Post on 30-Jan-2023
Milica Antić Gaber
Irena Selišnik
Sara Rožman
Work in progress.
Please do not quote in distribute out of this group!
Gender and everyday life in Socialist Slovenia
Introduction
The paper explores some manifestations and representations of
gender in everyday life in Socialist Slovenia as a part of
Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia which was the most
“westernized” part. Described had been possible because of the
fact that Slovenia was the closest part of the state to Western
Europe and because Yugoslav regime after the break-up with
Stalin in 1948 developed softer (Tito’s) version of one-party
system. The starting point of the paper is therefore “short
history” of Slovenia which is significantly different in
comparison with other socialist or communist countries. The
paper explores/presents the ways in which Yugoslavia tried to
find its “third way” between Soviet type of communist regime
and Western capitalism with innovative answers to different
social and economic questions. In the times when some
hardliners in the neighbourhood answered with repression to the
attempts in their countries to move away from soviet type of
communist regime like in Poland and Hungary (Hobsbawm 2000,
Vodopivec 2006) in Slovenia and Yugoslavia liberal economic
reforms took place. Reforms which started in the second half of
the 1960s aimed among other things to higher social standard,
better salaries and higher purchasing power. In this context
everyday life of the citizens especially in the 1970s and 1980s
had many differences in comparison to other socialist countries
in the neighbourhood. To a degree it followed the idea of
welfare capitalist state.
These differences between the rest of socialist countries and
Slovenia were many fold. The chosen two which are to be
analysed in this paper are connected to gender and everyday
life: development of the more liberal attitude towards
consumerism of the “socialist man” and development of the more
liberal attitude towards sexuality – more precisely toward
different ways in fertility control not only through the
legalization of the abortion but also through the liberal
attitude towards contraception and education in this field. The
first we will present through the analysis of the women’s
magazines advertisements of the time and with the presentation
of the so called socialist shopping tourism to the neighbouring
Western cities (shopping, tourism and smuggling). And the
second through the analysis of the changing legislation and
other regulation in this field.
I. State-socialist ideology of (gender) equality and social
policies: “All for working mothers”
Former socialist regimes always viewed social policy as an
important political instrument for social planning and control.
All the people had equal basic social rights, like for example
available and subsidized child care, free and equal access to
education, good health system, wide social care provisions and
state subsidized housing, etc. Social policy was regarded as
part of social planning reflecting political ideology (Stloukal
in David 1999: 24).
The official position, struggling to demonstrate the difference
with unjust capitalism,, was based on the discourse claiming
“equality of all the people”. All the people (women and men)
were meant to be working class and there were no differences on
the basis of nationality, religion or sex (Constitution from
1946). And in some areas communist legal tradition actually
treated women in marriage more equally than in most Western
countries (see also Molyneux in Pascall and Manning 2000: 250).
It was written in Federal Constitution, that women are equal
with men in political, economic and social aspect of life.
Women enjoyed some other important rights to: for example there
was anti-discrimination rule incorporated in the legislation in
the field of employment, education, child-bearing and health-
care (Antić in Corrin 1992, Ramet 1999). Paragraph 24 of the
Federal Constitution adopted in 1946 enables women equal pay
for equal work. Marriage and family law was liberalized, women
achieved equality and increased power within marriage,
education opportunities for woman promoted, women gained access
to public service employments, and they gained the right to
vote. Marriage and family were placed under the protection of
the state and civil marriages were introduced, putting
relations between marriage partners on an equal basis. In the
Family Act of 1946, parental authority was assigned equally to
both mother and father, legal discrimination against
“illegitimate” children was abolished and property acquired
after marriage was considered to be owned jointly by both
partners. And what was and still is important: the rights were
not given only legally – they became more and more reality of
everyday life. Us such they have functioned as important
element of normalisation and legitimisation of socialist order.
