. What kind of deci.sion can be found for those
who are left without ajob becau.se ofthe plants
closing down?
76
Leisure
and
Beauty
in
Modern
Times
In the former chapters we learned about the restrictive
norms of gender relations in the patriarchal society of the
19 century; about the control of all kinds of contacts be-
tween girls and boys, about traditional values like family in-
tegrity instead of " marriage by love " and so on . We also saw
that there was a gradual change in these norms, caused by the
change in the value system of the 'Ideal woman'', regarding
her education, social activities and relationships between
senders.
Stelan Danaitav in the "Two Guitars", 1969
77
Women rowing on the Adriatic sea ISSiOs
Womeii at Work
The neglecting of the patriarchal restrictions
was connected with the transition to modernity
and the imposition of new bourgeois morality
in the new places of work and social life.
Women entered the factories as workers. Some
of them got career opportunities, traditionally
considered to be male; doctors, engineers, law^-
yers and architects. The relationships between
men and women and their attitudes to their own
bodies changed, especially after the First World
War Women started to communicate with men
in work places freely. Tliey were involved in
legal relations with the state. Their bodies per-
formed things, connected with specific skills.
Their demands for healthier bodies were
greater. Women started to dress according to
the latest fashion. Their clothes and hairstyles
had to be convenient for work in factories and
not to threaten their life. For example, the dan-
ger of entangling one's long hair in the machine
could be lethal The rhythm of work and the new
manner of living required more speed and free-
dom in women's movements, trams, trolleys,
and popular sidewalks demanded shorter dresses
thus parts of the ankle were to be exposed.
Of course, this process of allowing women
to work out of home was long-lasting and
therefore Dimo Kazasov, a Bulgarian journal-
ist and politician from the interwar period,
wrote:
'T/?£? appearance of female sen^ants in the
cafes was a great surprise for men in Sofia'\
Let's imagine what a sensation the appear-
ance of women in the lawyer's, doctors' and
workers' clothes must have been.
The First World War accelerated the process
of public tolerance and state acknowledgment
of female professional labor While men were
fighting and job positions in shops and public
78
administration were free and women were em-
ployed. Widows had to earn their living and they
needed jobs and activities outside home. This
was the time when the first women conductors
and women in trousers appeared.
Source 1« ''Women in the old times car-
ried the burden of doing everything in the
house alone or with tlie help of servants. To-
day, however, things are different With the
help of the sewing machine the Bulgarian
woman could sew white shirts for her hus-
band and all lier children for a weelc and the
bread costs 25 siotinki in the shop nearby.
Old people were right to allot to women only
the housework because she would have the
time to do anything else. The old people had
apprentices to help them because the house-
work included working the land as well.
TIterefore they were allowed to buying slaves.
Then steam and electricity took over. They
made the most tedious work easy and they
produce five times faster than man does. Ma-
chines do not get tired and do not need a rest.
They replaced manual labor
Today spirit is of greatest importance and
the machine provides the strength that can be
equally controlled by both men and women.
Machines make work simple and easy so that
a clever and skillful woman who knows how
precious time is can manage the housework
for two hours no matter how many children
she has. Meanwhile she can do something to
earn extra money to help the family budget,
especially in cases when the husband is lazy
or ill - something that happens often. Many
women do so and they should because nowa-
days 50 or 100 leva per month are not
enough. But men should help too and let their
wives work instead of letting them befriend
people who can hann them. "
"TTi^ M^oman as a housewife, craftsman, s€ieniisf\
an article of "Your granny's";
In ^'A Woman's World", 1 898/3,
• What was the new development in female
work at home? How was il before, how at the turn
of the 19 to the 20 century? Which period is
ca led "old'*?
"oJd"
19 century I
uiu of the century
farm-
servants
and ap-
prentices
helped in
the house
and on
the field
• Wliat consequences did this development have
for the everyday ife of women and of the whole
fttnily?
• What did "Your Granny' expect from men
and why?
• How is it today? What do you expect from
women and from men in the househo d and in work
outside the house?
Source 2. The development of female work
affected the legislation as well:
Law for hygienic and safe labor, 15 June 1917:
''(Working hours): article 18. The daily
working hours shall not be longer than 8 for
the children of both sexes under 16; 10 hours
for women of any age and boys under 18; 11
hours for men above 18.
(Maternity): article 20. Defense of the
pregnant: 8 weeks mateniity leave with half
the salary. They cannot be dismissed"
• What gender relationships did tiiis law reflect?
• Try to depict a working day of a man and a
woman.
■ Why was it so strange for people in earlier
times to see women as workers, accountants, doc-
tors, lawyers etc*
• What distinguished the women's behavior in
these roles in comparison to that at home?
79
At the same time when technical progress
changed the working situation in the household,
the First World War influenced the overcom-
ing of the shame we talked about in former
chapters, because, for instance, in the hospi-
tals and during administering immunization
against contagious diseases the mascuHne body
was entrusted to women-nurses and was un-
dressed before their
eyes. The first sol-
diers' reactions, for ^^^~^
example in the
Sei*bian army, were to i
refuse to undergo
these manipulations
but the surviving in-
stinct was stronger
and dealt with the so-
cial instincts much
faster than public
norms. Life in
trenches strength-
ened the sense of
personal hygiene and
the need for body
comfort; the sol-
diers' letters dis-
played how strong
the need for soap and
the removal of lice
had become.
But there were
also conservative
voices against the fe-
male presence on the Dancing in war time
battlefields:
Source 3, "A soldier hates to see a
woman in the battlefield, because he thinks a
woman can cause trouble and he cannot bear
the beauty of women being destroyed in battle.
This superstition has a good reason, Nutner-
ous cases prove that. This phenomenon is ex-
plained by the fact thai a sexually active sol-
dier is less capable of fighting and less care-
ful, because his senses are not so sharp, as
they should be. He is therefore in greater dan-
ger than his fellow fighters. Tfiere are numer-
ous examples of soldiers and officers, who
mysteriously died right after spending a night
with a woman.
In 1912 and 1913 this superstition of sol-
diers was so
strong that we cd-
most had no prob-
lems, and sexually
transmitted dis-
eases almost did
not exist. The
whole world was
fascinated by the
morality of the
Serbian soldier. In
1914 and 1915
this morality was,
due to this par-
ticular situation,
slightly corrupted,
but it appeared
again on
Thessalonica 's
front. Soldiers
were faced with
the charitable
presence of Brit-
ish and French la-
dies, admired
their morality, as
they admired
theirs, loved them
in a brotherly manner, but without breaking
the rules of honesty and morality. When re-
cruiting a new army we have to renew the
presence of morality and to remove sins, "
D-r Vladimir Slanojevich, Exerts rrom my Wiir Di iiry, in
D-r Vladimir SLanojevic[i,"Histor) of Serbian War Sanitary
Trial' \ Belgrade, 1992.
World War Two
80
• What was the consequence of female pres-
ence on the batlletields according to the author?
• WTiat kind of roles should women play in war
according to the author, and why?
• Where in the text can you find proofs of the
old prejudice?
• Make a summary of Ihe political and military
events in 1912/1 3 and 1914/15.
Here is another example for the change in
relationships between women and men, this
time during the Second World War:
Source 4. "'Let's talk freely! Said the
young woman and shamelessly let David
take off her shirt.
Alexander was surprised that something
like this wa.^- taking place in front of his eyes.
He turned his face. When he saw that his two
comrades were Just cleaning and bandaging
the woman's wound and were not impressed
by her nakedness, he dared to look at her His
heart shrieked of pain when he touched the
dirty and bloody shirt of the young woman,
when he saw her unclean breast and sun-
burned neck. This thing is not for women, he
thought sadly,''
Yana Yazova, Bulgarian writer from the inter war
period /^War\ 2000
• What in this text give you a reason to think
that the Second World War totally changed the re-
lationships between sexes?
Friendship between Women and Men
Not only work and war but also balls, res-
taurants, opera, cinema, exhibitions, political
and social clubs, sports and travel agencies,
places for recreation and vacations, leisure time
(parks, beaches, baths, picnics, mountain camps
etc.) enhanced the communication between the
sexes. The touching of the bodies, walking hand
in hand, the free talks, the friendship between
men and women in public, which were impos-
sible in the patriarchal times, became the nonn
in bourgeois everyday life. As Stefan Gruev ex-
plained in his Memoirs:
Source 5. ^'Friendship outside school was
satisfactory and it was blooming primarily on
the beaches of Sozopol and Varna and in the
villas in Chamkoriya (Borovetz) - famous
places for swimmings skiing and excursions
during these carefree years. When we went
back to Sofia we could hardly wait until week-
ends came to continue our new relationships
and flirting at the tennis courts and the Boris
Garden or at the public swimming pool
''Dianabad" or at the first dance clubs that
were intmduced recently. ''
Stefan Gruev , Memoirs; In: 'Letopissi', 1996/7/8.
• Where did friendship outside school spring
up? And why did it work so well outside school?
• How is it today? Where do you meet new
friends?
