Emancipatory and Modernizing Role of the Bulgarian Women‘s (Household) Periodicals from the end of the 19th century: The Magazine Moda i Domakinstvo (Fashion and Household) (SOFIA, 1897–1906) Cover Image

Еманципираторска и модернизационна роля на българската женска (домакинска) периодика от края на 19. век: списание „Мода и домакинство“ (София, 1897–1906)
Emancipatory and Modernizing Role of the Bulgarian Women‘s (Household) Periodicals from the end of the 19th century: The Magazine Moda i Domakinstvo (Fashion and Household) (SOFIA, 1897–1906)

Author(s): Valentina Mitkova
Subject(s): History, Cultural history, Library and Information Science, Archiving, Other, Gender history
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: household periodicals; relational feminism; women‘s emancipation; cultural modernization

Summary/Abstract: Within the Bulgarian national state, the civilizational social trends, the aspiration to assimilate European experience and mentality were largely demonstrated by the wave of women‘s periodicals published until the Second World War. Following the American historian Karen Offen‘s definition of historically existing feminisms, the women‘s press in the country could be divided into two large categories: newspapers and magazines with a clearly stated (individualist) feminist profile, discussing current socio-politically issues, directly corresponding to the status of the female gender, and periodicals labeled as „household press“ focusing on the „women‘s world“ understood as home and family, incorporating relational feminist arguments into their rhetoric. An example of the modernization efforts of the household periodicals in Bulgaria and their sensitivity to modern emancipatory ideas was one of the pioneering women‘s projects in that category – the magazine Moda i domakinstvo (Fashion and Household), 1897-1906. Edited and published by Elena Usheva, Moda i domakinstvo, like the household press in general, tried in parallel to respond to its own Bulgarian (and Balkan) social, economic and cultural context (marked by persistent patriarchal notions of roles, responsibilities and the social status of women) and emancipatory trends on a global scale.

Toggle Accessibility Mode