The eye of a woman sees differently and different things than the eye of a man because history has brought women to a different point of view, a different perception of space, a different tempo of life, and a different focus. The authors of this book embark on a journey of explaining these differences. Travel and discover with them.
In the past, when women were accompanying male travellers, colonizers, and researchers, they observed what escaped the male gaze. Women often watched Others – other women, their customs, actions, and observations. Today, a travelling woman is actively looking for something different, and to find it, she needs information from women about women because their version of history, the Other version, is in many places still undocumented or simply not known enough.The other, the different, and the recently revealed invites us to individual or group explorations. It invites us to joyous, emphatic, passionate, and curious excursions into women’s history.
Svetlana Slapšak, Honorary President of the City of Women Association
Numerous feminist authors have pointed to the fact that the space that surrounds us is not gender neutral, but in fact is a materialization of the human existence and presence, but also of certain absences. Evidence that heritage is essentially patriarchal, just like historiography, is all around us: buildings have been designed and built by men, monuments celebrate great men (even those that were created by women), the streets reverberate with men’s names. The most important books were written by men, including history books. The masculine sex/gender, writes Jasenka Kodrnja, “was the author, creator of space and time.” Therefore, it is not surprising that it was precisely and primarily himself that he had inscribed into space. Consequently, the space symbolically reflects the hierarchical relationship between women and men.
Just consider the historical records on the most significant events, discoveries, inventions, or undertakings. They could easily convince us, as Andrea Feldman suggests, that women never even existed – or at least not very many of them. For example, less than two percent of streets and squares in Zagreb bear female names, and only a half of those refer to actual women.
In different historical overviews – from art to politics – women appear more as intriguing exceptions rather than agents in their own right. Women are allowed to be muses, but not artists (Dora Maar and Pablo Picasso); assistants, but not astronomers (Annie Jump Cannon and E. C. Pickering); wives, but not scientists (Esther and Joshua Lederberg). One need not go far to search for the causes of these historical gaps and absences; indeed, they can be found at our very doorstep. As journalist Vinka Bulić, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, explained: a woman’s domain never exceeded the boundaries of her home, so historians simply never considered her as a social factor worth mentioning.
However, women did consider other women to be worth of mention and interest. Many of the women included in this guidebook had written about each other, taught and empowered each other, researched one another: Josipa Glembay on Jagoda Truhelka and Marija Jambrišak, Lydia Sklevicky on Giuseppina Martinuzzi and other antifascist women, Adela Milčinović and Divna Zečević on Dragojla Jarnević, Leonida Kovač on Nasta Rojc… In a similar vein, our organization, The Expanse of Gender and Media Culture ‘Common Zone’ has been promoting the work and contributions of women for 15 years, primarily through the Vox Feminae website and the eponymous annual festival. The guidebook that you have in front of you is our attempt to map this “absent presence” (Gordana Bosanac’s term) in the hope that we will contribute to the creation of a more just and complete image of the world.
Tihana Bertek, editor of Croatian edition In the Footsteps of Fierce Women
Who is Who – Interactive map WoW Places
Programming Husky Bytes d.o.o.
Croatia
Editor Tihana Bertek
Authors Marino Čajdo, Nina Đurđević, Tara Gudović, Gabrijela Ivanov, Željka Vučković, Nataša Zlatović
Translation Marija Marčetić, Nikola Sarnavka, Toni Zadravec
Expanse of Gender and Media Culture Common Zone
Nova cesta 24, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
info@voxfeminae.net / https://www.voxfeminae.net
© Common Zone, 2021
North Macedonia
Editor Tatjana B. Eftimoska
Authors Ivana Hadjievska, Ivana Dragsic, Jana Kocevska
Translation Dijana Obradovikj
Proofreading Tatjana B. Eftimoska
Cover art and graphic design Private Print
Tiiiit! Inc. – Skopje
Kozle 49b, Skopje, North Macedonia
tiiiit.inc@gmail.com / https://tiiiitinc.com/mk
© Tiiiit! Inc., 2021
Slovenia
Editor Tea Hvala
Texts Ana Cergol Paradiž, Manca G. Renko, Tea Hvala, Jasmina Jerant, Katja Pur, Urška Repar, Irena Selišnik, Urška Strle, Petra Testen Koren, Nina Vodopivec
Translation Špela Bibič, Iva Jevtić, Jedrt Lapuh Maležič, Kristina Pahor de Maiti
Language editing Sonja Benčina, Špela Bibič
Concept Teja Reba
Content Manca G. Renko, Tea Hvala, Jasmina Jerant
Expert advisor Ana Cergol Paradiž
Image selection Špela Drašlar, Tea Hvala
Photo editor Špela Drašlar
Content upload Eva Simonič
Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture – City of Women
Kersnikova 4, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
www.cityofwomen.org / info@cityofwomen.org
© City of Women, 2021
The WoW Places interactive map was released simultaneously with three bilingual books: travel guides through women’s history in Croatia, North Macedonia and Slovenia. See More Offers for details.
The WoW Places interactive map was made in the framework of the European project Women on Women co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This map reflects the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