Managing the complex rules of body perfor-
mance in ball rooms demanded new culture of
movements. The special ball gowns only al-
lowed women to show in public discrete parts
of their neck and/or hands. Therefore the new
culture, linked with the preparation of dress-
ing, dancing skills and the new outlook and
behavior, which were achieved through long
lessons outside home neglecting the tradi-
tional role of housewives and educators of their
children, met the resistance of conservative
male opinion. The Bulgarian newspaper 'Ta-
triot'' in 1889 demands brothers and fathers
to be very careful with the preserving of the
moral values and dignity of their sisters and
daughters.
8!
Source 6. ''We were ashamed to look at
men and women; and now we are so,.. Whv
should we desecrate marriage? There are
some reasons that led us to this situation.
They are: first - luxury and free communica-
tion between genders, the present education
which turned to be a sudden and unexpected
change that became hazardous to domestic
life. Second, ball rooms became particular
places where women lose their humbleness'''.
"Marriage and Celibacy", "Patrior, 18897 12.
• How did this newspaper judge the change in
the relationship between the genders? Can you
guess what were the pohtical views of the author?
Here is another example of opposing the
balls:
Source 7* ''The horo is our folklore. We
all know it, and there we are free and equaL
Clusters of people gather together with small
or no difference in the outfit, Tlie ball is so
different from our horo that, considering our
education, it helps loosening up the relation-
ships between men and women and for the
preparation of virgins for mothers and
wives who are not positive and serious.
There is something so shameless in the
attitude, dancing and looks of our
women and girls, that we can say some-
thing even worse than what Matey
Arnold said about American women.
Many of our women are not humble in
terms of supporting the new freedom in
relationships and interactions between
genders so that passion and decency
stay in their right places. What can be
spotted at halls is also present in walks
in parks and at the dances and every-
where we want to look more free and
more European\
"Ball and Horo". "Patriot", 1889/ApriL
• What did the author criticize?
-leisure activities in general
-the looseness of relationships between women
and men
-women in general
-the new freedom of women
-men who are visiting balls
• What were the * 'right places'' for women ac-
cording to the author? And why?
• What threat did "conservatives" see in balls?
Which were the traditional values and gender roles
threatened by the cuitiire of balls?
• Which were the other places, where the tra-
ditional gender roles disintegrated?
For the same reason Vladimir Gachinovich
(young Bosnian socialist in turn of XX th cen-
tury) in his essay about Zerajic criticized a few
girls from Bosnia studying at European univer-
sities, because they followed their colleagues
"in their scandalous life in cafes". Therefore
the cafes in the central pail of the cities were
primarily for males in the mornings and are vis-
ited by women in the evenings. The important
in this case is the presence of women in places
Seated Ladies at a ball celebrating tlie Day of Independence, 9.t[}.!928
82
Sofia, 1930s
that were traditionally male. Of course, this
practice gradually disappeared after the end of
the First World War and it was simply a distant
reminder in the 1940s At the same time the
places for entertainment were divided not into
male and female, but according to class prin-
ciples. Workers, bourgeois and servants had
separate places for entertainment.
• Do you know separate places for girls and
boys, for women and men or for different social
groups in other periods, in otlier countries tliat ex-
ist today? Give examples.
The New Culture of Leisure Activities
This situadon changed after the First World
War, in the 1930s and 1940s with the turning
of the cafes, cinemas, mountains, rivers and
summer pools into common places for enter-
tainment. Here people got rid of their clothes
and problems or, as t^epotlers of that time wrote:
''The bathing suit erases the class differences,
underlined by the clothes and everyday life
outfits. " That is how a reporter from Sofia re-
flected this change in the morality and the atti-
tude towards the body;
Source 8. ''Not long ago it was a sensa-
tion to see a girl in a sportswear Some years
passed and women became witty and started
calling the pants 'shorts' and now they feel
at home in shorts. The bathing suits that
reached the knees, now cover only some parts
so that the body receives more sun and air
And bath i tig in the sea? The beach in Varna
was created thanks to the argmnent that for-
eigtiers wanted it\ It was unbelievable for us
to wish for something connected with sun and
air. We butnped into the wrong notion of mo-
rality. How did it happen that air and sun are
nowadays something regular, yearned for and
free? The voyage along the Iskar river also
contributed to this. The flow to the *' Maria
Liiisa' pool then followed. People wanted air
and sun, the municipality gave these places
to Sofiar
"Air*Siin*=Water" by R Spasov. t940.
• Why was it a ^'sensation" to see a girl in sports-
wear?
• Afik your parents and grandparents whether
they had similar experiences in their youth, con-
cerning one's clothes, haii'style, behavior?
83
'Maria Luisa" pool, Sofia
• What did "air and sun" mean for the people
before, what at the turn of the last century and what
does it mean for people today?
• Why was it not always "positive" to have a
bronze tan?
• What does this mean for the modern beauty
ideal?
This is the time when sunbaths were adver-
tised as healthy and useful. The theme of skin
cancer was still unknown to medicine, although
this was the time when protective creams ap-
peared, promising a good tan. Beach culture im-
posed the new idea of beauty of men and women:
'a sunburnt body physically strong from the
swimming and exercises . It was imposed by
the "Beach Queen^'- contests there have been
filmed since the 1940s and the demonstrations
of jumping from towers as well. Here is what
the film by Spas Todorov reflected: "The choice
of the queen of the beach in Luzhin" (South
West Bulgaria) in 1940: photos at the beach,
the walk of the queen of the beach accompa-
nied by Gennan songs. This new conception
imposed the image of masculinity and feminin-
ity, characterized by athletic bodies and 'long
legs, blond hair, bronze tan and tempting
fonns'\ depicted in the memories and adver-
tisements from that time. This ideal for mas-
culinity and femininity incited identity crisis
in teenagers who were far away from it. Here
is such an e?campie by Stefan Gruev in his
''Memoirs":
Source 9. ''Then I spent hours eating her
up with my eyes as a hungry puppy, torn by
doubts and desires. At that age 1 suffered from
painful complexes: while my school peers
were growing up with masculine bodies I was
still a pale and fragile child. I feared that no
girl was going to look at me in my bathing
suit and that is why I never did take off my
shirt when we were at the swimming pooL This
summer nothing else could depress me mare
than the beautiful, well -built young men
around this attractive lady,''
S, Gruev , Memoirs...
S4
• What was the biggest problem of this boy in
his leisure time and why?
Tlie first magazines and newspapers that ad-
vertised bathing suits and sportswear suggest-
ing specific gender styles, appeared in the
1920s and 1930s Fliit, love before marriage
and adultery were among themes that appeared
often on the pages of the magazines. They were
subject of satirizing and were ridiculed, but
gradually they become a decadent rebellion
against the ruling conservative norms of gen-
der relationships often defined as bourgeois hy-
pocrisy. The Bulgarian sound filna'The Resort
of Varna and the Rest Houses'* was produced in
1932. '^Attending resorts'' became as a fashion-
able life-style. Of course, the summer seaside
resorts and the winter ski resorts remained a
privilege for the middle and upper-middle
classes of the society. But walks, picnics, sun-
bathe at the rivers remained preferred enter-
tainment for the rest of the population.
In practice, the culture of spare time helped
definitely the creation of public places for en-
tertainment, where the freedom of communi-
cation between men and women was common.
Contacts between youngsters in cafes and clubs,
where they met and fell in love with young beau-
tiful girls from the lower classes, became a
nightmare for their parents. But, as Avdo Humo
writes about Bosnia: ''When I was boy this
topic was much discussed at home and at fam-
ily meetings, which were very frequent In my
youth, al the beginning of 20 century, there
was hardly any public cultural life in my town.
Those family meetings gave the rare oppor-
tunity to exchange every sort of information,
ranging from economic, political and inti-
mate to various gossips"
The culture of the leisure beginniing of this
century was an exception rather than a rule. It
was mainly influenced by:
• The implementation of laws defining the
working hours that led to a progressive decrease
in ihe length of the working day and week;
• The progress in medicine, enhancing the
positive role of tourism, fresh air and rest for
the human body;
• The state social policy, which supported the
provision of hygienic work conditions and pro-
vided for places for a rest and entertainment;
• The consideration that entertainment could
be regarded as a cure against the dreads of the
First World War that undervalued many of the
traditional values of the older life-style, which
resisted the ideas of having pleasures and
obliged people to devote themselves to work
and family only;
• The boom of the travel agencies as a re-
sult of the entertainment advertising which
turned into a successful business in compli-
ance with the new attitudes towards enter-
tainment.
85
Modern Ideals of Beauty
TTie newly developed leisure and tourism *1n-
dustry" also contributed to the change in the
attitudes towards the human body, to the estab-
lishment of new views on beautiful and healthy
body, which involved an elegant silhouette for
women and strong muscles for men. The
wrinkles became a problem and the cosmetics
developed into a successful trade. The adver-
tisements of beauty saloons and their miracle
effect displayed on the pages of color newspa-
pers had imposed new "sterile" image of the
female beauty: a smooth face with no wrinkles,
looking fresh and betraying a healthy way of
life, which outlooks can be preserved by cos-
metics*
• What is the idea! for beauty today?
