Nuo Amerikos iki Lietuvos: moterų savivokos klausimai XX a. pirmos pusės lietuvių spaudoje

LTStraipsnyje kalbama apie XX a. pirmos pusės moterų savivokos formas, slenksčius ir barjerus bei jų įveikas, išryškėjusias ne tik grožinėje kūryboje, bet pirmiausia – lietuviškoje spaudoje. Todėl straipsnio objektu pasirinkti keli moterų edukacijai ir savivokai keisti skirti leidiniai, panašiu laiku leisti išeivijoje ir Lietuvoje: Amerikos lietuvių Romos katalikių moterų sąjungos Moterų dirva (nuo 1916), Lietuvių moterų progresyvaus susivienijimo Amerikoje Moterų balsas (1916–1922) ir mergaičių ateitininkių, vėliau – moterų inteligenčių žurnalas Naujoji vaidilutė (1921–1940). Straipsnyje keliami klausimai: kas tuo metu rūpėjo skirtingų pažiūrų moterims skirtinguose žemynuose, ar tai buvo susisiekiantys indai? Kaip tie rūpesčiai aktualizuoti ir įgyvendinti arba ne? Raktažodžiai: moterų savivoka, leidiniai moterims, spauda, draugijos, moterų padėtis, katalikės, progresyviosios.

ENThe article deals with the forms of women’s self-perception, barriers and their overcoming in the early twentieth century that emerged in the Lithuanian press. It focuses on several publications aimed at changing women’s education and self-perception, published at similar times in the diaspora (USA) and in Lithuania: Moterų dirva [Women’s Field] by the Lithuanian Roman Catholic Women’s Alliance of America (from 1916) and Moterų balsas [Women’s Voice] by the Lithuanian Women’s Progressive Alliance of America (1916–1922). Lithuanian writer Žemaitė was one of the main contributors to Women’s Voice. Naujoji vaidilutė [The New Vaidilutė, 1921–1940], a magazine for the girls, members of the Lithuanian Catholic Federation Ateitis, and later of women intellectuals, is also important for the research, as well as archival material—records of various women’s organizations and societies in the American Cultural Lithuanian Archive in Putnam, CT, USA. The author of the article raises the following questions: What were the concerns of women of different views on different continents at that time, or were they communicating vessels? Were and how those concerns actualized and implemented? The author notes that the difference between the two ideological currents was also marked by the social status and education of women. The Progressive Alliance united mainly urban workers. Although the women’s organizations and their publications represented different social and political groups, they nev ertheless had similar aims and demands in terms of women’s education: to provide opportunities for social and economic self-realization, to improve women’s economic situation, to care for their self-education, and to arouse interest in the women’s movement.The approach to education was also no different—the publications called on women to educate themselves, to become educated, to form joint and separate professional organizations. The publications discussed in this article are a testimony to the path of Lithuanian women’s self-awareness and the changing gender roles in emigration. However, both the press published by the socialist-minded freethinkers and the Catholic women did not question the issue of children at all. Both camps saw motherhood as the most important, the main woman’s function, and the greatest aspiration of every Lithuanian woman. Keywords: women’s self-perception, women’s publications, press, societies, women’s position, Catholic women, suffragists.

• Lietuvių katalikių moterų veiklos išeivijoje fragmentai. 1. LKMS – 110. Gimtasai kraštas 2019, 16, 28-39.
• Moteriškoji knygnešystės linija: Petro Mikolainio laiškai Mortai Zauniūtei.. Žmogus ir žodis 2012, 2, 55-64.
• Parašyta moterų. Vilnius : Alma littera, 2001. 853 p.
• Propagandinis "Tėviškės" draugijos vaidmuo sovietmečiu plėtojant kultūrinius ryšius su išeivija. Res humanitariae 2017, 22, 268-288.
• "Taip man, sese, padėk...": pirmosios lietuvių moterų draugijos Jungtinėse Amerikos Valstijose. Oikos: lietuvių migracijos ir diasporos studijos 2017, 23/24, 125-135.