Women in Serbian history (1000. y. - 1945. y.)
In times when women’s roles were very different than the ones today, and when their freedom upon which they could act was significantly reduced, they were the strongest and bravest among many other men and women as they stood out and thus left their mark in Serbia’s history. They were first among the people who set standards in literature, painting, medicine, journalism, science, diplomacy but also in warfare.
1. --------- Helena of Serbia, Queen of Hungary, The executioner (1109 — 1161) ---------
https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/...31-678x381.jpg
For the most part, very few medieval Hungarian queens played a role in politics. One exception is Helena of Serbia, also known as Helena of Rascia. Helena was born around 1109, to Uros I, Grand Prince of Serbia, and Anna Diogenissa. Between 1127 and 1130, she married Bela of Hungary. Of the Eastern Orthodox faith by birth, Helena converted to Catholicism on her marriage. Her dowry included part of northern Serbia. Her husband, Bela was a first cousin of King Stephen II of Hungary. When Bela was a child, he and his father Almos were blinded on the orders of his uncle, King Coloman of Hungary so that they could be removed from the succession. However, Coloman’s son, Stephen II of Hungary remained childless, so he recognised Bela as his heir.
Stephen II died in 1131, and Bela was crowned as King Bela II of Hungary. Because he was blind, Bela strongly relied on those closest to him, especially Helena and her brother, Belos, who had followed her to the Hungarian court. Helena and Belos where very involved in the administration of Hungary, probably more so than Bela himself. Bela even considered Helena as his co-ruler. Helena’s first action as Queen is the one she is most known for. Soon after her husband’s accession to the throne, Helena called for a council at the town of Arad. There, she took vengeance upon the men who had plotted with King Coloman to have her husband blinded. These men still seemed to be opposed to Helena and Bela, and she was determined to remove her rivals. Helena ordered the execution of 68 Hungarian noblemen, who she believed responsible for her Bela’s blinding. Helena herself attended the executions with her husband and at least one of her sons. The exact date of this event is uncertain; some say it was in 1131, soon after Bela’s accession. Others say that all four of Helena and Bela’s sons were present, making this event occur at least four years after their marriage in 1129.
Helena and Bela had at least six children. The eldest son, Geza, is known to have attended the executions. He succeeded as Geza II of Hungary in 1141. Following him were three more sons, Ladislaus, Stephen, and Almos. Of Helena’s sons, Almos died in childhood, and Ladislaus and Stephen were contenders for the Hungarian throne against Geza’s son, Stephen III. Helena’s two daughters were Elizabeth, who married Mieszko III, Duke of Greater Poland, and Sophia, who was betrothed to a son of Conrad III of Germany but became a nun instead.
Bela II of Hungary died on 13 February 1141. Since his eldest son, Geza was only eleven, Helena became regent alongside her brother, Belos. Five years later, in September 1146, Geza reached his majority and began his personal rule. Helena was still living at this point, but what became of her afterwards is uncertain. She seems to have died before 1157, based on a document from her son, but it is also believed that she may have lived until 1161. Helena was the only Arpadian queen consort known to have acted as her husband’s co-ruler.
2. --------- Helen of Anjou, Jelena Anžujska, spouse of King Stefan Uroš I (1236 — 1314) ---------
http://www.novosti.rs/upload/images/...7n/feljton.jpg
Queen Helen of Anjou was the spouse of Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and mother of Serbian kings Dragutin and Milutin. Her origin is not known for certain; she was born in ca 1236, and the biography of Archbishop Danilo states that "she was of a French family".
Her palace was on the rims of today’s Kosovo in a place called Brnjak (or Brnjaci as well). There Helen founded the First women’s school in Serbia where girls were taught the hand craftsmanship, and after finishing their education, queen provided them with a dowry as an incentive. It was the first specialized school not only in Serbia, but in the whole Europe.
For some time, she was the ruler of one third of the Serbian territories, while the rulers of the other two parts were her sons Dragutin and Milutin. She significantly contributed to the cultural rise of the medieval Serbian state. She had the first library at the court and encouraged transcription of books in monasteries, and she founded the first girls' school in medieval Serbia. As did other rulers of the Nemanjić dynasty, she also built monasteries, among which the Gradac Monastery, where she was buried, the Church of St. Nicholas in Shkodër where she died, and the Shirgj Monastery in today's Albania.
Helen of Anjou was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Her feast day is 12 November.
3. --------- Milica Hrebeljanović Nemanjić, Princess, wife of Prince Lazar (1335 — 1405) ---------
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nja_Milica.jpg
Princess Milica Hrebeljanović née Nemanjić (ca. 1335 – November 11, 1405) also known as Empress (Tsaritsa) Milica, was a royal consort of Serbia. Her husband was Serbian Prince St. Lazar and her children included despot Stefan Lazarević, and Jelena Lazarević, whose husband was Đurađ II Balšić. She is the author of "A Mother's Prayer" and a famously moving poem of mourning for her husband, "My Widowhood's Bridegroom."
