The Role and the Significance of Women in the Preservation of Cultural Tradition among Emigrants

The emigration from the Slovene ethnic area was not constantly mixed or typically female (male). In different situations we can find different kinds of emigration. Nevertheless, this project is focused on the typically female emigration (the “Aleksandrinke”, the “slamnikarice”, the “Prekmurke” in France etc.). In these cases, the care for cultural tradition in the new environment was connected with women. The questions are: what were the main characteristics of their movements, what were their causes and consequences for the emigrant and immigrant societies? Were these women organized? If not, what were their family contacts like – if they had a family? Typically 'women movement waves' are just one of the possible perspectives of the project. The second one is to analyze a woman's role in the family migration.

The past research into Slovene emigration shows that women played an important role in the preservation of the (original) cultural tradition. The most important place for this process is the family – the patriarch family, in which – paradoxically – the woman actually plays the main role. Besides, Slovene language schools were also mainly led by women.

Finally, the project will include a recapitulation of some similar researches done by other emigrant/immigrant nations and draw some basic comparisons between their situations and those found in the cases of Slovene emigrant communities.