• What do wrinkles mean for women and for
men (in older time and today)?
• Which other beauty "sins' " were created within
the last hundred years? What is, concerning the
ideals for beauty, not ''allowed":
-for women
-for men?
• What do you think about the fashionable ide-
als for beauty?
Cinema has imposed greatest influences on
the changing atdtudes of the contemporary in-
dividual towards their body and communica-
tion and thus helping to overcome fear and
shame. It was one of the cheapest types of en-
tertainment. Its visual effect and the possibil-
ity to provide more complex intellectual im-
plications made movies preferable to the tra-
ditional drama. Here is how according to
Georgi Georgia v, author of the book ''Sofia and
its People" film characters influenced life-
styles:
HAHIJIDEE
^ I mm. im
t!iii vmm
lildn III Hill
M
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T
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EEOrPAA
SeriHKH Mitfop
sHMcwMa Hanjrra aa rpanoAr h Afliiy. kao « VH-
HvpeiiiiTO nen hi6«p
CB1UW H (nHABHDf ftQUlO, nttmafMO, KlKUyibeL. MB-
uiHH, niiaTHii,umijg, 3»tic^ rannna ititgHDcra-ng
Z'ensha moda m Bsograilu 2a s^mu' 1936^1937.
Advertisement Belgrade 1936-1937
Source 10* '*A dandy from the capital dif-
fered in his hairstyle from anyone from the
country as he had the constant quality of ex-
travagance. He styled his hair in the period
before the war and after it. But and especially
after the appearance of the sound film, he
definitely started to imitate the heroes from
the screen, who used to make women sigh. His
hairstyle covered the whole distance between
the Charles Boae 's brigantine hair to the wild
curls of Pal Yavor'\
''The shortcut hairstyle came into fashion
at the end of the 1920s The fashion of the
styled hair came together with it. The film
screen was very influential over the develop-
ment of the hairstyles, especially of the girls.
The public opinion still could not accept a
woman with a husband and children to pay
attention and change her hairstyle. At the
same time girls' hairstyles ranged from the
86
shortcut of Greta Garbo to the careless wild
curls ofAlida ValV^
nice there and we had a great time'\
From the "Serdika" journal, Sofia, 1940/6
• Describe the change in fashion and styles in
these two sources from the early 20 century.
• What further changes in fashion (clothes, hair
styles etc.) do yqu know, which "idols'* from mov-
ies or music bands do you know?
Here is another example of iht importance
of cinema for the dreams and ideals of young
le:
Source 11, "-4 naked youngster in fash-
ionable pants with zip is sitting at the table
nearby. His ID card must read: face - rounds
no mustaches, no specific marks. He is wear-
ing yellow sunglasses. He is smoking with a
carefree pleasure. There are cigarettes,
matches, a coffee and a newspaper on the
table. It is not hard to understand his hidden
thoughts: he is traveling. He may have never
been abroad, even to Belgrade (the a return
ticket, visa and passport, all this for 560 leva
). He may be an accountant and it must have
been hard for him to save money to buy these
extravagant pants. But 1 know be is traveling
at least in his thoughts. The fdms, the two-
hour happiness, have given him wings. The
film has made him leave his skin shell and
now he is not in the open pool area of ''Maria
Luiza'\ he is in Munich or Salzburg, at the
lake Bled or even on the beach of Lido. There
are many like him around. That girl over there
is also like him. She is Jumping on the ter-
race because she has seen it in films and she
thinks it is 've^y fashionable and shocking'.
She is laughing with a clear voice. The school-
girls who are calling her down seem like chil-
dren to her. She is a lady in her thoughts. This
will not prevent her from sayifig later on: 'To-
day we were at ''Maria Luiza'\ it was really
* What did movies influence these young
people?
* What did they dream about? Why was it im-
portant for them to have the possibilities to escape
from the real world into the world of dreams?
The memories of a 19 year old boy give us
another example of the influence of Hollywood
on the outlook and behavior of the young gen-
eration in the interwar period:
Source 12, "At the age of 19 1 had a child-
ish face and was the only one who did not
need to shave. Now it may not seem to be a
problem, but at that time and in a society,
which worshipped 'masculinity* to have no
beard was a real tragedy. Forty people used
to turn towards my desk with flat jokes while
I was blushing and wanted to sink in the
ground. The most painful were cases like this.
One evening a large group of friends, both
boys and girls, went to dance in a nightclub
in Varna, The jauntier let everybody in ex-
cept me. 'Children are not allowed!' he said
before the girl I was courting. To make up for
the lack of a beard I started smoking when I
was in the company of my peers in order to
obtain a manly expression. I was holding my
cigarette clumsily and coughed all the time,
but even this did not help me much to look
like Humphrey BogarL '*
• What was tlie problem of this boy? Do you
think that boys in earUer time had similar problems?
* How did he try to compensate for his "prob-
lem"? Do you know similar "strategies" exercised
by young people today?
87
According to the statistics, going
to cinema had become the most
preferable entertainment after the
First World Wan The records of
sound films in cinema archives re-
veal the fact that the most frequently
seen films during the interwar pe-
riod were love melodramas, adven-
ture and historical films. The policy
of the Bulgarian state, on one hand,
attempted at limiting the access of
pupils to these films, but, on the
other, it lowered the ticket prices for
some films. These particular films
revealed the hard life of prostitutes'
or transmitted the danger of thrust-
ing thoughtlessly into feelings and
passions, which could destroy
youngsters' career prospects and all
life. All this speak about the great
influence of the cinema over the
outlook and behavior of boys and
girls during the interwar period.
'"^(iiftiMi^
A girf looking at a film poster
Questions:
1 . What is the difference in the ways the patri-
archal and the bourgeois cultures control gender
relationships?
2. Which were the new places where freedom
in communication between men and women was
possible and new forms of gender relationships
were confirmed?
3, Why was the First World War considered
significant for the change in theattitudes to the body
and gender relationships?
4, Why and how the culture of leisure had
changed the relationships between genders and
created new attitudes towards the body?
5, How did Ihe cinema influence gender rela-
tionships?
Lets remember again what was the difference between the patriarchal and bourgeois culture in respect to
disciplining of one's body.
patriarchal culture
bourgeois culture
mamage
getting into contact with each other
Leisure
Work
body "shaping''
88
Politics and
Emancipati
Introduction
The establishment of the modem state and
its institutions in ihe 18 and 19 centuries in
Europe and North America; elective goveni-
ment, parliamentary system, constitution,
modem army etc, provided opportunities for
a greater number of people to be involved in
the power structures compared to traditional
societies. Modem political life implies a com-
petition between political parties with differ-
ent program and strategies uniting a variety of
social strata. They organize political meetings
and publish their own printed media. Tlie prin-
ciples of freedom and equality proclaimed by
the French Revolution become attractive for a
great number of people. The reader has prob-
ably noticed the fact that when getting ac-
quainted with political history one does not
come across the names of many women. Po-
litical activity was associated with the activity
and realization of men. Politics appeared to be
afield excluding one of the sexes.
This fact is not simply a result of the divi-
sion of labor between the sexes. We know that
political institutions take decisions that define
the way of life of all people. They allocate pub-
lic finance (the stale budget), they design new
laws that define the conditions for and access
to education, labor economic activities, heri-
T[ie Government of Constantln Stollov,1897, Bulgaria
89
tage, social support etc. Many of the decisions
of the poUtical instttutioiis impose divisions
based on gender characteristics.
There could be people supporting the idea
that women preferred to stay at home living a
sheltered life, devoted to family and children
and were only happy to leave politics to men.
Probably this was true for most of the cases
but certainly not for all of them especially af-
ter the French Revolution. Throughout hi story
we can observe that women were excluded
systematically from the political sphere. They
were forbidden to participate in political ac-
tivities or deprived of their political rights. In
some countries, e,g. Hungary, in 1848/1849
the election law deprived women of the al-
ready granted (although indirectly) right to
vote. Excluding women from participation in
political life was done not only through legal
acts. To a great extend this happened as a re-
sult of a variety of ideological arguments con-
cerning women's inabiHty to perform politi-
cal activities. Many of these arguments can
still be heard today. In the second half of the
Ih
19 century natural scientists were searching
for evidence that women were biologically pre-
destined for home activities rather than for
social ones. Later on Freud's Psychoanalysis
brought up new arguments from the study of
the human nerve system and psychological
characteristics claiming that women are crea-
tures showing greater dependence on sexual-
ity incapable of deep mental activity and ab-
stract thinking.
Feminism
The fierce debate that was raised resulted
in an increase in women's social activities and
eventually led to the formation of many
women's organizations that began the struggle
for emancipation. The general movement is
widely known as 'feminism'. However, there
is a great variability in feminism and it has
never actuatly been a unified movement. The
reason for this is that women belong to a vari-
ety of social classes and their political inter-
ests are expressed in a varietv of w^ays, Accord-
90
ing to those who do rjot know feminism it is
just an ideology of the hatred of certain women
(most probably neglected by men) towards
men. It was recently when a leader of a Bulgar-
ian women's organization when asked if she was
a feminist, answered: *No, no, no a thousand
times no. We love men and life in couples' . Ac-
tually only few of the most radical acts of femi-
nism were directed against men. Liberal femi-
nism supports gender equality and the idea that
people from both sexes are born different but
equal and must have equal opportunities in life.
