Barbara Jancar

About the Author: Barbara Jancar is a political science professor at the State University of New York in Brockport. A former fellow in the East European Program at the Smithsonian Institute’s Wilson Center, Jancar has written numerous articles and books on women in Eastern Europe.

The military role of women in Yugoslavia’s National Liberation Struggle (NOB) is only one way of studying the participation of Yugoslav women in those decisive years which determined that country’s postwar political shape. The official figure for women’s total participation in the partisan cause is 2 million, or about 12 per cent of the prewar population. Of these, 100,000 were soldiers in the partisan guerrilla forces, of whom 25,000 died and 40,000 were wounded. Some 2,000 women achieved officer’s rank...