In 1912, it was publicly proclaimed in Montenegro that “women have no place in the society apart from their homes, which are their only field of work and creation”. In 1901, there were no women employed as clerks in any of the central authorities, courts, district administrations, offices and courts.
“In 1908, the first women’s demonstrations in Montenegro were recorded in Cetinje on the occasion of the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The princess Ksenija was among the participants. Montenegrin women were more annoyed by the decision that Bosnia and Herzegovina (which had already been under Austria-Hungarian administration for 30 years) would be formally annexed to Vienna than the fact that they were without the right to vote”, Tatjana Koprivica wrote in CDT’s Viber chat group.
And what happened then? In 1936, women’s movements were established in a number of towns in Montenegro.
Their goal was “to culturally, economically and politically educate women”.
“The government banned the movement soon, because it considered that the Communists would impact it”, Maja Raicevic from the Centre for Women’s Rights wrote in the Viber chat group.
The women’s movement in Montenegro was banned in November 1939 by Milan Stojadinovic’s government’s decision.
However, in late 1939, a mass movement for women’s suffrage was launched and they asked: “When we work as much as men (and often much more than men) and when we have so many duties, then why we do not have the rights?”
“The requests that women presented then are almost identical to the requirements that we have today”, Raicevic concluded.