Liberal feminism does no reject family as a so-
cial structure; on the contrary it asserts it and
what is more it calls for equality between the
spouses.
Generally feminism
analyses the ways
women are discussed in
society and the power
relations between men
and women. Feminism
teaches us to treat all
people first as indi-
viduals and raises our
awareness in cases of
disrespect of person-
in a much greater extent. In addition, because
of the iong'Iasting alienation of big parts of the
population from the central government
(mainly in the conditions of the Ottoman Em-
pire), more or less permanent forms of self-
defense were established which contribute to
the emerging of images of manhood in which
the heroic behavior played a great role. Such
men's groups were glorified in the folklore of
the Balkans, There were rebels, popuiaiiy known
as haiduti, or other historical groups; klefty,
chetnitzi. etc. In the process of the moderniza-
tion of Balkan communities, accompanied by
fierce social struggle, revolutionary violence
and military conflicts, some of these paragons
South East Europe
The region of S outh-
East Europe has its own
special historical fate,
marked by many sudden
political changes and
mil itary conflicts which
occurred more often
than in other parts of
Europe. Patriarchal so-
cial structures where
preserved here. For
these reasons society
was dominated bv men
Macedonian chetnicks, 1903
91
of heroism and manli-
ness were associated
with revolutionaries
and waniors and influ-
ence the contemporary
concept for the role of
man. Nevertheless, if
we look closer at the
political development
in the 1 9 and 20 cen-
turies, we shall dis-
cover political debates
concerning emancipa-
tion similar to those in
other European states.
Women Organizations
Women charity activists, 1923
The first women's societies in the Balkan
countries where established in the 1850s.
They did not have any political objectives, their
aim being to help women's aspirations to edu-
cation so that women could become better
partners of their spouses and better mothers.
Hundreds of such women's societies provided
financial support for poor girls to study
abroad, opened kindergartens and a wide range
of educational courses. Women teachers
started to play an increasingly important role
as they represented one of the few prestigious
professions, which society accepted as suit-
able for women (at least for single ones). Very
often young women teachers where influ-
enced by socialist ideas, one of the reasons
being that at the time social democrats were
the only politicians who included the idea of
emancipadon in their programs. As socialists,
the members of the Balkan women's organi-
zations had international contacts and there
were cases when women teachers, activists
of the social democratic movement in one
country become leaders of the womcn'sor-
ganizations in a neighboring state. This was
the case with Stoyanka-Tsanka Yovanovic, a
teacher who grew up and got education in Bul-
garia and who later on went to Belgrade to
become one of the leaders of the women's
movement in Serbia.
In the second half of the 1 9 and the begin-
ning of 20th century, various women^s
organizations were established in the countries
of South East Europe . Some of the first such
organizations were those in Hungary. In 1865
women's movement started there with the pub-
lication of 'Women's Manifesto \ Women in
Hungary were granted suffrage /right to vote/
as early as 1919, and in 1922 the first woman
MP /Member of Parliament/ entered Flungar-
ian parliament- This was Margit Slachta (1884
- 1974), a representative of the movement of
Christian feminism. Christian Eeminists
pleaded for both: for the specific women's
virtues, national and family values and for
the women's education and employment.
In Turkey the first women's rights organi-
zation was created in 1913; in 1936 the Fed-
eration of Turkish Women wa& founded, which
in fact supported Kemal Ataturk's policy and
the values of the Republic, as well as the de-
velopment of women's education and the sup-
Elections in November 1945: "Everybody on the elections"
port of motherhood. Women were granted suf-
frage for the by-elections in 1930 and for the
general elections in 1934.
The comnnon struggle for allowing women
access to higher education united Bulgarian
women's societies. Bulgarian Women' s
Union was founded in 190L The union
started publishing its own newspaper
"Zhensky Glas" (Women's Voice). In 1903
the women - social democrats left the union
proclaiming that it was the socialist state to
come that would provide a general solution
to all problems of women; there was no use
to achieve isolated objectives. In 1910 the
union "Ravnopravie'' (Equal rights) was cre-
ated by reformist social-democrats. Bulgar-
ian women (married, divorced, widows) were
allowed to vote in 1937.
A lot of feminist writings where trans-
lated in all the countries of South-East Eu-
rope which made possible for women to take
part in the international debate on women's
rights.
in Serbia the emancipation movements was
associated with the name of Draga Dcyanovic
( 1 840 - 1 87 1 ), a Serbian youth organization ac-
tivist. She gave lectures on the condition of
women in Serbia and called for Serbian women
to free themselves from the oppression of men,
In Greece women got the right to vote in
1956. It seems that in many countries suffrage
was achieved in a period of authoritarian
rather than democradc regime.
Women and Social Care
111
From the middle of the 1 9 up to the middle
of 20 century women found in charity orga-
nizations the best opportunity for social ac-
tivities and expression , Speaking about char-
93
In the 1930s, the protection
of children became a
common collaboration field
for women from alt Balkan
states. The First Balkan
Congress for Child Protection
took place in Attien in 1936.
Here we see two posters
showing the social activity of
the Belgrade community
presented to the Second
Balkan Congress for Child
Protection in Belgrade, 1938.
They illustrated the ideas of
''social motherhood'' as a care
for all children in society
ity, we usually imagine high society noble la-
dies giving alms to poor children for Christ-
mas, But in South East Europe charity was
managed mainly by the women's organiza-
tions. The organizations like Christian, Red
Cross, Teachers' societies etc. attracted a great
deal of middle class housewives and profes-
sional women. Female teachers were the most
active in the beginning, later on female doc-
tors, nurses and agronomists got involved as
well Such organizations opened orphanages,
homes for old people and for poor chi Idren,
they used also to provide free food for poor
people. In the years of World War One thou-
sands of Red Cross activists took care of
wounded soldiers and prisoners of war; and
of the graves of the dead ones from the both
sides.
In Hungary the social and welfare activi-
ties of the women's charity organizations
were the first of such kind in the region.
For instance, Susana Koshut (the sister of
the revolutionary L. Koshut) worked as a
nurse in the military hospitals during the
revolution (1848-1849).
In Turkey women's charity started with or-
ganization founded by Emine Semidge, later
it developed into a network of charity organi-
zations. In 1914 the Union for the Protection
of Children was founded in Turkey.
The Bulgarian Union for the Protection of
Children was founded in 1925. Two years
later a special institution was created within
the Union called 'Women Teachers - Coun-
selors". The girls were trained to manage spe-
cial social, educational and charity activities
in the countryside. Constantia Lyapcheva, the
Union's most distinguished activist, believed
that the roots of charity were not in alms-
giving, but rather in creating honorable hu-
man beings. In Bulgaria, in the 1930s out of
6000 activists involved in caring for old
people, 5000 were women. The Union of
Bulgarian Women opened Higher Social
School for Women, qualifying officers for
the social services.
Many of the women who participated in
charity activities insisted that it was only
through their social engagements that they
could fulfil their "true woman nature" . *The
social motherhood ideology" developed
stressing the need for maternal duty of women
to be extended over the whole society. This
ideology was criticized by some feminists as
reinforcing the inequality between the sexes,
but we should take accoLnt of the fact that
94
A group of Jewish Women from Kjustendil, Bulgaria, IdOQs
Archives of the Jewish HfstorioaJ Museum, Sofia
many of the skills and a great deal of the ex-
perience, acquired by women in the social
charity, would later contribute to the founda-
tion of welfare state and of professional so-
cial care.
The Time of Socialism
After World War Two in the communist
countries of Eastern Europe women were
given unlimited access to all political insti-
tutions. And even more, women coming from
the masses: factory and farm workers, build-
ing construction workers, etc, due to their
achievements as manual workers could have
entered the Parliament, a possibility even un-
thinkable before. However in the conditions
of the totalitarian one party regime, the demo-
cratic institutions were formally elective and
did not play any significant role. This is why
any conclusions concerning the political role
of women in a communist society, based only
on the percentage of women in governmental
institutions, are unreliable. All former femi-
nist organizations being dismissed the pub-
lic dialogue on the political roles of men
and women broke up. For decades women
of communist states were isolated from the
emancipation movement behind the Mron
curtain \ where the fight for equal rights
continued.
The involvement of women in all political
institutions did not solve many of their so-
cial problems. For instance the extreme re-
strictions imposed on abortions in some coun-
tries /e.g. Romania/ were not opposed by the
official women's organizations, which were
quite formal and controlled by the govern-
ment- Many women's organizations even sup-
ported those measures.
After 1989, the year marking the begin-
ning of democratic changes in most of South
95
East communist countries, it
turned out that women were the
ones to take most of the burden
of the transition- They suffered
much more than men from the
rise of unemployment and the
collapse of the state social care
system . Many girls become vic-
tims of the organized crime sup-
plying the underground We.^t Eu-
ropean market with young pros-
titutes. All groups of women need
more information about activi-
ties in other countries, they need
contacts, mutual support and ex-
pression of their own problems.