After the death of her husband St. Lazar at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Milica ruled Serbia until 1393 when her son, Stefan Lazarević Hrebeljanović, came of age to take the throne. At that time, much wisdom and personal courage was needed to reign in a country which was nominally free but always under threat of invading forces, from the East and the West. It was difficult to maintain a national spirit without provoking neighboring kingdoms or pashaluks to raid or plunder. Milica proved herself an able ruler of the country at a very trying time. Her personal tragedy (losing her husband and sending her daughter Mileva (Olivera Despina) to marry Bayezid I, who had ordered the execution of her husband Prince Lazar in 1389) did not interfere with her carrying out her duties. She founded the Ljubostinja monastery around 1390 and later took monastic vows at her monastery and became the nun Eugenia (Јевгенија, later abbess Euphrosine, Јефросина) around 1393.
In 1397 she issued the "A Mother's Prayer" together with her sons at the Dečani monastery. She commissioned the repairing of the bronze horos of Dečani.
In later diplomatic negotiations with Sultan Bayezid I, Eugenia and Euphemia, the former Vasilissa of Serres, both traveled to the Sultan's court in 1398/99.
In 1403, Eugenia went to the Sultan at Serres, arguing in favour of her son Stefan Lazarević in a complicated dispute that had emerged between her two sons and Branković.
She was buried in Ljubostinja, her monastery. She was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Princess Milica was also a writer. She wrote several prayers and religious poems.
---------------------------------------
(1400 – 1800) This period can be called „dark age“ for Serbia because of Ottoman’s rule. There is no much historical information about any famous woman of this time period. Only occassionaly women were mentioned in traditional epic songs as mothers and wives.
---------------------------------------
4. ---------Čučuk Stana (1795-1849) ---------
https://alchetron.com/cdn/uuk-stana-...resize-750.jpg
Čučuk Stana (English: Little Stana) was a Serbian female hajduk (guerila soldier), the second wife of Hajduk Veljko (Veljko Petrović, military commandre in First Serbian uprising against Ottoman empire) and later married the Greek fighter against Ottomans Giorgakis Olympios. She is also a character in Serb epic poetry.
She was born in 1795, in the village Sikole near Negotin, Serbia to a family of Herzegovinian migrants. She had two sisters, Stojna and Stamena and later, a much younger brother Mihailo, before the brother grew up, being three sisters, they all wore men's clothes out of the house, because they had no adult brother to protect them. She got her nickname "Čučuk" (from Turkish küçük = small) due to her short stature. She finished school in Bela Crkva.
She met Hajduk Veljko in 1812. According to legend she came to meet with him and his soldiers and to complain about some of their men who robbered her father. It was very unusual and brave thing for a young girl in that time. Her words were: „Are your men not capable to kill Turks but they robber girl’s clothes?“. Hajduk Veljko was surprised with this girl attitude but he ordered to his men to give back what they took from her father. Later he asked her to marry him.
They lived together even though he still had another, married wife, as divorce was virtually impossible to obtain at the time in an Orthodox country in serious upheaval, that Serbia was during the Serbian Revolution. He eventually tried to bribed priests later to make him divorce from his first wife and marry Stana.
They are known for going into battles together since Čučuk Stana was very good in war skills.
Not long after in 1813. Veljko was killed in battle.
She later married captain and hero of Greek War of Independence Giorgakis Olympios, with whom she moved to Wallachia and later Bucharest, they had three children: Milan, Aleksandar, and Jevrosima.
Her second husbant also died in battle against Ottomans and she became widow second time with 27 years and three children. She moved with them to Khotyn, Russia, where other people of the Serbian Revolution took refuge.
After the liberation of Greece Stana with children moved to Athens, where she got a small state pension as the widow of the hero Olympios, she died in 1849 or 1850 year.
5. --------- Katarina Ivanović, first female painter and female academic (1811—1882) ---------
http://citymagazine.rs/wp-content/up...e-1000x500.jpg
Katarina Ivanović was born in 1811 in Vesprim, Hungary, as a part of the family of merchant and a construction foreman Lazar Ivanović. When she was only 14 she wanted to be a fresco painter. She attended school in Pešta under the wing of the best Hungarian painter at the time, Jozef Peški, so she truly became the first Serbian female painter.
6. --------- Mileva Einstein-Marić, Serbian mathematician (1875–1948) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...03/mileva3.jpg
Mileva Einstein-Marić, Serbian mathematician, physicist and alleged co-author of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Albert Einstein’s wife.
Mileva Marić was born into a wealthy family in Titel in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (today Serbia) as the eldest of three children of Miloš Marić and Marija Ružić-Marić.
