The Balkan WomenâÂÂs Conference for Peace was held in Belgrade in May of 1931, five months prior to the Second Balkan Conference. The meeting emerged from an initiative by womenâÂÂs organisations across the Balkan states, which had earlier agreed on the need to convene in order to identify shared interests and potential areas of cooperation. The conference was organised by Yugoslav womenâÂÂs associations and brought together delegates from womenâÂÂs organisations in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania, alongside representatives of university-educated women and feminist organisations from throughout Yugoslavia. The conference was attended by several prominent activists, among them Bulgarian feminist leader Dimitrana Ivanova and social democratic activist Ivanka Bozvelieva.
In the interwar period, womenâÂÂs organisations from southeastern Europe became active participants in international womenâÂÂs associations and established a number of regional coordinating bodies, including the Little Entente of Women, the Slavic WomenâÂÂs Committee and the Balkan WomenâÂÂs Conferences for Peace. Avra Theodoropoulou, who chaired the Belgrade conference, advocated the creation of a Union of Balkan Women as a means of improving coordination among womenâÂÂs organisations in the region. The participants discussed a range of joint initiatives, including exchange programmes involving universities, museums, and libraries across the Balkan countries, as well as the establishment of specialised libraries intended to promote the cultures of the region and its peoples.