(Foucault)
Former socialist countries had distinctive gender relations in
legal and social provision. One can easily say that gender
relations differed from those of western states. But carefully
looking to the case of Yugoslavia one can find out that
Yugoslavia also differs from other “socialist regimes”
concerning this question. Yugoslavia introduced a system of
social provision aimed specifically at getting women into the
workplace and thereby combating crucial labour shortages on the
one hand and to bring elements of genuine liberty of women on
the other. Provisions thus ranged from access to abortion to
the publicly funded childcare and extensive maternity rights,
as well as greater educational and training opportunities for
women.
Distinctiveness of the position of women in Slovenia/Yugoslavia
can be viewed in both directions: as women played much more
active role in labour market than did women in the west
capitalist states on the one side and had more social and
individual rights and freedoms in comparison to women in some
other socialist countries. The former Yugoslavia was also a
trendsetter in its official (liberal) support for woman’s
rights and voluntary fertility regulation (David 1999: 281).
But westernization and liberalization in Slovenia did not bring
real reduction of women’s domestic and reproductive
responsibilities. The socialist regime made it clear, what were
women’s principal obligations. This is due to the fact that the
most important role that the socialist doctrine ascribed to
woman was her role as a mother. Therefore the most important
questions of socialist regime in these times were connected to
the harmonization of their public role as workers and their
private ones as mothers. Liberalisation of women as such was
therefore to a degree blocked by here assigned role of mother.
This process was similar to the one women faced in the western
countries (see Oakly, Beck, Sieder). High labour participation
of women was supported by a bridge of social investments in
child care and other services. Supports for motherhood through
family allowances, paid maternity leave, paid leave for mothers
of sick children, free health care, restrictions of pregnant
and nursing woman’s working hours, subsidized meals and social
service provisions enabled women to combine motherhood with
paid work.
Seemingly incompatible socialization of care for mothers (and
children) and liberalization of reproductive rights
a) Maternity and motherhood are individual rights but also
societal care
Maternity was considered as part of women’s private but
compatible with her public identity as working woman.
Yugoslavia accepted laws which enabled women to combine
motherhood and working life. State commitment to health
services was seen in its post-war era, when Yugoslavia
successfully built health-care system and system of social
security. Special provisions had been made for single mothers
in the spheres of work, social care, child care and housing
that would bring them into the equal position to the others
(married or living in partnership) (Antić Gaber and Vidmar
Horvat 2006: 224). In socialist Yugoslavia, all women were
entitled to free health care during pregnancy, childbirth and
after childbirth and birth allowance began to be offered in the
1960s.
As in Scandinavian countries there was a struggle for prolonged
paid maternity leave which also included women, who were
unemployed (Jeraj in Antić Gaber, Selišnik and Rožman 2009:
136). The system of parental leave was somewhat unique in the
former socialistic states. In Yugoslavia after the Second World
War all employed women were entitled to maternity leave. In
1975 women in Slovenia also got a child raring leave which
lasted 141 days and in 1986 child rearing leave was prolonged
to 260 days (and fully paid), which together with maternity
leave adds up to one year. Shorter work hours, job guarantee,
paid maternity and parental leave along with other entitlements
were attached to parental leave. On the other hand the option
to extend the maternity leave and stay at home up to the third
birthday of a child (like Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland)
in former Yugoslavia and Slovenia had not existed. It seems
that this was carefully regulated to avoid the marginalisation
of women among the workforce and as a result in the society as
a whole. Fully paid maternity leave not only influenced the
social position of women as a group but gave impetus to the
formation of presentation of women as individual being inside
the family and in wider environment.
b) Societal care for children
Impressive development of childcare facilities during state
socialism played an important role in the lives of many women.
Establishment of child care facilities was encouraged by the
state, expansion of facilities was the product of economic
growth and orientation aiming for a higher participation of
women in labour force. On a daily basis that meant that women
were more and more economically independent which again
influenced the position of women within the family as well as
within the society.
