89

This article reframes the women’s movement in interwar Albania by exploring its late Ottoman roots and its positioning, through the lens of the interwar feminist press. Taking into account the combined efforts of American-trained Protestant activists, post-Ottoman bureaucrats, as well as those of regional feminists, the article reinterprets the women’s movement as a facet of late Ottoman modernity and as a globally informed undertaking with meaningful impact on interwar nation-building. Beginning with an overview of Protestant activism in the late Ottoman era, the article then analyzes the relationship of post-Ottoman bureaucracy to the interwar women’s movement. Finally, it uses examples from the state-sponsored family magazine Shqiptarja (The Albanian Woman) to show the emergence of a globally conscious local feminism. Far more complex in outlook and richer in origin than nationalist scholarship portrays, this view of Albania’s interwar feminism allows us to see Albania more properly as a post-Ottoman space modernizing on its own terms, whose representatives were selective readers of outside trends.