Women’s Employment in Croatia from a Historical Perspective

This article analyzes the employment of women in the city of Osijek, the fourth biggest city in the Republic of Croatia, using a diachronic approach. The paper’s main goal is to analyze the social position of women in Croatia in relation to employment and their right to work and to examine whether that position has changed in the last two centuries. As exact and reliable historical data are limited, the authors analyzed job announcements and employment offers relating to women in two local newspapers in Osijek. The newspapers were printed from 1870 to the 1930s in the German language, which was a language used in public communication in the multilingual city of Osijek before World War II. These newspapers are available in digital format as result of an international GIP project conducted by the University Josip Juraj Strossmayer of Osijek and the University of Gieβen. The central part of the paper is dedicated to research into job announcements and advertisements published in the two local newspapers in the period 1870 to 1938. Types of jobs reserved for women and jobs sought by women during the examined period provide evidence of specific legal positions as well as the changing social status of women, indicating significant differences between women from different social strata. In the final part, conclusions are drawn concerning changes in the status and employment rights of women as well as the types of jobs performed by women in this time period.