Women and Yugoslav Partisans by Batinić Jelena

Author:Batinić, Jelena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

“Women's” Work: The persistence of traditional notions about gender roles was perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the mundane matters involving daily chores in the units. The official party position was that of equal participation in all tasks by both sexes, but in almost all units it was expected that women, albeit fighters, also perform their traditional chores: cooking, laundering, washing dishes, fetching water, sewing, mending, and cleaning. In the initial Partisan bands with little regulation from above, this division of labor seems to have been the result of inertia: The few women present in the units simply resumed their prewar tasks. Rava Janković, at first the only woman in her company (in the Vareš Battalion, Bosnia) early in 1942, served as both a nurse and a fighter, and she alone did the laundry, hand washing it in a creek, for all the men of her unit.87 Duja Marić-Vujanović, although a platoon commander, sewed and washed the clothes of her fighters while they rested.88

Most partizankas assumed those duties with few complaints, often voluntarily. Mitra Mitrović writes that even the female party leaders, herself included, took it upon themselves to do domestic chores early on in the war. She provides an interesting “theoretical” reason behind their decision:

Female comrades alternate on duty, cleaning, setting the fire, and washing the dishes. We exempt male comrades who live with us from such tasks, without reservations and discussions about “equality.” ... We explain our tenacity in a “theoretical” way: these domestic chores are a burden for us and for women in general, and there is no reason to introduce male comrades to such ungrateful duties, since some day – and we are fighting for that, too – these duties will disappear for us women as well. Male comrades are apparently happy with our theory.89

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