50 Women of Georgia

In Georgia, there are many women who have created new things, who made discoveries, who brought about change and weren't afraid of alterations. They did all this without knowing that their efforts would be of importance for future generations. Probably, they never imagined that for decades to come, people would still want to find out more about them, or, in some cases, that someone would at all be interested in them.

50 women tell their own stories – some by telling us altogether new ones, others by reminding us of the ones we already know. We hope that these short stories will communicate the strength and courage, with which these 50 women acted in 19th and 20th century Georgia. The Heinrich Böll Foundation South Caucasus Regional Office has gathered pictures and biographies from museums as well as private and state archives.

The history of Georgian feminism is difficult and conflicting. From the end of the 19th century, when new social and educational movements were emerging in the West, in Georgia, too, a small group of people began demanding a rethinking of the role and function of women in Georgian society. However, this natural development was hindered by political cataclysms: in the “Country of Victorious Socialism”, feminism didn't exist. The totalitarian state, which formally ascribed an equal role to men and women, was in fact deeply patriarchal.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation introduces you the women from Georgia – both Georgian and foreign – who have changed Georgia.

• 50 Women from Georgia on Facebook

• Women's Museum - all photos and biograpies collected under the frameworks of the project