The Centre for Women's Studies, the first and only centre of this kind in Croatia, was founded in 1995 by a group of women theoreticians and scientists, feminists, peace activists and artists.

The Centre for Women's Studies has developed multi/inter/disciplinary studies and expertise on women's issues in Croatia and has become a place of academic discourse, activism and artistic practices.

The main activities of the Centre are education, research, publishing, library services, cultural practices, public lobbying for the politics of gender equality and women's studies.

The Centre for Women's Studies has been continuously working on:
• education in the field of women's studies
• promoting women's studies programmes at universities
• research in the areas of female subjectivity, women’s history and culture,
sex/gender, power and knowledge
• creating new topics important to women (citizenship, concept of a citizen woman, politics of reproduction, etc.)
• promoting gender awareness politics from a critical feminist standpoint
• transformation of the social status of women with an emphasis on women’s human rights
• promoting and supporting female culture and knowledge by research, publishing and cultural activities
• bringing awareness of women’s major historical and anthropological contributions and worth
• developing a culture of dialogue and and non-violent culture of living

The mission

The mission of the Centre is to offer education in women's studies, work on rising awareness of women in Croatia and promote research and publishing of women's studies topics. Also, the Centre's mission is to empower women in political and civil initiatives through different levels of education and to promote constructive peace and solidarity values, especially by way of international networking and women’s studies programme exchange, mutual cultural and civil projects and direct support to women. Students and other participants through the Centre’s programmes get motivation for critical thinking and develop awareness for the importance of women’s topics and thus work on self-empowerment by taking responsibility for social change.

The mission of the Centre is realized by these activities and goals:

• developing fundamental scientific and research projects
• introducing gender perspective in education
• participating in women’s studies programmes in the region/Europe/world
• offering different expertise (educational programmes for women’s organizations, gender equality bodies, political parties)
• publishing (scientific journal, books and women’s studies textbooks, development of specialized libraries)