After graduating Grammar School as the best in mathematics and physics, receiving special permission to enroll the all-male Royal Classical High School in Zagreb and studying medicine at the University of Zurich for a semester, Mileva transferred to the Zurich Polytechnic to study physics and mathematics. She was the fifth woman to be admitted to this school as well as the only woman in her group of six students.
Of course, the thing most people know her for is the fact that she was married to Albert Einstein. However, the thing few people are aware of is that she is said to be the unacknowledged coauthor of his 1905 paper on special relativity. The fact that the most renowned physicists of the time invited Mileva to work with them as well as the fact that his papers on the theory of relativity were signed with Einstein-Marity (Marity is a Hungarian variant of Marić) only back up this controversial theory.
7. --------- Isidora Sekulić, the first woman academic in Serbian history (1875–1948) ---------
http://www.serbia.com/wp-content/upl..._1877-1958.png
Sekulić was born in Mošorin, a village of Bács-Bodrog County, which is now in the Vojvodina. Apart from her studies in literature, Sekulić was also well versed in natural sciences as well as philosophy. She graduated from the pedagogical school in Budapest in 1892, and obtained her doctorate in 1922 in Germany.
One of the brightest minds of the 20th century, the first woman academic in the history of Serbia, a member of SANU from 1950, a prose writer, essayist, teacher, adventurer, polyglot and art critic – all these are titles attributed to Isidora Sekulić.
Apart from her studies in literature and pedagogy, Isidora was also well versed in natural sciences as well as philosophy (for which obtained her doctorate in 1922 in Germany).
In the history of Serbian and European literature, she will be remembered for her meditative travelogue Letters from Norway, collection of short stories Saputnici, her main novel The Chronicle of a Small Town Cemetery and a number of other literary works. Isidora Sekulić was also the first Serbian female member of SANU.
She was married, become widow early and didn’t have children.
8. --------- Jelena Lozanić , a Lady awarded the Order of the White Eagle (1885–1972) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...ic-211x300.jpg
Daughter of the first rector of the University of Belgrade and his wife Stanka, both great humanitarians, Jelena Lozanić herself grew up not only to be intelligent, curious and clever, but noble, brave and tenacious.
She first got noticed as the Secretary for the National Alliance of Serbian Women and as a strong advocate for women’s rights at the congress of the International Council of Women in Copenhagen.
After the outbreak of the Balkan Wars, Jelena joined the Circle of the Serbian Sisters as a nurse.
And when World War I began, she was the representative of the Red Cross of the Kingdom of Serbia in America, where she raised charity for Serbia for more than five years. Her efforts didn’t go by unnoticed and she was awarded the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of St. Sava.
She was married and had one children.
9. --------- Draga Ljočić, first Serbian female doctor (1855–1926) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...6/03/draga.jpg
Born in Šabac (Serbia) in 1855 year, Draga Ljočić, the first female doctor and a feminist, studied Medicine in Zurich but had a hard time finding employment in a state hospital. Queen Natalia granted her the approval to open her own private practice. In 1881 she managed to somehow get a job in a state hospital in Belgrade but not with the same pay as her male colleagues.
She advocated equal professional rights for men and women, and was accused of promoting immorality because of that. However, she was committed to the cause and managed to realize her ideas and ideals. Draga was also a philanthropist. She worked for the opening of children’s hospitals and orphanages, and joined the army as a field nurse during the Balkan and World war.
She was married and had 5 daughters.
10. --------- Ksenija Atanasijević, first Serbian Ph.D, first female professor and philosopher (1894–1981) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...sijevic-02.jpg
In 1922 Ksenija Atanasijević was the first woman to attain the academic title of a doctor at the University of Belgrade. But she didn’t stop here. She was the first female professor of the Belgrade University and the first recognised major female Serbian philosopher.
She was also an renowned Serbian feminist writer, philosopher, pacifist and anti-fascist, a member of the Women’s Movement Alliance, the Serbian Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, and the editor of the first feminist journal in the country “The Women’s Movement” (Ženski pokret). By promoting peace and tolerance and with a lot of hard work, she improved women’s rights in Serbia.
11. --------- Sofija Jovanović, the Serbian Joan of Arc (1895 - 1979) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...11-229x300.jpg
Sofija Jovanović, called “Jeanne d’Arc serbe” by the French, was a Serbian war heroine who fought in the Balkan Wars and First World War. Immediately upon the start of World War I, Sofija joined the Serbian Army under the male name Sofronije Jovanović. She participated in the Liberation of Belgrade, and survived both WWI and the Balkan Wars. However, she did lose a part of her foot and remained an invalid.
Sofija received 13 medals for bravery.
After the WW1 she married her war friend and had children. She didn’t speak of war much, except mentioning that it was horrible and cruel, but that one had to give everything for their homeland.
