Jelica Belović Bernadžikovski je bila etnografkinja, pedagoškinja i književnica.
Obrazovanje je sticala u Sarajevu, Zagrebu, Beču i Parizu, a u Banjaluci je bila upravnica Više devojačke škole. Jelica je govorila devet jezika, a na nemačkom i francuskom je pisala tekstove za nemačke i francuske novine. Kao pristalica jugoslovenske ideje imala je problema sa austro-ugarskim vlastima, zbog čega je bila primorana da objavljuje pod pseudonimom Ljuba Daničić. Iz istog razloga se često selila i menjala poslove. Prevremeno je penzionisana 1909. godine, a kao nastavnica nastavlja da radi tek posle rata i po osnivanju Kraljevine SHS.
Angažovane tekstove je objavljivala u „Ženskom svetu“, ali i „Frankfurter Zeitung“, „Frauen Zeitung“, „Revue des deux mondes“. Pisala je o pedagogiji, književnosti i etnologiji – folkloru kod Srba i Hrvata. Jeličin etnografski rad je posebno bio priznat u Evropi i ona je imala odličan odnos sa stranim etnografima i folkloristima. Primera radi, bila je počasna članica Bečkog folklornog društva, a 1913. je bila urednica knjige o biografijama znamenitih žena („Srpkinja“) koja je štampana u Sarajevu. Knjigu „Jugoslovenski vezovi“ objavljuje u periodu posle 1918. godine, kada se seli u Novi Sad gde je nastavila da radi kao nastavnica.
Jelica je takođe bila angažovana feministkinja. Protivila se nametanju nacionalistikih i verskih okvira, te spada u takozvani drugi talas feminizma, kojem pripadaju i Ksenija Atanasijević, Julka Hlapec Đorđević i Vladislava Beba Polit. 1922. godine je kao članica Narodnog ženskog saveza Kraljevine SHS pozvana od strane Internacionalne ženske lige za mir i slobodu (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) da učestvuje na skupu u Hagu, ali joj nije odobreno da ide. Jeličine feminističke ideje su uticale na shvatanja drugih feministkinja, pogotovo književnica, jer je ona prva pisala o „ženskom pismu“, smatrajući da muškarci i žene drugačije gledaju na svet i život, a da im se otuda i književnost razlikuje.
Jelica Belović Bernadžikovski was an ethnographer, pedagogue and a writer.
She got her education in Sarajevo, Zagreb, Vienna and Paris. In Banjaluka she was principal in girls’ high school. Jelica spoke nine languages and wrote in German and French for German and French newspaper. As a supporter of the Yugoslav idea she was in trouble with the Austro-Hungarian authorities, and was forced to publish her texts under a male alias. For the same reason she had to frequently move and shift jobs. She was prematurely retired in 1909 and did not continue to work as a teacher until the end of WWI and the establishment of Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Jelica was also an engaged feminist. She opposed to imposing nationalist and religious limits, and therefore she is one of the second-wave feminists (alongside Ksenija Atanasijević, Julka Hlapec Đorđević i Vladislava Beba Polit). As a member of Women’s alliance of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia she was invited by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to participate in their gathering in Hague, but she didn’t get the permission to go. Jelica’s feminist views influenced fellow feminists, especially writers, since Jelica was the first to write about “women’s literature”. She believed that men and women have different worldviews, and hence different literature.
Her socially engaged articles were published in a magazine called “Women’s world”, as well as in „Frankfurter Zeitung“, „Frauen Zeitung“, „Revue des deux mondes“. She wrote about pedagogy, literature and ethnology – the Serbian and Croatian folklore. Her work was praised in Europe and she had a great relationship with foreign ethnographers and folklorists. As an example, she was honorary member of Vienna’s folklore society, and in 1913 she was an editor to a book on biographies of notable Serbian women, which was printed in Sarajevo. “Yugoslav embroidery” was a book that she published after 1918, when she moved to Novi Sad where she continued working as a teacher.