Interesting enough is that first regulation on this matter was
a decree of Ministry for Social policy as early as in 1945,
that Red Cross Association is allowed to establish and open
it’s own child care facilities (Jeraj 2005: 170). Public
childcare places were easy accessible, available to virtually
all children of kindergarten age and most of nursery age and
not costly (contribution depended on the income of the family,
but it was not lower than 20 and not higher than 35 percent on
the average family income per person), although new law in 1952
considerably increased the financal participatil of parents
(Ibid. 174). State support for families among others included
also cash transfers such as child allowances, subsidies in kind
for day care centers, day nurseries, after school care, school
centers, transport, and summer camp.
c) Availability of contraception and liberalisation of abortion
right
The question of whether a woman has, or should have, the right
to terminate a pregnancy intentionally has been a source of
intense controversy over centuries.
The trend of liberalization of abortion laws in former
socialistic countries dates back to the mid-1950s, when
abortion on request was again available in Soviet Union in
1955, after Stalin’s death. Many countries followed the soviet
example straight away and adopted very liberal abortion laws
(Bulgaria and Poland in 1956, Czechoslovakia and Romania in
1957). Yugoslavia and German Democratic Republic didn’t follow
other socialist countries in its liberal legislation of
abortion straight away; they took a path that was slightly
slower and careful.
Women’s (reproductive) health issues gained considerable
attention in Yugoslavia and particularly in Slovenia.
Legislation on abortion in Yugoslavia was shaped gradually,
deliberately and simultaneously with the development of birth
control and family planning policies.
Yugoslavia became the first country to proclaim in its
constitution (1974) that “it is human right to decide freely on
childbearing”. Women in Yugoslavia had the right to freely plan
the pregnancy and the number of children. The constitutional
principle of freedom of choice regarding childbirth, dated
1974, has become the foundation for the acceptance of an
appropriate legislation in Slovenia in 1977, which is now
considered one of the most liberal. Slovenian Assembly
legislated that abortion must be preformed at the request of
the woman if the pregnancy was less than 10 weeks duration. The
option of abortion on demand gives a woman the important right
to decide over her own life and her future.
At the same time as the approval of the above mentioned
legislation, family planning programs began coming into effect.
The enforcement of the family planning concept has been a huge
“investment”, as the programs offered suitable information on
the principles of family planning, on the use of modern
contraceptive methods and on the means of detection and cure of
infertility. It is significant to stress, that there was no
requirement, to obtain the partner’s consent, which means, that
the right to abortion was recognized as the individual right of
a women and not the right of a husband or a partner (Rožman
2009: 318). And combination of all the above described
regulations in the seventies presents substantial liberal
approach to the women’s rights and it is to a degree surprising
one due to the fact that failure to develop adequate provisions
for modern contraceptives made women largely dependent on
abortion in number of other socialist countries. By the 1960s
the socialist countries had some of the highest abortion ratios
in the world. These rates reflect women's lack of access to
modern methods of family planning. For Slovenian women modern
contraceptives became more obtainable after 1969 Resolution on
Family Planning in comparison to some other socialist countries
which directly or indirectly encouraged abortion over
contraception as a means for birth control. The latter was
spoken of as more ‘unnatural’ than the former and as
potentially dangerous for women (Kulczycki 1999).
Contraceptives were easily available, equally accessible and
virtually cost-free through health centers, medical
practitioner and pharmacies. Already in 1955 Yugoslavia was one
of few socialist countries with its own production of modern
contraceptives. The availability of contraception removed to
some extent the fear of pregnancy, which meant that women were
free to a much greater extent – they were able to freely decide
to remain child-free or to become pregnant.
In Slovenia, “socialist women” had control over their
reproductive rights. Women were entitled to control their
sexuality through the use of contraception and had the right to
abortion on demand. Liberal abortion law supported women’s
autonomy in relationships and in every day life; the
availability of contraception increased their reproductive
autonomy too. The right to be in control of its own
reproductive choices emphasizes the importance of freedom and
independence and enhances individual responsibility above the
level in other socialist countries and also above the level of
number of western countries. It thus seems safe to claim that
emancipatory policies in Yugoslavia are – with the exception of
political rights - historically deeper than in number of
western countries while it comes to a wide range of issues from
employment, through marriage and family law, to support for
motherhood and high level of social provisions.
