The civilian population has long been a blind spot in great historical events such as wars. Only recently the civilians started being recognized as an important second front, a so-called home front, which was tightly connected to the war front. Women's engagement in the home front became not only crucial, but often substantially intervened into gendered norms and traditions. This essay tries to indicate the roles women had faced as refugees in the war, how much these roles differed in comparison to the pre-war times, and what were their survival strategies in the exile. It also attempts to show what women had gained and lost through refugee experiences.
COBISS.SI-ID: 21519410
The economy of what is today Slovenia during WW1 has long remained a blind spot for economic historians. This is most probably due to the noticeable lack of empirical – in particular archival – materials relating to the wartime. Although this issue could be addressed by using research criteria originating in international historiography and providing a significant reference framework, one must be aware of the risks of mechanically accepting findings from other environments. Thus, specific features of the social and economic development of Slovenian lands in the period before and during WW1 should be taken into account when dealing with the war economy and women’s position in it.
COBISS.SI-ID: 62749282
The paper addresses the significance of the turning point in the perception of women’s sexual morality during the Great War (WW1). Quite often the war public dealt with sexual morality, particularly of single women, war widows and married women whose men were fighting at the front. Women’s sexual morality was under the supervision of both church and civil authorities, but they differed in their approach to the issue. The discourse of church was not so strict and condemning as it was described in the memories of Slovenian soldiers who often mention the moral decay, manly honour, growing prostitution, and longing for pre-war world, where the “innocence and purity” of women were natural and this can be viewed particularly in the case of nurses at the front.
COBISS.SI-ID: 59105890
The role of women as an economic and social basis of societies in the background was strengthened significantly in the period of World War I. In those difficult war circumstances some women broke the law in order to survive, therefore a general increase in women's criminality during World War I is noticeable. The main characteristic of the state of emergency were the so-called anti-state criminal offences. Women's offences were most frequently associated with providing basic necessities, so a large number of thefts, increases in prices, hiding agricultural produce, frauds involving military benefits or even protests can be observed. Women stood up to the decrees of war absolutism by forging documents or putting up resistance to requisitions. The modification of social values in war time is reflected also in offences associated with prostitution, child neglect and juvenile delinquency.
COBISS.SI-ID: 292251904
The article draws attention to the issue of experiencing displacement and alienation of refugees from the Littoral and deportees during and after the Great War. Both refugees accounts and wartime press indicate that the relations between the Littoral refugees and the local population were difficult, particularly in Ljubljana and Carniola. An appeal for more help to refugees from the Goriška region, to mothers with small children in particular, was made by Slovene educated women who were active in Trieste and engaged in public support for refugees from the Littoral; following the rise of fascism, they became refugees themselves and experienced first-hand the aversion of the environment to which they immigrated. Individual accounts suggest that the negative attitude towards Littoral refugees in the post-war period is a reflection of various cultural and political affiliations and practices
COBISS.SI-ID: 59234658