ABSTRACT
The fifty-seven stories recorded as part of this oral history project so far, confirm that the woman's role in preserving the cultural heritage among Slovenian immigrants is extremely important both on the public as well as private level. Women are the activists in the Slovenian community, church and organisations; they are members of the singing, dancing and theater groups; they work in countless volounteer projects. But because an important part of the cultural heritage is preserved at home and in the kitchen, traditionally the woman's domain, the woman's role is wider and its impact on the identity of the family members crucial. As a home maker the woman spends more time at home than her husband even if she is employed; she looks after children; she uses the Slovenian language at least when referring to food; she prepares regularly or at least ocassionally Slovenian dishes; she celebrates Slovenian holidays and adds something Slovenian to the celebrations of the American ones; she talks about the people of the same origin and maintains correspondence with the family and friends in Slovenia. The women narrators are in this context of a special importance because they can tell us about the subtle material that identity is made of. They help us understand the complex ways in which they work as socializers on the public as well as private level, which at the end of the day explains, why there is always something in a woman's life worth telling.

It is obvious that the dilemma of deciding how much of one's heritage must be sacrificed to become a member of the mainstream society can never be solved. For the first and second Slovenian immigration waves (before and after the second world war) we can assume that every woman tried to resolve it in her own way. However, for the second and third generations and for the contemporary Slovenian immigrant women in America the dilemma has been turned around. The issue now is how much of one's heritage and customs must be preserved to put oneself as a member of a particular ethnic origin in the mainstream society. The turnaround has been possible because Slovenians, as other European immigrants, have climbed in one hundred years to the position of American middle class and acquired in the post civil rights era the status of the whites. Besides, the Slovenian women who come to America today already are middle class, well educated, independent, ambitious, clever and, of course, white. For Slovenian women who have moved to America in the last ten to twenty years the question of identity and the choice of symbolic ethnic identification does not exist. They regard the problem of preserving the Slovenian cultural heritage and maintaining their ties with their home, language, parents and friends as solved to a large extent by having access to the internet. As one of them defines it, her home is her briefcase and her computer. Having an email address allow them to maintan daily communications with their parents, friends, even children; on their computer they keep their photos, albums, letters and other memorabilia; and on the internet they can check the situation in Slovenia, read books and newspapers, listen to the radio and TV programs or join a chat group in Slovenian. If they feel like doing it, of course. And many times they do not. However, sometimes their views on the cultural heritage change when they start a family and have children. Even those who feel strongly about preserving their cultural heritage are faced with the questions of cultural and ethnic background, language and tradition in a much more definite way when they are addressing their children's future.

Milharčič-Hladnik, Mirjam, Ph D, Sociology of Culture, Research Fellow, Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT
The fifty-seven stories recorded as part of this oral history project so far, confirm that the woman's role in preserving the cultural heritage among Slovenian immigrants is extremely important both on the public as well as private level. Women are the activists in the Slovenian community, church and organisations; they are members of the singing, dancing and theater groups; they work in countless volounteer projects. But because an important part of the cultural heritage is preserved at home and in the kitchen, traditionally the woman's domain, the woman's role is wider and its impact on the identity of the family members crucial. As a home maker the woman spends more time at home than her husband even if she is employed; she looks after children; she uses the Slovenian language at least when referring to food; she prepares regularly or at least ocassionally Slovenian dishes; she celebrates Slovenian holidays and adds something Slovenian to the celebrations of the American ones; she talks about the people of the same origin and maintains correspondence with the family and friends in Slovenia. The women narrators are in this context of a special importance because they can tell us about the subtle material that identity is made of. They help us understand the complex ways in which they work as socializers on the public as well as private level, which at the end of the day explains, why there is always something in a woman's life worth telling.

It is obvious that the dilemma of deciding how much of one's heritage must be sacrificed to become a member of the mainstream society can never be solved. For the first and second Slovenian immigration waves (before and after the second world war) we can assume that every woman tried to resolve it in her own way. However, for the second and third generations and for the contemporary Slovenian immigrant women in America the dilemma has been turned around. The issue now is how much of one's heritage and customs must be preserved to put oneself as a member of a particular ethnic origin in the mainstream society. The turnaround has been possible because Slovenians, as other European immigrants, have climbed in one hundred years to the position of American middle class and acquired in the post civil rights era the status of the whites. Besides, the Slovenian women who come to America today already are middle class, well educated, independent, ambitious, clever and, of course, white. For Slovenian women who have moved to America in the last ten to twenty years the question of identity and the choice of symbolic ethnic identification does not exist. They regard the problem of preserving the Slovenian cultural heritage and maintaining their ties with their home, language, parents and friends as solved to a large extent by having access to the internet. As one of them defines it, her home is her briefcase and her computer. Having an email address allow them to maintan daily communications with their parents, friends, even children; on their computer they keep their photos, albums, letters and other memorabilia; and on the internet they can check the situation in Slovenia, read books and newspapers, listen to the radio and TV programs or join a chat group in Slovenian. If they feel like doing it, of course. And many times they do not. However, sometimes their views on the cultural heritage change when they start a family and have children. Even those who feel strongly about preserving their cultural heritage are faced with the questions of cultural and ethnic background, language and tradition in a much more definite way when they are addressing their children's future.

