A young constitutional republic, Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia only five years ago. It has been in the throes of becoming a nation and forming its own economy, while at the same time experiencing the double shock of making the transition from a socialist to a market economy.
The consequences of these changes for women are still far from clear. Recession, restructuring, including privatisation, the collapse of trade with the states of the former Yugoslavia, and the influx of refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina are some of the challenges the country has been facing.
However, bordered by Italy, Hungary and Austria, as well as by Croatia, Slovenia was the most economically developed of the republics, with the highest living standard and very active foreign trade.
Its relationship with the industrialised countries of Europe began forming many years before independence. It also had the advantage of being the most homogenous of the former republics. While Yugoslavia had four major languages, three main religions and many ethnic groups, ninety percent of Slovenia's two million inhabitants are ethnic Slovene and Roman Catholic.
Commentaries refer to as the year of the "Slovene Spring," the period when the independence movement clearly emerged in Slovenia, catalysed by the trial for espionage and treason of four Slovenian journalists by a Yugoslav military tribunal. Conducted in relative secrecy, and in Serbo-Croation rather than in the indigenous Slovenian language, the affair sparked further action against the Yugoslav Federation and resistance to the threat of Serbian dominance.
