Taking the Road Less Traveled? – Jewish Modern Women Thinkers in 20th Century Croatia

Abstract In this article, the aim is to construct an intellectual history of Jewish modern women thinkers in 20th-century Croatia (as part of Austria-Hungary until 1918 and Yugoslavia thereafter). The concept “modern women thinkers” was embraced to broaden the concept of intellectual women. By following a generation of the Jewish women born out of the belle époque to the aftermath of the World War Two, the main purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework suitable for interpreting the complex and versatile trajectories of progressive women of Jewish origin in the context of distinctive 20th-century authoritarianism(s). The local context and its transnational dynamics were examined to address the question of why and how the political left offered an ideological sanctuary to many of these women even before the Holocaust.