Milharčič-Hladnik, Mirjam, Ph D, Sociology of Culture, Research Fellow, Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT
The 1930s were one of the most difficult decades in US history, but these were also the years of the cultural renaissance of the Slovene immigrant community in America. This paper presents the cultural activity of three women Katka Zupancic, Anna Pracek Krasna and Mary Jugg and it exposes their concern with the younger generation in a time when youth involvement was becoming more and more crucial to the continuity and future existence of the immigrant organizations established at the beginning of the century. These women were the main contributors to the Slovene-American youth magazine Mladinski list-Juvenile, issued by the Slovenska narodna podporna jednota (Slovene National Benefit Society) or SNPJ, one of the major Slovene mutual-aid societies in the United States. They were also active as public lecturers, teachers of the Slovene language, managers of local youth clubs, choral conductors and directors of dramatic performances. The article further analyzes the different views of these women concerning women's role inside the community. The first generation women - the original immigrants - did not dare to challenge the woman's traditional role in society and they accepted her role as a mother and wife rather than as an independent wage worker. The second generation - the immigrant women' daughters - would eventually challenge these assumptions held not only by the immigrant community but also by the larger American society.

Irena Milanič, B. A., junior researcher, Scientific Institute, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The 1930s were one of the most difficult decades in US history, but these were also the years of the cultural renaissance of the Slovene immigrant community in America. This paper presents the cultural activity of three women Katka Zupancic, Anna Pracek Krasna and Mary Jugg and it exposes their concern with the younger generation in a time when youth involvement was becoming more and more crucial to the continuity and future existence of the immigrant organizations established at the beginning of the century. These women were the main contributors to the Slovene-American youth magazine Mladinski list-Juvenile, issued by the Slovenska narodna podporna jednota (Slovene National Benefit Society) or SNPJ, one of the major Slovene mutual-aid societies in the United States. They were also active as public lecturers, teachers of the Slovene language, managers of local youth clubs, choral conductors and directors of dramatic performances. The article further analyzes the different views of these women concerning women's role inside the community. The first generation women - the original immigrants - did not dare to challenge the woman's traditional role in society and they accepted her role as a mother and wife rather than as an independent wage worker. The second generation - the immigrant women' daughters - would eventually challenge these assumptions held not only by the immigrant community but also by the larger American society.

Irena Milanič, B. A., junior researcher, Scientific Institute, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
Parallely but silently and somehow in the background of the male emigration wave Slovene women have been emigrating as well in the 19th and 20th centuries. I have in mind married women who followed their husbands, young women who as sisters, daughters or fiancées followed their brothers, fathers and fiancés, and as well independent women, who left for the world with hope for a better life. The strongest category was wives although it is difficult to prove so with statistical data. Overall, the number of women emigrants was at all times smaller than that of men, although never negligible. In the Austrian period (until the outbreak of World War I) women presented in the Austrian wave 35 percent (1876-1910), from the administrative provinces in Slovenia, for example Carniola 21,4% (1892), from the region of Kočevje of the mentioned country 31,3% (1892). In Egypt Slovene women composed as much as 96,3% of the Slovene wave (1897). In the 1900 census in Germany 29,8% of Slovene women decided for Slovene language. In the emigration wave from Prekmurje between the two wars (1918-1941), women presented 29% (1929), 36% (1930), and 41% (1931). Among Slovene immigrants in Germany in 1939 as many as 45,7% were women. In the after-war emigration wave there were in 1971 as many as 40,1% of women from the territory of the entire Yugoslavia. Women were particularly employed as cooks, servants, governesses, wet nurses (Egypt), emigration teachers, workers; very few among them were educated. The gradation of the extent of employed immigrants increased during the entire mentioned period. Very few were until 1914, with the exception of straw-hat manufacturers from Domžale (New York, Cleveland, Chicago), and wet-nurses, nurses and governesses in Egypt. Between the two wars, women were as seasonal workers massively leaving for France and Germany. We find a larger number of employed women in the after-war economic emigration wave to Germany and to the Scandinavian countries.