Now different groups of women
feel they should raise their voice
and make society hear them*
* ij! :^
Tray to find information about
history of women V educational^
political and social activities in
your own country. Fill in the
table^ adding events and names
of activists.
Tsola Dragoycheva, member of the Leadership of Bulgarian Communist
Party speaking for a meeting, t9SOs
Activity
First hatf of the
igih century
Second half of the
19^ century
First tialf of the
20*^ sentuiy
Second half of the
20^ century
Education for girls
Women
organizations
First women wit i
university degree
1
Women charity
organizatioas
Political riglits
-
96
Sources
The organized participation of women in
pontics dates only from the first half of the
20 century. But there were politically active
women in earlier time
1. A novel about the life of Queen
Marie (Mary) of Romania
[,..] And this young, intelligenl:, subtle^ brave
and well prepared for business British prin-
cess became the wife of shy Ferdinand...
Originally, this was a marriage a la conve-
nience and its main aim was the stability of
the fRomaman] kingdom and the heirs for the
throne.
It was clear from the beginning that the
Queen was a stronger character She has been
educated in a family where the model of the
grandmother dominated and where women
were indeed used to taking care of the house-
hold, to cooking and to being real wives. On
the other hand, she knew that noblesse oblige
and she had accepted the responsibilities of a
royalty as it had been taught proper in Great
Britain.
She immediately started to learn Romanian,
a Latin language and to show pride in having a
dual citizenship. She was active, almost with
no self-restrictions and she developed her ex-
traordinary capacity to influence those she met
On many occasions, her behavior was infor-
mal, and, for example, the way to choose the
men in her escort aroused gossips although the
attitude of the Romanians was closer to the
modern permissive society than to that of Vic-
torian England- Except for the scandalous sto-
ries, she was very popular. Her position became
very strong during the Balkan War of 1912-
1913 when she went to the front line. She
worked as a nurse. .. [and] treated soldiers af-
fected badly by typhus or other infectious dis-
eases.
Romania owed her more than any other
politician the decision to join the Allied Pow-
ers [the Entente]. The initiative seemed as a
compromise from the military and geographi-
cal point of view and Ferdinand, was ready to
support Germany, but the [...] Queen, fully
convinced that England and the Allies will win,
showed more influence than her husband. [...}
Leonard W.Taylor, Regele aurului ^i Regina Maria,
(The Sourdough and the Queen U Bucure^ti, 1996,
Answer the questions:
1. How was Maria educated in her home?
What was she supposed to do?
2. When did she start to learn Romanian?
Why did she need it?
• What was her attitude toward the Roma-
nians according to the author?
• How did Queen Maria help her country
during the time of the Balkan wars 1912-1913?
• What was her political influence in the Ro-
manian society?
3. Should women who take high positions in
politics and government take care of their fami-
lies too? Should they be able to cook and take
care of the household?
4. Should people (men and women) who
dedicate themselves to their career be substi-
tuted by someone else in the cares for their
home?
5. What do you think about women's par-
ticipation in politics and government?
Political participation of women was developed only step by step as the following
Hungarian example shows
2. Statistics about Women's Participation in tlie Hungarian Parliament and
Governments (1922 - 1994)
Year of
Election
Absolut number and
Percentage of women
deputies in the
Parliament (%)
Woman serTiii^ aj>
President of the
Parliament
Wonian .serving
as a minister
Niime of (he
Ministry
1922
1 Maiiiit Slachta
1931
1 Anna Keihly
1935
2
1939
2
1944
12(2,4%)
1945
14 (3.3%)
1947
22 (5,3%)
1949
71 (17,6%)
1949-1951 Aiimt
Ratko
Minister of
Welfare
1953
52(17.4%:)
1956 Anna Keihly
State minister
1958
62(18%)
1958-1961 Vuleria
Benke
Minister of
Culture
1963
62(18,2%)
1963-1967 Istvdniie
Vass
1955-1971
Jczs efne Vass
Minister of
Light Indiislry
1967
69(19,7%)
1971
84 (23,8%'
1971-1980
Keseru Jaiiosne
Minister of
Light Industry
1975
iOl (28,6%'J
1980
106 (30, 1%')
1985
80 (20,7%)
1987-1990 Judit
Csehak
Minister qf
We fare and
Health
1990
27 (7%)
1990Katalin
Botos
Minister
without
Portfolio
1994
43(1U1,%0
1994-95 Kosane
Kovacs Maeda
Minister of
Labour
Jonas Karoly. Paripafwpflkum 194H-199Q, (Wax Cabinet of Parties), Budapest, 1990.
Answer tlie questions:
1 . Pay attention to the dynamics of women's
participation in the historic development. When
do we see the first woman in the Hungarian par-
liament?
2. What do you remember about Margit
Slachta from the text of introduction? What were
her convictions?
3. How did her participation enrich political
life?
4. When did the share of women in the Hun-
garian parliament reach its peak?
How would you explain this?
5. What was the attitude of the communist
government toward women's participation in the
power structure? How did this influence
women's place in society?
6. In what spheres of govenmient did women
take the highest positions? Why?
- economy; - culture;
- industry; - agriculture;
- social sphere; - education,
1, Can you imagine a woman in the follow-
ing positions:
- Prime Minister - President
Hungary, 1910s
- Defense Minister - Finance Minister
8. Point out names of women - ministers and
members of Parliament in your country. In what
spheres do you find them mostly?
The writer Hristo Silyanov (born inl880)
participated in the movement for the liberation
of Macedonia from Ottoman rule at the end of
the 19 century and the beginning of the 20
century. Later on he worked as a journalist.
His memoirs were written as letters to the
literature teacher Manya M. who also sup-
ported the liberation struggles
3. The letter of a Macedonian chetnik
(rebel) to his friend Manya
"You admired the wild life of yourhroth-
ers and cursed your sex. The thought that you
will never be able to get out from the role of a
nurse, that you are condemned to put up in
your home homeless people, send them shirts
and socks [..,] this thought cut the wings of
your dreams. And you felt you were bom un-
happy, stigmatized by fate.
I understood you Manya, I understood you
perfectly. I also thought of myself as convicted
to be nailed by the city [...] like a tired ox,
which is headed towards the slaughterhouse
voluntarily [. . .] Do you think that this thought
is less painful for a man than your awareness
of the helplessness of a woman?"
From **Letters and confessions of a Macedonian
chetnik", 1928,
Answer the questions:
1 . What were the social activities of women
of ihattime?
2. Why did the author suppose that the
woman was not happy with her sex? Why did
he mention the iielplessncssof a woman'?
3. What did the author's mean by ''a wild
life"?
4. What types of men and women did the
author describe?
• Why did the author compare a man who is
"nailed by the city'' to a ''working ox"?
99
• What stereotypes about gender roles did
the author affirm?
• What political moveraents on the Balkans
made use of these stereotypes for their propa-
ganda?
5. Should men and women share the same
ideal of behavior?
Underline the right statements and
support your choice:
The author's ideal of 'manliness' was:
- a man should sacrifice himself for certain
ideals;
" a man should be patient;
- a man should live peacefully;
' a man should lead a turbulent life;
- a man should be hardworking;
- a man should be educated;
- a man should be strong and brave;
- a man should be a hero.
HalideEdipAdii/ar
Women in the first half of the 20 century
were supposed to take care only for their
husbands and children. But there were
also women who tried to change these
expectations. It wasn 7 easy for a woman to
be politically active in the beginning of
the 20 century as far as politics was con-
sidered a man business. One of these
women was Halide Edip Adivar from
Turkey.
4. Biography of Halide Edip Adivar
(born in 1884) , Turkey
The renowned novelist who was one of the
heroines of the national independence move-
ment, wrote stories which could penetrate to
the depths of the human soul and which could
excite the reader. Her most famous works are
"Sinekli Bakkal", '^Vurun Kahpeye", "Kalp
Agrisi" and ''Zeyno'nun Oglu". She was a
prominent intellectual leader during the v^ar
for it! dependence, alongside the Kemalist re-
sistance. During the Republican era however, she
was critical of the Kemalist policies and had to
leave the countiy and live in exile until she died.
Answer tlie questions:
1. What do you know about the Kemalist
revolution in Turkey?
2. What do you know about ihe situation of
women before the Kemalists revolution?
3. How did it change the situatioii of women?
4. When were the women in Turkey granted
the right to vote? Find it m the text of the introdtic-
tion,
5. What do you think about the emigration
of social activists due to political reasons?
100
4, A Picture, Constants Lyapcheva and Georgi Dragoev, 1934 (Bulgaria)
Can you describe what is presented on
the photo?
Mark the true statements. Back up
your choice:
- the pholo presents a family at home;
- this IS a photo of a study /a special room
for intellectual activities in one's home/;
- this is a photo of a room in a private house;
- the woman who is sitting on the chair is
subordinate to the man
- the man is subordinate to the woman;
- the woman and the man are colleagues dis-
cussing their work,
2. Try to make short biographies of the people
from the picture based on the scheme:
-family origin;
-education:
- career.
