Women’s rights milestones in Slovenia

HISTORICAL LEGACY

1871 – National women’s college of education founded in Ljubljana

1869 – Girls’ college founded

1897 – First women’s newspaper Slovenka published; women can apply to the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (in 1906, the first Slovene woman obtains a PhD)

1898 – The Society of Slovene Female Teachers is established

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Picture 1: Agneza Zupan (1852-1918), first president of the Society of Slovene Women Teachers (source: Digital Library of Slovenia)

1908 – Garment workers strike in New York on 8 March, 129 female workers killed in a fire

1910 – International Socialist Women’s Conference held, resolution to mark International Women’s Day adopted, Slovenia commemorates the event for the first time in 1911 (Idrija, Ljubljana, Trieste)

1924 – The Alliance of Working Women and Young Women (ZDŽD) is established, the first edition of the bulletin Ženski list appears

1926 – The ZDŽD demands full “social, civil, and political” equality

1936 – Great textile strike in Slovenia for a collective agreement in the textile industry

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Picture 2: New York Strike, 1909 (photo via Wikipedia)

1942 – Decree adopted by the Executive Committee of the Liberation Front (IO OF) gives women the right to suffrage on the newly independent territories (10.8% of the delegates at the assembly in Kočevje are female), the decree is in effect until the adoption of the constitution in 1946

1943 – The Slovene Antifascist Women Alliance (AFŽ) is established in Dobrnič

1946 – The second Yugoslav constitution institutes full gender equality

1974 – The constitutional right to free choice regarding childbirth is established

1977 – The UN declares 8 March as International Women’s Day; Yugoslavia legalizes the right to abortion on demand, contraception, and artificial insemination; women lose the right to artificial insemination in 2000

 

1986 – Maternity leave is extended to one year

1989 – First abuse hotline for women, children and victims of violence

1991 – Demonstrations lead to a constitutional directive on free choice on childbirth

1992 – The Women’s Politics Office is launched by the Slovene government; later renamed as the Equal Opportunities Office and suspended in 2012

1997/98 – Women can apply to the Slovene Police School for the first time

2004 – The Constitution is supplemented by legislative measures to ensure gender equality in elections; the Law on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women is adopted

2008 – Law on Prevention of Family Violence adopted

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Image 4: The Slovene Women’s Lobby – 8 March poster

 

Authors: The Slovene Women’s Lobby, an organisation which aims to eliminate all forms of gender inequality, to ensure full respect for women’s rights as fundamental human rights, to ensure systematic implementation of equal opportunities policy and to institute equality as a fundamental value.

 

Translated by: Ernest Alilović.

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