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Novik A. Who’s the Boss: Money, Women and Family Budgets among Albanians in the Balkans in the 20 th — Early 21 st Century

Alexander Novik
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-1123-1109
E-mail: njual@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The study, in the paradigm of anthropology, examines a range of issues related to gender leadership in Albanian society, which has strong traditionalist roots, in modern conditions. The global changes that have been rapidly taking place in recent years in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, where Albanians live, and other countries in the region demonstrate the extremely high activity and inclusion of women in public life. Even those communities that have traditionally been and are considered patriarchal are beginning to slowly transform in the face of the challenges of the times, which can safely include the unification of economic activity, economic de- terminism, the dictate of profit and the imposition of external cultural stereotypes. The main focus is on studying the situation in Albania, which has been striving for several decades to become a member of the EU and is therefore trying to harmonize gender policy with the largest political and economic union on the continent. Albanian women, who remained in the background in traditional society due to the operation of customary laws, were able to achieve greater freedoms during the 20th century, which caused radical changes in the political and economic systems, and became leaders in finance and entrepreneurship, pushing aside their male compatriots in our days. By analyzing the right to manage the family budget, the author, using materials from fieldwork in 1990–2025, data from specialized archives, and the works of ethnologists, solves the research question: who is the boss in the Albanian house?

 

KEY WORDS: gender leadership, women, family budget, Albanians of the Balkans, customary law, transforma- tion of tradition

 

FOR CITATION: Novik A. Who’s the Boss: Money, Women and Family Budgets among Albanians in the Balkans in the 20th — Early 21st Century. Kunstkamera. 2025. 3 (29): 6–23. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31250/2618- 8619-2025-3(29)-6-23

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-3(29)-6-23
UDC 316.663.2(=18)

 

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