II. State socialist ideology of equality and a cry for
differentiation
Concept of equality and its realisation in everyday life
brought Slovenia into a state of affairs where there was
almost no unemployment (everybody had to work) and no poverty
(everybody had basic social rights). In these circumstances
(re)distribution of the basic goods was carefully controlled.
This is known in sociological theory as “distributive
equality” (Rawls, Gutmann, Sen). The ideology of equality went
that far that many people advocate in that time very popular
slogan of “equal stomachs” or “if you built (or inherit) your
own house give back the public flat”; etc. (author’s personal
memory).
Slovene public opinion survey (SPOS) from 1968, which was one
of the firsts in socialist/communist bloc longitudinal study
of that kind among others tried to find out what are the
differences among the population that nevertheless dived the
people.
Majority of the respondent (almost 52 percent) very much
agreed that this is the difference in the living standard
followed by the differences between the workers and leading
personnel (Toš, ed. 1997, 15). The differences in wealth or
possession of different (rare) goods were often commented in
everyday life of the citizens with suspect or questioned and
in some cases also criminalized by the authorities.
Differentiation in this sense was for the regime non-
acceptable and envied by the majority of the citizens.
Differences slowly and gradually came to be visible in the
public. Some people did have more than others, could afford
buying goods abroad or could have travelled abroad or could
have been on holidays abroad etc. and this became publicly
visible. It seems that public discussion about consumerism in
Slovenia came to the surface around 1968 and was specially
emphasized from time to time on special occasions.
For example: in the discussion on the celebration of the
International Women’s day in 1970s. In women’s magazines of that
time articles which criticized the habit of buying
flowers/presents to women or taking them to shopping excursion
to Italy on that particular day discussed that this kind of
celebration only support flower shops and consumption but
brought no change in gender relation (Naša žena, marec 1975).
However we have to be aware that if consumerism is a way of
life (Aldridge 2003) or system of values (Boudriard 1998) this
was not really possible when there was lack of almost
everything (for example) or after the wars or economic crisis.
The basisi of consumerism is the existance of free market
economy where products comepete among each other to be bought.
But how consumerism is possible when free market is absent? In
Slovenia/Yugoslavia in the first decades after the second
world war there was planned economy and virtually lack of
everything – in these times one can not speak about
consumerism. However in 1970s and in the beginning of 1980s
with developed economy, marcetisation of socialism, the cheap
loans, cheap oil and liberalisation of the „border policy”
special type „socialist consumerism” had been develloped.
Discussion on consumerism in Slovenia/Yugoslavia although
based in socialist discourse and marxist theory it seems that
had not started long after the debate in the West. In 1970s
there were first books or chapters published about that
(Supek, 1973, Kuvačić 1978, Goričar 1980).
Public debate in Slovenia at the end of the 1970s started with
the observation that “majority of Slovene population condemn
majority of the population in Slovenia for what they are
doing” (Puhar, Delo 12. 5.1979 in Šetinc 1979, 6.). This does
not only mean that they are not aware of their situation but
contrary - that they were aware of it and knew what they
should and what they should not do. Namely: ordinary people
have been aware that consumerism and displaying income or
wealth is not in line with socialist egalitarian ideology but
rather with a leisure class (Veblen, 1994) to which they did
not belong and was significant for the capitalist societies.
They therefore should not fall under that western influence.
Moreover, they knew that those who do that deserve to be
criticized – but those are “others”, not “we”! It’s
interesting that even member of Slovene party leadership Franc
Šetinc in 1979 tried to defend the critique that came from
other Yugoslav party officials and was aimed to people in
Slovenia and stated that consumerism was not that widely
present in Slovene society that it calls for action against it
(Šetinc 1979, 11). He was also convinced that it is not worth
to limit the personal consumption and to advocate some kind of
communist ascetic culture in the name higher goals (Ibid.,
57). This discourse is a telling one and brings to the
forefront differences inside League of Communists in
Yugoslavia that are going to culminate at the end of eighties.
