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Place of women’s rights in supra-nation building: Comparison of socialist Yugoslavia and the European Union

In my presentation, I will describe the processes and challenges of establishing women’s rights in socialist Yugoslavia and the European Union while concentrating on their common traits and differences. Although they are two distinct political and economic systems with different historical heritage, when it comes to women’s rights, some similarities are noticeable. Drawing on the long and unbroken tradition of patriarchy, both systems, partially under the influence of the first and second-wave feminism, have integrated the fight for women's rights into their political agendas. In both cases imposed from the above, the introduction of equal opportunities legislation to most nation states came as a shock therapy, challenging existing traditional cultural patterns and norms (Mazey, 2012 ; 1998) and making the results uneven and fragile. Furthermore, especially in the beginning, women's rights policies were primarily economic in nature, concentrating on the inadequate position of women in the labour market. In socialism in particular, this was ideologically founded on the understanding of the “women's question” as secondary to the “class question”. Lastly, the establishment of women’s rights in cases of both entities can be determined as an integral part of supra-nation building. Women’s rights have therefore been an identity tool in both socialist Yugoslavia and the EU in establishing a clear distinction from opposed political and economic systems.

socialist Yugoslavia ; European Union ; supranational identity ; women's rights ; feminism

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