From villages to towns across Serbia, a quiet revolution is taking root. Led by the determined 42-year-old activist Jelena Ružić, women are being empowered to claim what has always rightfully been theirs but has often been denied in favor of male relatives: their inheritance.
As the Women’s Association of Kolubara District (ŽUKO) founder in Western Serbia, Ružić has been dedicated to advancing women’s rights for over a decade. Her latest mission is twofold: campaigning for women’s inheritance rights and fostering economic independence for women in rural areas.
Leading the fight for justice: Jelena Ružić in rural Serbia, championing women’s inheritance rights and economic independence. Photo: UN Women/Danijel Rakić
“Widespread traditions dictating that a female should relinquish her share of property are leaving many women in Serbia, especially in small communities, financially and otherwise vulnerable”, she explains.
A personal journey toward activism
Ružić recalls growing up during the socialist era, when women in Serbia gained many rights, including working and political rights.
Jelena Ružić on a homestead near Lazarevac, supporting a woman she helped secure her inheritance rights. Photo: UN Women/Danijel Rakić
“My mother raised us with the belief that economic independence for women was crucial. Unlike some families, where the priority was for a girl to marry, she taught me to prioritize education and having my own income, as she said, ‘your own bread’. Everything else would come in time,” she shares.
“My mother raised us with the belief that economic independence for women was crucial.” – Jelena Ružić
Her life took a turn when she married at 20 and had her first child at 21 while living in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-biggest city. Shortly after, she divorced, facing economic instability and the stigma of being labeled a ‘divorcee’ in her community. Living alone with her child and juggling multiple work shifts to support her family, she endured many challenges.
“This experience made me understand why women might stay in abusive relationships or return to them. I could empathize because I had my own struggles. My activism grew out of this understanding. It taught me that we can never fully know what someone else is going through,” she explains.
At 25, she moved to Lazarevac, a town near the Serbian capital Belgrade, where she remarried and had two more children. There, her passion for women’s rights began to blossom. Ružić vividly recalls a rainy day 12 years ago, when an encounter with an elderly woman in distress sparked her journey into activism.
While dealing with paperwork in municipality offices, she saw her crying. The woman told Ružić that after her husband’s death, she gave up her property to her son, trusting he would take care of her. Instead, she faced abuse from both her son and his wife, who wanted her out of their home. But when she sought help from a social welfare center, she was denied assistance because she had given up her inheritance. Ružić intervened, helping the woman secure accommodation as a victim of abuse.
“At that moment, I was pregnant. I wondered what would happen if I had a girl, whether she would find herself in a similar situation. I called the women I was socializing with and said, ‘Let’s do something, let’s try something,’” she recalls.
Soon, the Women’s Association of Kolubara District (ŽUKO) was born. Since 2013, their work has been focused on strengthening the position of women at the local level.
The “How much is my share?” campaign
In 2022, Jelena Ružić and her team launched their groundbreaking “How much is my share?” campaign, aiming to raise awareness about women’s inheritance rights and empower them to claim their share.
Nearly half of Serbian women give up their inheritance in favor of a male family member, Ružić points out, quoting a 2008 research by the SeCons think-tank. Even though Serbian law states that all children have equal inheritance rights, she notes that traditions often overshadow legal protections.
Jelena’s mission is to unite and empower women, enhancing their entrepreneurial skills and giving them the tools to voice their rights. Photo: UN Women/Danijel Rakić
Initially criticized by both men and women who felt it undermined their sacrifices, the campaign eventually opened the floodgates, inspiring women to speak out about the injustices they had faced for generations.
“Women began voicing their frustration about their position and the fact that they had accepted such circumstances. Over the two years of the campaign, we tracked the entire process – from backlash to anger and revolt, and now to mutual support,” Jelena explained.
The campaign, supported by UN Women, reached over 4 million people through television, news outlets, and social media, across Serbia and neighboring countries.
Its message resonated with many women, encouraging them to claim their rights. According to Ružić, over 600 women received free legal counseling, helping them fight for their share of family property.
Recognizing that education is crucial to their mission, the association has organized hundreds of workshops for over 1,000 high school students across Serbia over two years, aiming to break gender stereotypes that often lead to unfair inheritance distribution.
Jelena Ružić’s tireless work aligns with the “Freedom from poverty” area of the Beijing+30 Action Agenda, a voluntary, action-oriented platform to accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda.
Empowering women in agriculture: A lifeline during the pandemic
In 2019, Ružić and her team, with UN Women’s support, trained 122 women from Kolubara District in Western Serbia in business planning, the use of modern technologies in agriculture, and navigating administrative procedures.
However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, markets closed, supply chains were disrupted, and these women were left with no way to sell their goods. In response, the ŽUKO Association helped launch an online “Women’s Market”, enabling farmers to sell products and support their families.
It started small, but quickly “exploded”, growing to 140 weekly orders. Initially, while freedom of movement was limited and permits to travel during lockdown were required, Ružić’s team managed deliveries and payments. Once these restrictions were lifted, they made the platform independent and sustainable.
“We trained a team of women farmers to run the platform and communicate with customers. Currently, three women from the agricultural sector manage the website and handle orders, while several others package products. The platform now helps up to 30 households run by or involving women,” she explains.
Achievements and vision for the future
In recognition of her efforts, Jelena Ružić received the Human Rights Defender Award from the House of Human Rights and was named one of Serbia’s heroines by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) in 2023.
Jelena’s mission is to unite and empower women, enhancing their entrepreneurial skills and giving them the tools to voice their rights. Photo: UN Women/Danijel Rakić
“When these recognitions arrived, we started to reflect on our achievements. In fact, this only showed how marginalized this topic was, and when it was finally brought up, it had a huge impact. It triggered an avalanche. There is no stopping now,” she says.
Jelena Ružić’s vision for the future is one where women are fully aware of their rights and able to claim them, whether that means inheriting land or managing a successful agricultural business. Her message to women is one of strength and solidarity.
Women are wonderfully strong. And only as a team – men and women – can we create good things.”
– Jelena Ružić
“Women face daily injustice on various levels. Very often, we think that we are not strong enough to make changes. But we are half of the population on this planet, and we are much stronger than we think. Women are wonderfully strong. And only as a team – men and women – can we create good things,“ she concludes.
Jelena Ružić envisions a future of transforming lives and communities, one step at a time. Photo: UN Women/Danijel Rakić
In the fields and the courts, Jelena Ružić is planting the seeds of change – one woman, one family, and one community at a time.
This story is a part of the Beijing+30 regional communications campaign ‘Unstoppable’, aimed at marking the 30th commemoration of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The views expressed in this story are those of the protagonist and the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women, the United Nations, or any of its affiliated organizations.