3. Find in the inlroduction (Women and so-
cial care) the name of Constantia Liapclieva.
5. From the article of Dimitrana
Ivanova, the "Zhenski Glas" magazine,
1926
"And if the woman - married or single
can go to the factories and workshops, of-
fices and state institutions, why can't she
become a judge, a lawyer, a member of par-
liament, a journalist, a technician, a priest,
a doctor, a professor, an executive and "what
else not",..What right do you have, if she is
forced to work, lo make her do the dirty work
only, to ban her from doing any intellectua]
work?"
Questions:
L What attitude toward women's work is
Dimitrana Ivanova pleading for?
2, Wliich professions were usual for women in
themiddte of the 1920s?
101
'.--Vi
Women's demonstration for women's rights, 19tOs, Hungary
3. Which professions women were not allowed
access to?
4, Write an essay *'My future profession".
6. A Bulgarian journal **The Woman
Today", 1950s
[...] She is like that, the leader of the garden
brigade... Yordanka Bitunska. She saves nei-
ther labor nor time. Holidays are workdays for
her There were occasions when she even left
her guests at home on her Name day feast., .
The agronomist of the cooperative farm
Ganka Tsoneva smiled: 'Well, you are Hke fire !
You don't sleep a wink! Do you know what?
rU give you my pocket torch. Check the calo-
rimeters in the greenhouse, and if the tempera-
ture is +15^ C, put the frames and the straw-
mat over!"
[-.,] This morning, as usual, Petrana left for
the farm in the dark. In the morning, she can't
lie in bed. When the rooster sings she gets up.
Cleans the house, makes breakfast for the ki ds.
puts the pot with the lunch to cook and the gate
squeaks silently behind her. . . Petrana is always
inahurry [...]
Answer the questions:
L What were the profession of the w^omen
discussed in the texts ?
2. Which of them were leaders?
3- How did they cope with their duties at the
work place?
4. Did they keep to their traditional family
roles?
5. Were they responsible to their famiHes?
6. What was the communist ideal of "being a
real woman'' ?
7. What positive changes did socialism bring
to women ?
8. What of the old problems socialism was not
able to solve?
102
Love
and
Marriage
in
Communist
Society
Free Love, Communal Family
The Marxist view of Jove, marriage and sex played a
significant role in the history of the Balkan countries af-
ter World War II Just like Freudism, Marxism also ne-
glects entirely the importance of the genetic-biological
factors to sex differences and drives and exaggerates the
meaning of the political conditions. According to Marx-
ism, the inequality of sexes in the bourgeois society is a
result solely of class oppression. The communist ideol-
ogy promises to workers and peasants that after taking
forcefully over the political power they wilt be able to
free society from the century-old institutions of op-
pression - national state, private property, Christian
monogamous marriage. Since economical dependence
and social stratification will fall off (all being equal and
Midnight meeting, 1958, Bulgarian movie
"A film about the young who discovered the meaning of their
work in the straggle for the good of the people... "
Man and women were antifascists, party activist, best workers but never just lovers in the official communist art
103
rich), only love will be decisive for the mari-
tal choice. Free communist love meant simi-
larity of characters and political accord. The
family will not be a compulsory form of co-
habitation of the people in love, and children
will be brought up communally and edu-
cated by the state so the parents may have
more time for their profession and for their
social commitments.
Liberalizing the Legislation
The 1940s - 1950s were marked by the
struggle of the new communist states against
the bourgeois monogamous family, which lead
to liberalization of the legislation in regard to
divorces and
abortions; the
right of patri-
mony for
children bom
out of wed-
lock was ac-
knowledged
(even if the
fathers had
married or
remarried);
after a di-
vorce the
children were
not necessar-
ily given to
the innocent
Hungary was placed among the 5 countries
with the highest divorce rate in the world. To
compare, the divorces in bourgeois Turkey in
1983 were 3,6% and in 1991 - 4,7%,
The legislature created conditions for
greater freedom in choosing and changing
one's spouse, as well as in choosing suitable
time and form of maternity. On the other hand,
family became more unstable and easy to be
controlled: party functionaries started to inter-
fere in most intimate affairs of communist
state subjects.
Communist Welfare State
Communist educators rejected the idea of
Christian
feminism
that only
the family
may en-
• * « *•
*■ f 4 *.
?•/•!
Family celebration "First of Mav", Child textbook, 1970s
part. The only thing forbidden was marriage with
a Western foreigner (in Bulgaria up to 1970s).
Divorces became ridiculously easy - though not
as easy as in the USSR, with postcards, but af-
ter a court trial - due to character differences,
continuing disagreements, by mutual agree-
ment, etc. Their number rose:
I960
1975
1985
Bulgaria- 10%
Bulgaria- 15 %
Bulgaria-21 %
Hungary-23 %
Hungary-28 %
Hungary-33%
sure
f^ . proper up-
.^Jml bringing
of chil-
dren and a
campaign
for the en-
tire insti-
tutional-
ization of
the care
for chil"
dren was
sought: free hospital care, kindergartens, so-
cial kitchens, holiday camps, special after-
school interest activities were provided.
Through the overall communal upbringing and
communist education of children the state tried
to overcome "the egoism of family upbringing",
'*the religious delusions" and the other ''harm-
ful prejudices" of their parents. 54% of the chil-
dren between 3-6 years of age in Bulgaria in
1960 were in kindergarten, and in 1975 the
number increased up to 75%,
104
The .state protection and education of chil-
dren took from Ihe parent ji many ^f their fam-
ily responsibihtiei. Job and lodging, Though in-
adequate in most of the cases, were provided
for every citizen , The marital age fell again:
New traktorist is greeted, 1952, Hungary
Year
Country
Average marital
age for girls
80s
Romania
15 years;
70s
Hungary
20 years
(for 55% of girls)
60s
Bulgaria
21,7 years
The number of children bom out of wed-
lock rose as did the number of children left
for upbringing in state children's homes.
The free communal upbringing of children
facihtated women's involvement in the accel-
erated industrialization of the South Eastern
countries (by the 1970s the urban population
became between 70-90%). Women had new
perspectives for professional and social real-
ization. In 1965 92% of the women in Bul-
garia had work positions in the state owned
companies. The communist propaganda encour-
aged women's involvement in typically male
professions — tractor drivers, crane operators,
construction workers - professions, contra-
dicting the bourgeois ideas of womanhood and
maternal responsibility. Even today foreigners
are impressed by the large number of women
working as bus drivers, ticket guards, construc-
tion workers.
In spite of the emancipation propaganda
everyday life of women was hard. Because of
the poor social services and the constant defi-
cit of essential commodities, after the end the
workday wives had to stay at endless queues
for buying bread and other goods, then they
were expected to cook and do the housework -
no time was left even to talk to their children.
The price of the communist welfare was the
establishment of a total political supervision
not only over the religious and professional
life of the citizens, but also over their private
life. The family problems of workers and
employees were discussed at polidcal meet-
ings. The practice of discussing the love af-
fairs of a husband on the request of his wife at
party committee meetings which could result
in forbidding divorce and even recommend-
ing another child to strengthen the family ties
was common. In order to get pemiission for
abortion, women were humiliated being ques-
tioned about their most intimate problems by
special state committees including party ac-
tivists, colleagues and doctors.
Propaganda and Abortion,
The party-state took over many of the pro-
viding and educational functions of the fam-
ily, but the expectations for an increase in birth
rates were not justified. Ever since the 1950s
it has been falling down. In 1960 the popula-
tion growth in Bulgaria had been 17,8 per one
thousand, in 1980- 14,5 per thousand, in 1990
105
- 12,L In Slovenia during the 60s and 70s the
families had an average of 2, 1 children, in Bul-
garia during 1975-2,9. Both abortions and the
number of children bom out of wedlock rose.
Abortions in all communist states were le-
Girl at the Abortion Committee:
"To simplify things I got myself a season ticket!"
Ludas Matyi
HungaryjgGOs
galjzed and became accessible to eveiybody.
For 30 lei, the price of a bottle of wine, every
woman in Romania could stop her pregnancy
(from 1957 to 1966), Abortions in Hungary
were legalized - first in 1945 because of the
numerous cases of rapes by the Soviet soldiers,
and in 1952 abortions were permitted after an
examination by public committees:
1950
1954
1958
36 000 abortions to 196 206 births
42 029 abortions to 223 000 births
183 00 abortions to 156 500 births
In 1 96 1 abortions were with 20% more than
births. In Yugoslavia abortions were legalized
later in the 1970s.
What was the reason for the sharp increase
of abortions and number of children aban-
doned by their parents? Except for the weak-
ened sense of personal responsibility and fam-
ily values because of the communal- atheistic
upbringing, another significant reason was the
hypocrisy of the official propaganda. Marx-
ism - Leninism was not interested in the bio-
logical body and its sexual drives, sexuality
was viewed as a remnant from the ' Yotten capi-
talistic past" and became a taboo theme. The
party functionaries equated sex appeal with
Communist appeal: the dedicated to Mother
party not drinking, not smoking puritanical
male who radiated strength and optimism. The
female workers whose true love were party
functionaries and who despised tenderness as
a decadent capitalist past. The praise of the
sexless workers of communism held the young
generation in total ignorance in regard to
sexual relations.