This goes in accordance with the observations of B. Repe who
writes, that 1970’s were the most prosperous times in the
whole post-war period in Yugoslavia. People (especially in the
most developed Slovenia) have been building their own houses,
buying goods which were not available in Slovenia in the
neighbouring countries (Repe 1998, 94). In other words -
people enriched their everyday lives with foreign goods which
they only observed watching foreign TV stations or buying
first translated “women’s magazines” with coloured fashion and
nicely furnished houses.
The need for exemption from the “grey average” led many people
to cross the border and went shopping to the neighbouring
Italian towns (for fashion, shoes and cosmetics) and into the
nearest towns of Austria (for coffee, washing powder, or
technical goods) (Repe 1998, Nećak 2000, Švab 1998, Luthar
20004). These activities were also gender divided while women
were mostly buying clothes and food men were buying technical
items Luthar 2004, 113.
Everyday life of Slovene women: what were the consequences of
appreciated economic emancipation?
If every day life is what is common, what is ordinary,
repetitive, rhythmic; if it means that we do the same things
in the same places at the time (S. Scott, 2009, 2) what are
these things that women were doing at that time in Slovenia?
The main part of everyday life of all the people at that time
consists of their their involvement in paid labour. After it
came time for reproduction (sleeping, eating, cooking,
cleaning, etc.) their free time (which they more or less spend
with their families, caring for others – children, parents)
and their leisure time (cultural events, recreation started to
be more important, shopping too).
In the times where both (a couple, husband and wife) have been
involved in paid work and working ours were mostly in two
shifts form 6 am to 2 pm or from 2 pm to 10 pm or even night
shifts in heavy industry, everyday life consisted more or less
of routinezed activities. For example in SPOS from 1970, when
asked about their daily activities respondent answered that:
they do not often go to music concerts or theatres; do not
often go to sport events; do not often go to cinema; but they
often watch TV and listen to the radio and read newspapers.
They also did not spend much time socializing with the people
where they live. (Toš, ed. 1997, 78)
Few years later (1975/76) for example respondents when asked
who mostly performed listed activities say that women are
these who mostly do the cleaning of the house (67 percent),
washing and ironing (80.9 percent), cooking (70.1 percent),
shopping (47.0 percent), and men only mostly (54.9 percent) do
the small repair work in flats or houses. Both husband and
wife mostly together (48.5 percent) decide about the everyday
spending, and about buying big things (65.6 percent) but women
mostly (51.7 percent) care about sick children, help them with
school work (41.1 percent) (Toš ed., 1997, 204-205). This
clearly shows the gender division of work at home and in
families stayed the same despite the fact that women’s
educational record after second world war was growing (there
were less and less illiterate women and more and more women
with university diploma) and despite the fact that women were
also highly involved in paid work.
Women of Eastern Europe spent most of their adult lives in paid
work at much earlier period than in the West – by 1980 half the
labour force of Eastern Europe consisted of women, compared
with 32 percent in Western Europe (Molyneux in Pascall and
Manning 2000: 245). High share of working women was specially
characteristic for women in Slovenia in the middle of the 1970s
where they represented 44 percent of all workforce (Čepič
2005, 1129) and in 1980s when share of women employed in public
sector represented 45 percent of the workforce (Jogan, 1986,
25, Antić in Corrin, 1992, 163). In social sector women were
mostly employed in health care professions and among teachers
but far less among other professions like public
administrators, among court judges or in leadership positions
(Ramet 1990, 97-98; Čepič 2005, 1129). In the industry women
were mostly employed as textile workers. They were also in
working in tourism, in shops and hotels (Mežnarič in Jogan1986,
26; Čepič 2005, 1130).
Thus we can with no doubt say that socialist women were not
housewives they were working women who were double burdened as
many other authors have already demonstrated (C. Corrin 1992,
Einhorn, 1993).