The attitude of the Catholic Church to the emigration of women was negative but at the same time approving with the condition that families remain together when abroad. The states (Austria, the first and the second Yugoslavia) dealt less with the mentioned problematic. Among few male intellectuals, we find their views upon emigration of women and their life in the new environments, but more viewpoints of educated women. For example, the writer Zofka Kveder (1878-1926), Ana Župančič, the politician Alojzija Štebi wrote about women-emigrants and after 1945 the politicians Vida Tomšič, Zora Tomič and others. We find quite a few among emigrants.

The paper wishes to remind of numerous not researched spheres regarding the role of women emigrants in new environments, their education, employment and political rights. From the viewpoint of strengthening Slovene identity abroad, the role of mothers in educating children was of significant importance – if we judge from journalistic literature and printed sources. We find women in emigrant organisations, as co-operators in newspapers, teachers of emigrant children, missionaries etc. Rare were emigrant societies that were exclusively women’s which is valid for newspapers as well.

In short, in view of researching the female part of migration events with Slovenes, not to mention the infant’s part, we are only at the beginning, particularly if we have in mind the historical aspect for the time of modern emigrations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Marjan Drnovšek is PhD of history and archivist at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana, and researching various aspects of migration movements with Slovenes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

ABSTRACT
Parallely but silently and somehow in the background of the male emigration wave Slovene women have been emigrating as well in the 19th and 20th centuries. I have in mind married women who followed their husbands, young women who as sisters, daughters or fiancées followed their brothers, fathers and fiancés, and as well independent women, who left for the world with hope for a better life. The strongest category was wives although it is difficult to prove so with statistical data. Overall, the number of women emigrants was at all times smaller than that of men, although never negligible. In the Austrian period (until the outbreak of World War I) women presented in the Austrian wave 35 percent (1876-1910), from the administrative provinces in Slovenia, for example Carniola 21,4% (1892), from the region of Kočevje of the mentioned country 31,3% (1892). In Egypt Slovene women composed as much as 96,3% of the Slovene wave (1897). In the 1900 census in Germany 29,8% of Slovene women decided for Slovene language. In the emigration wave from Prekmurje between the two wars (1918-1941), women presented 29% (1929), 36% (1930), and 41% (1931). Among Slovene immigrants in Germany in 1939 as many as 45,7% were women. In the after-war emigration wave there were in 1971 as many as 40,1% of women from the territory of the entire Yugoslavia. Women were particularly employed as cooks, servants, governesses, wet nurses (Egypt), emigration teachers, workers; very few among them were educated. The gradation of the extent of employed immigrants increased during the entire mentioned period. Very few were until 1914, with the exception of straw-hat manufacturers from Domžale (New York, Cleveland, Chicago), and wet-nurses, nurses and governesses in Egypt. Between the two wars, women were as seasonal workers massively leaving for France and Germany. We find a larger number of employed women in the after-war economic emigration wave to Germany and to the Scandinavian countries.

The attitude of the Catholic Church to the emigration of women was negative but at the same time approving with the condition that families remain together when abroad. The states (Austria, the first and the second Yugoslavia) dealt less with the mentioned problematic. Among few male intellectuals, we find their views upon emigration of women and their life in the new environments, but more viewpoints of educated women. For example, the writer Zofka Kveder (1878-1926), Ana Župančič, the politician Alojzija Štebi wrote about women-emigrants and after 1945 the politicians Vida Tomšič, Zora Tomič and others. We find quite a few among emigrants.

The paper wishes to remind of numerous not researched spheres regarding the role of women emigrants in new environments, their education, employment and political rights. From the viewpoint of strengthening Slovene identity abroad, the role of mothers in educating children was of significant importance – if we judge from journalistic literature and printed sources. We find women in emigrant organisations, as co-operators in newspapers, teachers of emigrant children, missionaries etc. Rare were emigrant societies that were exclusively women’s which is valid for newspapers as well.