Sofija didn’t ask to be rewarded for her efforts and was appaled when she saw other Solun soldiers requesting privileges.
12. --------- Milunka Savić, first female bomber (1892 - 1973) ---------
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Savi%C4%87.jpg
Milunka Savić was born in 1892 in a village Koprivnica near Raška. She was a Sergeant in the Second Regiment and a true Serbian heroine of the Balkan wars and WWI. She was wounded in battles nine times. In Balkan wars (1912, 1913) she fought as a volunteer, dressed as a man, until hospital staff didn’t discover her sex after the wounding in Battle of Bregalnica, almost a year after her deployment to Serbian army. In WWI she distinguished herself from other comrades as a bomber in Battle of Kolubara. She was awarded many Serbian and allies’ medals: two medals Karađorđe Star with swords, Miloš Obilić medals for bravery, two French Legion of Honor medals, French Croix de Guerre, Russian Cross of St George, British medal of the Most distinguished Order of St Michael, Albanian Retreat medal, and many more.
After WW2 she was forgotten by new government. She was married for short time, then divorced and had one daughter. She had addopted few more children and was helping to many other orphan children until her death in Belgrade, 1973 year.
13. --------- Danica Tomić, first woman pilot in Serbia and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1905 - 1961) ---------
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...28._godina.jpg
First female pilot in Serbia was Danica Tomić, who won the “Politika newspapers” competition in 1931, and together with two other girls she has taken the awarded lessons and got her pilot license in 1933. After that there is no much information about her except that she went to USA with her husband after WW2.
There were more female pilots after Danica, one of them, Marija Draženović was war pilots during WW2.
14. --------- Jelisaveta Načić , first Serbian female architect (1878 — 1955) ---------
https://www.danas.rs/wp-content/uplo...-1-678x381.jpg
Jelisaveta Načić (31 December 1878, Belgrade – 6 June 1955, Dubrovnik) was a notable Serbian architect. She is remembered as a pioneer who inspired women to enter professions which had earlier been reserved for men. Not only the first female graduate in architecture in Belgrade, she was also the first female architect in Serbia.
Born in Belgrade, Načić matriculated from school with excellent results in 1896. She went on to study architecture at the University of Belgrade's School of Architecture at a time when it was felt that women should not enter the profession. At the age of 22, she was the first woman to graduate from the Faculty of Engineering. She sought employment at the Ministry of Construction but was unable to become an official as there was a requirement for military service to have been completed. She did however succeed in gaining a position as an architect with the Municipality of Belgrade where she became the city's first chief architect. In 1903, she designed the Little Staircase in Belgrade's Kalemegdan Park. Her most notable work is the well proportioned school building she completed in 1906, now known as the Kralj Petar I (King Peter I) elementary school. She also designed churches including the Moravian-styled Alexander Nevsky Church (1929) in Belgrade[3] and a smaller church in Kosovo. The hospital she designed was destroyed during the Second World War but many of her residential buildings from apartments to distinctive private homes, some with art nouveau or Neo-Renaissance elements, still stand today. The first collective housing building for workers on Balkan was designed by Jelisaveta Načić.
During the World War I, she was interned in a camp in Hungary, bringing her artistic career to an end. It had lasted no more than 16 years. After the war, Načić moved to Dubrovnik with her husband Luka Lukai whom she had met in the camp and had one daughter with him. She was awarded a state pension for her life accomplishments. She died in Dubrovnik in 1955.
15. --------- Marija Bursać, first woman proclaimed a People’s Hero (1920 - 1943) ---------
https://www.serbia.com/wp-content/up...-1-225x300.jpg
Marija Bursać was a Bosnian Serb member of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, a nurse and bomber for the the 10th Krajina Brigade, and most importantly, the first woman proclaimed a People’s Hero of Yugoslavia. Apart from being a fearless fighter, Bursać was a member of SKOJ (League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia), worked for NOP (National Liberation Movement) as well as in the management of AFŽ (Women’s Anti-Fascist Front).
She was also elected the head of the USAOJ committee (United Federation of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia).
By decision of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, Marija Bursać was awarded the Order of the People’s Hero in 1943.
She died in battle 1943.
She was one among many young women who fight as Partisans in WW2.
Sources:
https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/...a-executioner/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Anjou
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/serbi...1ijakovi%C4%87
https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C...B2%D0%B8%D1%9B
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Milica_of_Serbia
http://orthodoxyforkids.blogspot.com...of-serbia.html
https://www.serbia.com/the-prominent...ng-the-famous/
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/%C4%8Cu%C4%8Duk_Stana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidora_Sekuli%C4%87
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelisa...a%C4%8Di%C4%87
https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr/%D0%94%D...BC%D0%B8%D1%9B
