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Please do not quote in distribute out of this group!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.