ABSTRACT
In 2020, commemorations were held to mark the centennial of the Carinthian plebiscite in which a majority of the local population voted to become part of Austria rather than join Yugoslavia. Several activities and publications focused on the past and present of women and their roles in memory culture. 1 Among them was a commentary in a leading online newspaper by stage director Ute Liepold, who condemned the fact that for decades, Austria’s southernmost province of Carinthia was characterized by a male-dominated Heimattümelei (i.e., petty display of patriotism) and a deficit in gender equality. 2 She also mentioned two women who will play a central role in this chapter: Angela Piskernik (1886–1967) and Milka Hartman (1902–1997), the most famous Carinthian Slovene women of the twentieth century. From a national viewpoint, they can be seen as fighters for minority rights, but Liepold, from her feminist viewpoint, described them as fighters for women’s rights.