In short, in view of researching the female part of migration events with Slovenes, not to mention the infant’s part, we are only at the beginning, particularly if we have in mind the historical aspect for the time of modern emigrations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Marjan Drnovšek is PhD of history and archivist at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana, and researching various aspects of migration movements with Slovenes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

ABSTRACT
Very little has been until the present written about Slovenes in Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula; thus the author has decided for a thorough research. In it he ascertains the quantitative dimensions of the presence of Slovenes and of their descendants, and Slovene culture in that space. Žigon observes standard, but to political-geographical circumstances adequate acculturation processes, particularly in members of the second generation of Slovene emigrants. He typologises the “categories” of Slovene emigrants by states, which he visited within the frame of the project, and in regard of cause for emigration, and age-social specifics. Thus Žigon studied in detail Slovene identity in Egypt, The South African Republic and in Kenya. In analysing individual typical groups he mentions Slovene female missionaries (and a missionary) in Egypt – missionary as a form of emigration is in this contribution not dealt with, yet the role of clerics was in preserving Slovene identity in Egypt of crucial significance.

The article is given specific weight with the report on the presence at the foundation of the first modern society of Slovenes in the mentioned area (in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2001), and on the first larger meeting of Slovenes in South Africa, which was soon followed by the foundation of a Slovene society (March 2002).

The states in which a relatively large number of Slovenes live are: Egypt, The South African Republic, Kenya, Jordan and Israel; also to be mentioned are Ghana and Kuwait. We can find individual emigrants in other states, for example in Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Algeria, Tunis etc.

ABSTRACT
Very little has been until the present written about Slovenes in Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula; thus the author has decided for a thorough research. In it he ascertains the quantitative dimensions of the presence of Slovenes and of their descendants, and Slovene culture in that space. Žigon observes standard, but to political-geographical circumstances adequate acculturation processes, particularly in members of the second generation of Slovene emigrants. He typologises the “categories” of Slovene emigrants by states, which he visited within the frame of the project, and in regard of cause for emigration, and age-social specifics. Thus Žigon studied in detail Slovene identity in Egypt, The South African Republic and in Kenya. In analysing individual typical groups he mentions Slovene female missionaries (and a missionary) in Egypt – missionary as a form of emigration is in this contribution not dealt with, yet the role of clerics was in preserving Slovene identity in Egypt of crucial significance.

The article is given specific weight with the report on the presence at the foundation of the first modern society of Slovenes in the mentioned area (in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2001), and on the first larger meeting of Slovenes in South Africa, which was soon followed by the foundation of a Slovene society (March 2002).

The states in which a relatively large number of Slovenes live are: Egypt, The South African Republic, Kenya, Jordan and Israel; also to be mentioned are Ghana and Kuwait. We can find individual emigrants in other states, for example in Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Algeria, Tunis etc.

ABSTRACT
The present text problematises the connecting of Slovene emigrants abroad among themselves and with the homeland. Connecting in the era of rapid development of informational communication technology is given new dimensions, which we here attempt to enlighten. Through the sociological viewpoint on diaspora we present the life of the individual in diaspora, resorting to the division of the viewpoint of the individual, and the viewpoint of the emigrant community. Thus we try to deal with the life of emigrants through seeking connections between the following dimensions: being integrated into an environment, mastering Slovene language, preserving ethnic identity, need for ethnic socializing, nostalgia of the individual and least but not last the activeness of part-taking in virtual ethnic communities. With the help of theoretic stand-points we define the mentioned connections and empirically verify them. Presented are the results of the poll, which the emigrants answered over the internet. We ascertain that a statistically typical connectedness exists between the activeness of cooperating in virtual ethnic communities and the degree of integratedness of an individual into the environment in which one at present lives, the need for ethnic socializing, and the nostalgia of the individual. On the basis of collected data we attempt to deduce on actual existence of Slovene virtual ethnic communities.

ABSTRACT
The present text problematises the connecting of Slovene emigrants abroad among themselves and with the homeland. Connecting in the era of rapid development of informational communication technology is given new dimensions, which we here attempt to enlighten. Through the sociological viewpoint on diaspora we present the life of the individual in diaspora, resorting to the division of the viewpoint of the individual, and the viewpoint of the emigrant community. Thus we try to deal with the life of emigrants through seeking connections between the following dimensions: being integrated into an environment, mastering Slovene language, preserving ethnic identity, need for ethnic socializing, nostalgia of the individual and least but not last the activeness of part-taking in virtual ethnic communities. With the help of theoretic stand-points we define the mentioned connections and empirically verify them. Presented are the results of the poll, which the emigrants answered over the internet. We ascertain that a statistically typical connectedness exists between the activeness of cooperating in virtual ethnic communities and the degree of integratedness of an individual into the environment in which one at present lives, the need for ethnic socializing, and the nostalgia of the individual. On the basis of collected data we attempt to deduce on actual existence of Slovene virtual ethnic communities.