Establishing continuity and increasing visibility of feminist movement history

During year 2011, Žindok published four publications on the following topics:

Adrijana Zaharijević, Katarina Lončarević, 8th of March: History of a ‘Holiday’

Jelena Višnjić, In the Zone of Political: Feminist Responds and Initiatives in Modern Serbia

Gordana Stojaković, Solidarity or Likening: Feminist Diary about Feminism and Left Movement in Serbia (1978-2007)

Snežana Škundrić, The Long and Steep Uphill, The future of visibility and recognition of women’s groups in Serbia

During year 2012, Žindok decided to translate key points from published brochures and they are available in the attached file.

These publications included relevant documents from the WINDOC’s documentation archive about history of women’s movement in ex-YU from the end of 70ies until today (last 35 years).

Dominant concepts about gender (as well as about race, or ethnicity, and other factors of differentiations among people) were, and still are strongly dependent on the media, since the process of representation is central to the media itself. While the media represents topics, events, situations, persons and groups it attributes to them a certain meaning. In relation to the process of representation, stereotyping (whether gender based, racial or ethnical) is precisely an attempt to fix 'the preferred' meaning. Although potentially having an important role to play in challenging the fixed meanings, the media has more often been part of the problem rather than the solution.

The goal of these publications was to fulfill the gap in women’s information sphere by putting the accent on the activist side, that is, on the women’s human rights, education, feminist activities, political and social work, etc. The mainstream media information and other contents entitled as “women’s” most often are within the stereotypical frame of representation, having almost no connection to the real problems of women in our society. On the other hand, as for many years there has been a lack of adequate information on the activities of various women’s groups, media reporting and on women's issues generally, therefore publications are making the reference point for the women.

Each publication was published quarterly and different gender experts were involved in editing and preparation of the publication.