Savka Subotić (1834–1918), born Savka Polit in Novi Sad, was one of the most influential women’s activists in Serbian communities of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. She came from a wealthy family, and her early education reflected her privileged background. Marriage to Jovan Subotić, a lawyer and politician, placed her in a household that was often on the move, from Zagreb to Osijek and Zemun, but wherever she lived she brought with her a determination to promote women’s education and cultural work. By the time of her death, she had become known across Europe as a leading figure in the Serbian women’s movement.

Subotić’s activism began in the domestic sphere but soon expanded to public initiatives. In the 1850s and 1860s, she taught rural women embroidery and other forms of handicraft, but also spoke about hygiene, health, and child-rearing. Contemporaries called her a “travelling folk teacher” who made her advice available free of charge. Her efforts were not confined to private instruction: she helped found girls’ schools and was a strong voice for the higher education of girls in a period when secondary education was overwhelmingly reserved for boys. Through her work she sought to lift women out of economic dependency, making education and vocational training accessible beyond the boundaries of class.

Savka Subotic in 1923 (Source: WikiCommons)

She also played a prominent role in the early charitable movement. The Charitable Co-operative of Serbian Women from Novi Sad, established in 1880, became a central platform for her activities. The co-operative founded its own magazine in 1886, Women’s World (Женски свет), which often featured her work and achievements. Subotić in turn used the magazine to circulate knowledge about women’s crafts and to promote the idea that women’s traditional skills could be updated to serve new social and economic purposes.

Subotić also popularized women’s crafts by organizing exhibitions. In 1884, she played a key role in arranging the Exhibition of Folk and Artificial Handicrafts of Serbian Women in Novi Sad, the first exhibition of its kind in Serbian communities within Austria-Hungary. The following year she was involved in the Hungarian National Exhibition in Budapest, where she curated displays of Serbian and Croatian textiles. She later presented Serbian embroidery on the world stage at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, for which she was awarded a silver medal. Subotić saw exhibitions not as static showcases but as opportunities for economic emancipation, insisting that the value of crafts lay not only in ethnographic interest but also in their potential to provide women with livelihoods.

Her writings reveal the political dimension of this work in greater detail. In 1904, she published On Our Folk Fabrics and Handicrafts, a synthesis of her research and advocacy, where she argued for both the preservation and the innovation of Serbian textile traditions. By presenting embroidery as proof of national authenticity and continuity, she positioned women’s labour as a cornerstone of cultural identity. At the same time, for her, embroidery and crafts connected women across nations and across time.

Even in her later years, Subotić continued to lecture and to maintain ties with feminists abroad. She corresponded with the Hungarian suffragist Rózsa Schwimmer and was invited to speak in Budapest. In her activism, Savka Subotić embraced philanthropy, scholarship, and public action: she championed education for girls, worked to modernize handicrafts as a tool for generating income, and built cultural bridges across national borders. She sought to valorize the everyday skills of women and turn them into the symbols of a nation and the instruments of emancipation.