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
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
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
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.