Yet the fact is that women were not involved in paid work only
because of the needs of the family or household but because
they were trained professionals and wanted to work was not
always understood in a positive way but sometimes as a threat
to men’s position in society (see Jogan 1986, 28). How strong
gender equality discourse of the time was one can demonstrate
with the fact that for example in 1976 only 2,2 percent of
respondents agreed with the statement that women should be at
home and men should earn more (Toš, ed. 1997, 208). Women’s
involvement in the paid work brought women to the position
that they had a say on family budged, 31,8 percent of women
decided on every day expenditure of money, and only 6,6
percent of men decided about the everyday expenses however
mostly both partners 48,5 percent were deciding how to spend
money (Toš, ed. 1997, 205). This means that they could have
spent some money (even if very little) for their own wishes
(cosmetics, fashion, or some extras). This tiny fact combined
with above mentioned rights of women signifies shifts in
Slovenian society in the times of ancient regime.
Liberalisation was one of its important characteristics in the
seventies and even before.
Slovene women between wishes and reality: colorful women’s
magazine and often empty shelves in grey socialist shops
One of the evident signs of liberalization of every day life
was the introduction of a new kind of women's magazine as the
grasp of socialism to control free time and the desire of
women was becoming less firm. First in 1957 the women’s
fashion magazine Maneken (The Model) was published. The goal of
the magazine was to promote Slovenian fashion and textile
industry. Before that only women's magazine Naša žena which was
edited by loyal communist women and published by official
women’s communist organization (AFŽ – Women’s Antifascist
Front and later till 1981 published by Conference for social
activity of Women) had been published.
The sole purpose of the magazine was to present how the
socialist worker should look like, think and work like. The
socialist women’s organization in 1946 tried to publish also a
special fashion magazine Moda (The Fashion) to prevent
enforcement of the western fashion magazines but only four
numbers were published. Yet the fashion events as fashion
shows, catwalks and miss contest were organized in the 1960s
and even earlier (Repe, 1998, 92) and as early as in 1950s we
can find the first modest attempts to develop fashion
photography for the first fashion catalogs (Blatnik 2001).
Surprisingly early - at the end of the 1960s – new step in the
liberalization of everyday life had been made with the new
kind of women’s magazine which started to be published –
namely foreign fashion magazine. For the short time first
Slovenian edition Elle 1969 was published (twice a month),
where enthusiastic public worker was replaced by seducing wife
and girlfriend. Elle offered trends from Paris, advised how to
decorate the apartment, how to raise children, first
psychological advices were offered, portraits of famous
people. The image of socialist worker stepped down and
seductive queen of the home was born.
It was only a decade later that feminist critique appeared to
show that women are used even in socialist self-management
society as object.
They offer woman as a beautiful puppet, they glorify a housewife lost in dreams yet
housewife is skilful in her mechanized housekeeping this is the pattern which is
framed by advertisement. So we could experience at the end of the year 1980 truly
mocking and degrading campaign for purchasing cosmetic products (made by
foreign licence) with charming lady yet most of us was in this time burden to satisfy
mostly every day need for food and cleanness. Not only are women exploited but
they are also the one that stimulate consumer behavior (Jogan 1981, 1222-1223).
When Elle stopped, magazine Jana in 1971 came at its place. When
in 1973 a survey was done about the media, Jana was one of the
most read printed media and far more popular then Naša žena
(Toš, ed. 1997, 168,269). This was the first weekly women’s
magazine in Slovenia promoted as “Sodobni ženski tednik” –
“Modern Women’s Weekly” with original Slovenian concept and
editorial board.
In it love stories and horoscope, psycho test about the
relationship between men and women were published as well as
makeovers. In Jana in the beginning of the 70ies we can find
advertisement for cosmetics and perfumes of Helen Rubinstein,
Tokalon, ladies underwear of Nina Ricci and Hautana or hair
cosmetic from Schwarzkopf. But what was even more intriguing
Jana presented also foreign fashion trend especially from
Italy (Jana, 24.2.72, 27.1.72, 4.5.72) and also France (Jana,
26.4.72) which of course could not be bought in
Slovenia/Yugoslavia. Jana presented also Slovenian and
Yugoslavian fashion (for example Jutranjka, Almira, Rašica,
Mura, Jugoplastika, Kroj) yet even those were hard to find in
the stores, because Slovenian textile industry had been
selling their products abroad. Jana discussed the reasons for
this shortage at home: one of the reasons was allegedly that
the managers of the shops were simply not interested (f.e.
they did not want to sold trouser skirt) the other that
Slovenian women more invest in “home” than in their own
clothes and yet another that there was a lack of fashion
magazines (Jana, 13.11.74, 19.1.83).
