Abstract:

The period from the end of the 19th century to the year 1945 is, among others, significant for the Croatian society because of emancipation of women, their effort to gain equal rights to those men enjoyed. The matter of equal rights for women had come a long way during this time. At first women had to gain an access to education. Some of them successfully achieved this goal at the beginning of the 20th century, but that was only the first step to the full equality of genders. Thanks to becoming members of various female clubs and societies and by publishing their own literary works in women’s magazines and elsewhere, they were able to become more independent. Later they also formulated their political goals. Women did not enjoy the right to vote and were unable to participate in politics until 1945.

The position of Croatian women has changed considerably after approximately one hundred years of development. Today, the right to vote is a matter-of-course, as well as equal access to education and to various professions. Although men and women share an equal position in society, the male-female ratio is still unbalanced, especially in tertiary education, politics and high-end positions. The aim of this paper is to show how much the position of women changed in the course of a century and to discuss whether there is still a room for improvement even today.