Birth control pills, condoms, etc. were not
advertised, they were hard to get and with poor
quality (the rough condoms were called "ga-
losh"). No sexual education was provided. On
the other side the communal living at brigades,
camps and dormitories away from the parents'
supervision gave youngsters opportunities for
uncontrolled sexual activity. During the 1960s
more than 20% of the girls in Albania who
had taken part in a work brigade got pregnant.
The number of children born out of wedlock
increased, not because of the mothers' desire
to bring up their children aione, but because
of their low sexual culture and irresponsible
sexual behavior. In Bulgaria children bom out
of wedlock in 1960 were 8%, and in 1990 -
12,4%, In 1970 only 6,2% of such mothers
wanted to have a child, 72,2% gave their chil-
dren for upbringing in state homes.
Sexua! Revolution
Despite of the propaganda, the communist
state did not manage to win the young people
for long - the 60s were years of youth anti
Soviet riots and revolts (Hungary and the
Czech Republic). Startled b>' the youth discon-
tent, the Hungarian communist party changed
its politics toward sexuality: free love was
encouraged instead of free life. In the West
the 1960s were also troublesome - it was the
time of sexual liberation and human rights
struggles. Rock music, jeans, pornography
106
started to get through the 'Mron curtain". The
communist elite used the Western liberation
movement for their own purposes. The atti-
tude to revolt against all authority, especially
•4**-^«iv:
"Please, God, make the sun shine toTnonoTV,
so we can wear our new bikinis!"
Porcupine, Jugoslavia, 1960s
the authority of schools, youth organizations
(the Komsomol, Pioner) and the party made
young people accept some myths about them-
selves and the world, which allowed them to
escape from the dull and hypocritical commu-
nist reality into the world of despair, anarchy,
and irresponsibility. The eroticism in art, the
distribution of pornography and the promis-
cuity of young people was tacitly encouraged.
Since the 70s the youth decadence, the de-
mographic decrease and the rising problems
with certain ethnic minority groups, which
kept their high birth rate preserving patriar-
chal patterns, started to frighten communist
leaders. In order to encourage marriage and
motherhood, they passed laws providing finan-
cial support of studying and working mothers,
loans with zero interest were given to newly
married couples, etc. In 1968 in Bulgaria the
maternity leave was increased - from 84 to
120 days for the first child, 150 days for the
second, and 180 for the third child. Mothers
received the right to an unpaid leave for up to
6 months, which was acknowledged as service.
In Romania the catastrophic demographic
decrease from 25,6 per thousand in 1955 to
14,6 in 1965 led to restriction of abortions -
with the only exception of cases of incest,
rapes, pregnancy over 45 years of age, etc,
and the wrongdoers were sentenced to 10 years
in prison. Meanwhile, the use of all contra-
ceptives was banned, as a result of which the
state orphanages were filled with unwanted
children. After decades of forced social ex-
periments, the ideas of ''sacramental monoga-
mous family" and nationalism started to re-
turn. However, compared to West European
development, they were anachronism.
At the beginning of the century the roles of
men and women in South East Europe started
to be defined in a much broader way - not only
in the terms of the reproducdon of the kin and
the nation. Today gender is differentiated from
the biological sex and sexual orientation: from
an inborn identity (with two meanings - man
or woman) sex started to be viewed as a so-
cial choice on the continuum between the man
and the woman allowing individual erotic
choice. Today's consumer society offers a
variety of possibilities for satisfying one's
individual erotic desires, gender roles, and
forms of family cohabitation, which does not
necessarily mean that the opportunities for
equality and mutual understanding between
men and women have also increased.
107
Sources
1, A Partisan Guerrilla's Letter to his
Mother (Yugoslavia)
''Greetings, my old woman, and death to fas-
cism! Your partisan, your son and your child,
Martin Klen, is writing to you and greeting
you. . .
It's better my darling mama to tell you
something good, isn't it? When I'm feeling
joyful, I'm singing, God damn it, and the whole
mountain echoes. And most often I sing the
Zagoriye village song **A spring is gushing up,
oh, you black-eyed girl". This song is always
in my heart, although our Milica (a fellow-
partisan) has her own opinion, which is not
very relevant to my joyfulness and happiness.
She says that it is nothing, that there is no use,
and so on, and that true songs are the ones
that sing about our struggle and freedom.
Milica has her right, but I think Tm right too.
She is Serbian, from Velyun, she has already
been in our army for 3 years, carrying a gun
and a solder's overcoat, and how black her
eyes are - even the soot in our fire is not that
black. So, my darting mama, Fm telling you
all this to know that I have firmly decided to
get married soon. When the war is over and
our victory comes I'll get married, but Fm not
taking lagica from Brezic, but another one, a
completely different one.. /'
Ivan Donchevic, Yugoslavian writer, *'A letter to a
mother in Zagoriye^\ Short stories, 1977
Answer the questions:
• Why was the partisan writing lo his mother,
not iiis father?
• What was his language like?
• What quahties of the beloved one was he
stressing?
■ Compare them to the patriarchal and bour-
geois ideals of womanhood.
• What old ideas did influence the partisan's
new attitude to love and marriage?
Meeting Sovfet army Monument, Bulgaria
108
2. Female poetry (Yugoslavia)
Presentiment
I met you when the snow was melting,
Melting and warm wind was blowing,
With its closeness the spring exhilarated me,
I was breathing the light air thirstily,
I was looking tenderly at your footsteps in
the white snow.
And I understood, you'd be darling to me.
Darling all my life.
Desanka Maksimovic. a famous Yugoslavian poet,
published in !he 1920s.
The speaking of iron
Here 1 am in an iron ringing garden
The metal is blazing like blooming poppy
Burning seed is crackling in the chimney
Iron nightingales are whispering in thin
antennas
Flinches are ringing in the big smoky hall
Just forged cobras, boas and motley vipers
Are hissing on the floor.
DesankaMaksimovic, published intbe 1960s
Answer tiie questions:
• What has Desanka Maksimovic preserved and
what has she changed in her poetic language from
1920s to 1960s
• Which poem do you like more and why?
3- Legislature (Bulgaria)
'The woman may reach social freedom and
equality only in a world that has rejected op-
pression of the minority over the majority and
has granted all people the goods they have pro-
duced,,. The judicial equality of both sexes is
already a fact. Men and women have equal rights
and responsibilities as citizens of our state (art,
36 of the Constitution of the People's Repub-
lic of Bulgaria). . . About the positions women
have reached, one may definitely judge by their
Female policewoman with her dog in 1947, Hungary
participation in spheres such as health care (ev-
ery second doctor is a woman), the technical
professions (every third engineer is a woman),
science (every third science worker is a
woman) . . . The commitments a woman has in
the family take her twice the time it would take
a man. . , Observations show that the bigger load
the woman has is connected not only to the
upbringing of children, but also to the personal
way of living w^ith her husband. This combina-
tion oi everyday cares for the well-being of the
family as a whole, the necessity to create and
sustain appropriate conditions at home espe-
cially to the husband, make it necessary to in-
sist on one more role of the woman - the func-
tion of a wife. This function is put together with
the already discussed functions of a mother, a
worker and a social person,"
Milanka Vidova, Legislative protection
of motherhood, Sofia, [980.
09
Answer the questions:
• What was promised to women by the com-
munisl state?
• What did the state expect from women?
• Is it possible for every woman to be at one
and the same time a caring mother and wife, a
devoted social person and an experienced
worker? What conditions should be provided?
What would be the price?
• Most of the Bulgarian communist leaders
come from poor rural families and have got only
elementary education. Could you connect this
fact to the official expectations about women's
duties and rights?
4* An article on the condition of
women in South East Europe (Bulgaria,
the 1970s)
May be that is why I was really surprised
to find out that in some western industrial so-
cieties, as in England, for example, the woman
is viewed officially as a human being of sec-
ond quality. Women's work is considered of
low value, women's salaries are lower than
those of men, no key position is granted to a
woman, and it seems that the kingdom of sec-
retaries and housewives is blossoming.
Looking formally, it is not like that in the
East, Actually, we have nearly the same atti-
tude. Everyone who has passed along the co-
operative blocks has seen that only women
work there, men are privileged administrators.
Women are working at hard and unhealthy
places - to start with the mines and end with
the concrete mixers... But what is more of-
fending and cruel is the attitude of men, I still
know a lot of people who say ''a female'*
(zhenska) instead of 'a woman''. And add to that
the vulgar attitude of the male supervisors who
consider it their right to take their subordinate
women and girls to bed.. ." The woman is the
best and the cheapest pleasure", once said to
me in a state of drunken honesty one of these
comrades."
Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident writer. *The
image of the womaii", ''Correspondence reports from
Bulgaria", 1991.
Tasks:
Interview your parents and relatives:
• What were their professional, social and
family duties in the communist state?
• What examples of advantages and respect
for women do they remember?