Shortage of fashion clothes in the stores contributed to the
praxis that women were sewing and knitting clothes for
themselves and children on their own. When in 1983 Jana was
asking what their readers wanted to read in the magazine, it
established that after the medical advices which came at the
first place, advices for needle work were on second place
(Jana, 16.2.83). Despite the fact that Jana had been offering
some advices to women in this respect it could not compete
with foreign ones while since the seventies foreign magazines
as Burda, Burda: Children fashion, Mani di fata and later as Milleidee or
Rakam were also been sold in tobacco and bookshops in Slovenia
and in rest of Yugoslavia. Burda and Mani di fata were published
with the special supplement in Serbo-Croatian language which
was understandable also to Slovenian women. That’s why foreign
magazines directed fashion trends and were the basis on which
the decisions - what kind of clothes to buy when family
shopping trip was organized in Italy - were made.
Burda, German fashion magazine was probably the most
remembered foreign magazine (according to Jergović, 2009,
Dijanić,Golubić, Niemčić, Stanić eds). It was successfully
sold in Slovenia and in the rest of Yugoslavia; it presented
new trends and at the same time also published tailors cuts.
Still in 1988 Burda was the most read foreign magazine in
Slovenia, after that came Neue Mode (Toš ed., 1997, 645)with
tailor cuts enabled women in Slovenia/Yugoslavia to make
fashionable dresses. It is therefore pretty clear why sewing
machine was mother’s highly appreciated present to her
daughter and the importance of teaching how to sew that highly
evaluated (Drakulić 1992, 29). In that time even special
manuals how to make dresses were published as Krojim in šivam z
Burdo (How to cut out and sew with Burda (1978, Beograd, Nolit;
Ljubljana Cankarjeva založba) or Burda : zadovoljstvo u krojenju i šivenju
(Bg, 1972) (Burda: Satisfaction in cutting out and sewing) or Burda -
prefektno samostalno krojenje i šivenje : najmodernija i
najbrža metoda učenja krojenja i šivenja, uputstva sa
ilustracijama, više od 100 slika, svi osnovni pojmovi
krojenja, Beograd: Nolit, 1985 (Burda – perfectly independent cutting
out and sewing: the most modern and the fastest method of learning, instruction
with illustration). Much later Jana, published its own magazine for
needlework, Jana, Needle work (since 1983).
It is also not surprising that in 1987 "Burda fashion" was the
first western magazine to be published in the Soviet Union and
in 1994 also the first western magazine to appear in the
People’s Republic of China.
(http://www.burdafashion.com/en/All_about_burda/1000004-
1033067.html )
The other option for women who wanted to be fashionable and if
have money, was of course the possibility to go to Italy,
especially to Trieste. Lot of women went there with their
families or with their female friends. Just to illustrate the
extent of those shopping trips – in the middle of the 1970s -
the border near Trieste crossed 17 million people per year
(Čepič 2005, 1134). Especially at the first half of the 1970s
shopping tourism have been flourishing. Trieste was considered
as a big shopping center where the consumers from Croatia and
Slovenia prevailed but coming also from other parts of
Yugoslavia by trains and busses (Nećak 2000). Jana presenting
the most fashionable people in Slovene cities also wrote about
their recognitions that they bought some of the clothes abroad
(Jana, 23.3.72, 20.4.72). In the magazine we can find photos
with Trieste fashion and comparison between the biggest
fashion store in Ljubljana Maximarket (it supposed to be the
biggest department store in central Europe) and Standa from
Trieste and Quelle from Celovec (Jana, 26.4.72, 29.12.71) We
can only confirm the thesis of (Švab 1998, 132) that in
Slovenia the western form of consumption find the way in
Trieste, however some of the western desires could be
fulfilled in Slovenia, too.
