Abstract
The Yugoslav post- World War II socialist transformation provides an intriguing case for examining how Soviet gender policies were transferred and applied in the socialist periphery. Yugoslav communists were not forced to use the Soviet models; instead, they considered them a progressive force and a tool to change the conservative society, and selectively included measures in the Yugoslav program.
The Yugoslav case also shows how attempts to alter people's lives based on Soviet gender models faced severe challenges in practice. Men's resistance to any change in gender norms was fierce.
Many men undermined women's political activities; resisted women's promotions in the factories, often creating an atmosphere of toxic mascu-linity on shop- floors; opposed allocating money for childcare services; resented sharing childcare responsibilities; excluded women from economic decision- making; opposed attempts to promote more women to administer collective farms; undervalued women's work in agriculture; resisted new laws to pay alimonies; and opposed women's inheritance and property splitting after the divorce. Communist policies in Muslim communities also faced resistance.
Nevertheless, the adaptation of Soviet ideas to Yugoslav practice has had long- lasting consequences, changing Yugoslav society well beyond the Yugoslav- Soviet conflict and the Yugoslav attempts to find its path to socialism.