ABSTRACT
This chapter places the Komen textile plant’s micro-study within the broader Yugoslav socialist context, while offering unique insights into the socio-economic dynamics of the Slovene-Italian border region. It focuses on the transition periods in the late 1940s and 1990s, which provided women with the framework to acquire (additional) income as part of (family) survival strategies. Transnational contextualization significantly transforms the understanding of the historical changes that shape the dynamics of female employment. The case study enables one to see and analyze textile work in Komen in close correlation with paid domestic work in Italy. At the same time, it raises the question of social and economic emancipation and, ultimately, the empowerment of women, which was significantly increased by the possibility and ability to take advantage of both socio-economic systems along the border.