Higher economic standard and increasing purchasing power which
was comparable with that in the middle developed countries in
1970s also resulted in the opening of the first department
stores and with all that consumerism increased (Čepič 2005,
1089). In these big new stores foreign cosmetic as Margaret
Astor, Revlon, Helena Rubenstein, Sans Soucis, Jouvena was
sold (Jana, 29.12.71).
Increased urbanization went hand in hand with the formation of
the middle class which was crucial. People with higher
education had 80 percent higher paycheck than it was average
(Čepič 2005, 1135). Luthar argues that this middle class
framed their identity also on the bases of consumption and
shopping trips that were the cultural practice which
differentiated them from the rest (2004, 110). And women from
arising socialist “middle class” aspired and observed the
luxury goods at the same time as they were (at least time to
time) faced with the periodical shortage of some basic goods.
Conclusion
If we sum up in the paper described changes in
Slovenia/Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s: economically
prosperous times, more liberal attitude to the differencies in
the population, openness of the western borders and
possibilities of mobility to the west, influence of the mass
media and specially women’s magazines, liberalisation of
abortion rights and availability of contraceptives gradually
led to the liberalisation of everyday lives of women in
Slovenia and to the development of a special kind of
consumerism in Slovenia.
Abortion rights, contraception, maternity benefits and
childcare were all elements to challenge women’s subordinations
in their families and in some other aspects of their lives.
Yugoslav social policies (public kindergarten, fully paid
maternity, etc.) have had a great deal of impact on women’s
everyday lives. Women’s economic independence as an important
outcome of women’s almost equal involvement in the labour
market also enhanced their status within family (especially in
taking important decisions on family matters) which
consequently made women less dependent on marriage, family
relations and men.
Besides, liberalisation of economy, developing economic
differentiation of the population, arising “socialist middle
class”, openness to the western culture, first women’s
magazines - despite the fact that consumerism as it was known
in the west was not at that time really possible in Slovenia
and Yugoslavia as there was quite visible shortage of many
goods in the shops nationwide and time to time there were
serious problems with the availability of some items important
for everyday life like coffee, chocolate, bananas and other
tropic fruits, washing powder and diapers, sanitary towels,
etc. (Jana, 5.1.1983) - resulted in the development of the
special kind of socialist consumer culture.
Socialism was a system for which should be characteristic
control and limitation of consumerism, yet as we have seen
Slovene/Yugoslav socialism in some way openly encouraged
development of western consumerism and also framed some
strategies how to overcome the inequalities. For the
developing middle class from bigger cities the characteristic
of ethics of desire and the moral of pleasure started to
flourish and the taste of consumerism in spite of some
troubles was not so different from the West. However desires
were disrupted by periodical crises when shortage of specific
goods was evident.
In the memories of ex-Yugoslavia citizens we one can find
excellent passages of consumerism in Yugoslavia and
inequalities. The consumerism was characteristic for the cities
and towns, while in the villages you could still find shops
that for the urban visitor represented a “museum” and were
selling goods that would be torture to wear in the modern city.
Yet even more by the offer that was sold to the “highlanders”
the difference of a life style was obvious. »You learned that
highlanders do not eat peanuts and that they not buy it even if they catch sight of it
on the shelf of their shop then you understood that your perception towards wounds
and cuts was the perception learned by the city and it is not universal.« The
protagonist of the story discovered that no “hansaplast” or
plaster is sold in those shops as the »highlanders do not buy
it. We can only conclude by his thoughts »In the seventies the boarders
of the consumerism where the boarders of the city. On the other sight of town gates
people didn’t buy everything that their eyes saw and they had money, they did not
buy peanuts but only those things that they realy needed and were used to.
(Miljenko Jergović, 2009, 52-53)
Following the western model of femininity Slovene women wanted
not only to have their rights and freedom but also to look
pretty but needed extra effort to look nice and fashionable.
They have few options: either to know how to sew or to have
money and time to go abroad or at least to have good
acquaintances at the shops or in textile industry.