• What examples of discrimination and hu-
miliation of women do they remember?
• Were they advantages or disadvantaged by
the post-communist change?
Write an essay
'The advantages and/or disadvantages of the
communist establishment for both women and
men."
Fill in the mind map:
Women rights
intheoty
in practice
Women duties
in theory
in practice
Hea(th-educationa[ action for warding off infectious
diseases (1945) Cutting children's nails, Macedonia
110
Our world and !Tie capitalist one. *'Woman today" magazine, 1955, Bulgaria
5, Interview with a prostitute
(Budapest, Hungary, 1966)
"We have lost faith in everything: in old-
fashioned religion, in the capitalist order, in
socialism, in communism. Everything turned
out to be lies, God did not help us when 1 was
thirteen and a Russian soldier raped me in the
cellar- and then took the ring my parents gave
me for my first communion. The so cold "free
world" did not lift a finger to help us in 1956
when a little unity, a little firmness, would have
freed us- And Communism's lies are shown up
everyday. What is left? Whatever 1 can taste and
touch, eat and drink; the pleasure my body can
give and the pleasure a man can give me. And
that is quite enough"
In. **Sexuai behavior in the cominunist world",
R Stafford, 1967
Answer the questions:
1 , Wliatdid the girl mean by "communist lies"?
2, What were the reactions of the Western gov-
eniments and people to tlie political revolts in com-
munist countries?
3. Could you explain the connection between
the political violence (war, revolution) and sexual
violence (rape)? Look for some examples in lit-
erature and movies.
4. Why does the lack of social perspectives
and common values lead to sexual promiscuity?
6. An anttiropological observation and
a partisan story (Yugoslavia, the 1940s)
"In Yugoslavia the partisan guerilla is still a
king and hero. Almost every film, book, every
other statue or painting glorifies him - the fighter
for freedom and independence, the guenilla
III
wai'rior who overcome teirific odds and in the
end drives out the invader. Much of the guerilla
mythology is overdone and exaggerated..,
'" During those six months we (communist
partizans) raided this town twelve times , . ,One
of my Guerillas took special pleasure in mak-
ing the chetnik (collaborator to German army)
captain j ump out of his bed in his nightshirt or
even without it and run for his life, while he
took his place in the conjugal bed and gave a
wife a pleasurable time".
A story of a Serb partisan commander In: Sexual
behavior..., 1967.
Answer the questions:
1 . What did the commander mean by *'gave a
wife pleasurable time"? Whose "please" was he
talking about?
2. What is the connection between the cult
to the heroic armed man and the practice of us-
ing sexual violence against women as political
revenge?
3* The violence against women takes differ-
ent forms in different times and situations. Could
you count some of the more open or closed
forms of violence in the past and today?
7. Popular joke (Hungary^ 1970s)
Comment;
This joke is connected with the atmosphere of
sexual promiscuity, established in Eastern Europe
after the anticommunist youth insurrection in 60s,
''Give them (youngsters) plenty of prostitutes and
they will forget about politics; ' This was the per-
sonal advice of Matiash Rakoci, Hungarian com-
munist leader, to editors and publishet^s.
Underline the correct answers:
• The joke is ridiculing:
- The sexual freedom of young people;
- The inesponsible behavior of young people;
- The excessive cares of mothers;
- The common sense of mothers;
- The lack of sexual education in communist
society.
• Whose responsibility should it be if a girl
gets pregnant?
- the girl's
- the girl's and her boy friend's
- the girTs/boy's parents'
- the society's
Task:
Ask you parents and relatives of other jokes
from the communist times connected to love and
family life.
An old lady visiting a doctor, asked for birth
control pills, got prescription, two weeks later:
''What do you want?" - asks the doctor.
"Another prescription - the same pills."
"But ma'am, why do you need so many at
your age?"
'They make me sleep so well"
"For goodness sake ... these are not sleep-
ing pills!"
"Sure they are. Every evening 1 give one to
my daughter, who is eighteen. And then I sleep
the soundest sleep/'
8. Autobiographical interviev^^ of a
woman born In the 1950s
(Bulgaria)
My father died when I wds 19 years old. I
would not say I miss him and that it is a bad
memory forme, because he had not lived with
us anyway, and was a rather repulsive person.
An alcoholic and a rake, he left my mother
when I was born. He got together with some
woman from a village near PLovdiv (big Bul«
garian town). . ,He came to see me from time
to time, but nearly every time he drank heavily
II
Orphanage, Rtimanfa
(Counsef of Wor/d Churches, Geneva, archives}
and started to torment my mother. He abused
her and sometimes beat hen Then, I think it was
in 1967, 1 was 13 years old, when I took a seri-
ous decision for the first time in my life and 1
chose him away. I told him that I don't want to
see him anymore, and that TU kill him if he steps
into this house again. 1 finished 8 grade in 1979,
to tell you the tmth, I didn't want to study very
much... (in 1982 she gets married and lives in
Sofia).
.. .. T called my husband in the bedroom to
show him the letter, and he hit me because he
said he knew what it was all about. After that
he hit me again and 1 fell on the bed. He called
me a whore, stupid, he told me thai he has never
loved me and wonders why he has married me at
all. He hit me, it hurt a lot. While he was swear-
ing and beating me, his friend came to see what
was going on. At the same time Ivan took off my
clothes and raped me. . . I will lie if I say I haven't
slept with shabby men. ..After that gradually I
entered into narrower circles where the cream
of the scum was, being they politicians, mem-
bers of parliament, artists and cheats, all the
ones about whom nothing is known, everything
is deeply covered."
Oralintei'view, 1991
Mark the true statements. Back
up your choice.
What were the reasons for this girl to be-
come a prostitute?
- Violence in the family -alcoholic father and
abandoned mother
-The girl herself -her unwillingness to study
and work
- The husband of the girl and other men profil-
ing from organized prostitution
'Tlie crisis of the family in tlie communist state
- Hopeless future
- Psychological problems of the girl
- Self-haired and the feeling of being defiled
-Wrong ideals
- Lack of social education
113
9. Essajj Slavenka Drakulic^
Croatia
To avoid uniformity, you have
to work very hard: you have to
bribe a salesgirl, wait in line for
some imported product, buy blue
jeans on the black market and pay
your whole month's salary for
them; you have lo hoard cloth and
sew it, imitating the pictures in
glamorous foreign magazines,
What makes these enormous ef-
forts touching is the way women
wear it all, so you can tell they
went to the trouble. Nothing is ca-
sual about them. They are over-
dressed, they put on too much
makeup, they match colors and tex-
tures badly, revealing their provin-
cial attempt to imitate Western fashion. But
where could they learn anything about a self-
image, a style? In the party-controlled maga-
zines for women, where they are instructed to
be good workers and party members first, then
mothers, housewives, and sex objects next, —
never themselves? To be yourself, to cultivate
individualism, to perceive yourself as an indi-
vidual in a mass society is dangerous. , .
For us, the pictures in a magazine like
*'Vogue" were much more important we stud-
ied their every detail with the interest of those
who had no other source of information about
the outside world. We tried to decode them, to
read their messasze. And because we were in-
experienced, enough to read them literally, the
message that we absorbed was that the other
world was a paradise. Our reading was wrong
and naive, nevertheless, it stayed in the back
of our minds as a powerful force, an inner
motivation, a dormant desire fur change,
an opportunity to awaken. The producers
of these advertisements, Vance Packard's
Slavenka Orakulic
'hidden persuaders/ should sleep peace-
fully because here, in communist countries,
theirdream is coming true: people still believe
them, women especially. What do we care
about the manipulation inherent in the fash-
ion and cosmetic industries? To tell us they
are making a profit by exploiting our needs is
like warning a Bangladeshi about cholesterol.
S. Drakuiic, famous feminist journalist
How we survived communism art! even laughed. 1991
Answer the questions:
1. Why make up and fashion were so impor-
tant for women in communist stales?
2. Did women succeed in their strive for style
and individuality?
3. Was make up and fashion in communist
state a question of personal choice or politics?
4. What are fashion magazines all about?
Selling goods to women; Developing sense
of style and beauty; Informing abou! cloth in-
dustry ; Offeriiig women an escape from reality,
Affimiiiig the stereotypes of women as beautiful
and sensual "objects".
114
WOMEN AND MEN
IN THE PAST
19* and 20' Century
Additional Teaching Materials for Secondary Schools
English language translator: Elena Ruseva, Eli Bojadzhieva
Enghsb language editor: Ivanichka Nestorova
Design and lay out:
Niirie Miiratova
Printed by:
Art Print Blagoevgrad,
teL: 00359 73 8 08 37,
e-mail; krompet@avala,bg
ISBN 954-680-197-6
Approaching the history of gender relations in South East Europe, we would rather
try to outline the common problems of people of Eastern countries than to present
different national traditions. We put greater emphasis on the things that connect men
and women love, profession, and human dignity - than on the ones opposing them.
Ideals of being "true" mate and being "true" female vary in different social groups
and change in the course of time. We behave "like a man" or "like a woman" not so
much because of our biological specifics but because of certain social expectations
and established traditions.
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