Savka Subotić je bila feministkinja koja se istakla upornošću u borbi za ženska prava u drugoj polovini 19. i na početku 20. veka.
Savka je rođena u bogatoj novosadskoj trgovačkoj porodici i njeni roditelji su se pobrinuli da i ona i njen brat dobiju kvalitetno obrazovanje. Proučavala je život žena i njihov društveni položaj, i o tome pisala članke i držala predavanja. Njen glavni fokus je bio usmeren na potrebu obrazovanja ženske dece. 1910. godine je održala predavanje u Naučnom klubu u Beču, pod nazivom „Žena na istoku i na zapadu“. Tada je između ostalog rekla sledeće: „Zakoni duhovnog života nisu različiti kod čoveka i žene a što se čini neka razlika to dolazi od razlike u zanimanju kroz stoleća i od višeg školskog obrazovanja. … Slobodu pak nijie priroda uskratila ženskinji, nego muškarac. Oni su pravom jačeg na kuću ograničili delokrug žene.“ Nakon ovog predavanja je Savka dobila nadimak „Die Mutter ihres Volkes“ (“Majka svog naroda”).
Savka je pod uticajem materijalističke filozofije formirala svoje stavove i napravila je uspešan program ekonomskog osnaživanja žena na selu, u čijoj je osnovi bio razvoj domaće industrije. Program je predstavljao podsticanje seoskih žena na proizvodnju i usmeravanje tradicionalnih poslova – tkanja, prerade vune, pletenja – ka prilagođavanju potrebama tržišta.
Isticala je značaj osnivanja ženskih udruženja i organizacija, a i sama je bila na čelu nekoliko takvih: Srpskog narodnog ženskog saveza, Kola srpskih sestara i Zadruge Srpkinja Novosatkinja. Savka je, iznenađujuće, uživala veliki ugled, i za svoj rad je dobijala priznanja i na domaćem terenu i u inostranstvu. Bila je počasna članica Ženskog društva iz Amsterdama i Kongresa za žensko pravo glasa u Stokholmu, zahvaljujući svom aktivističkom radu. Bila je bliska saradnica velikog broja uticajnih feministkinja. Sarađivala je sa Keri Čepmen Ket koja je osnovala Međunarodnu alijansu za žensko pravo glasa (International Woman Suffrage Alliance), Rozikom Švimer – osnivačicom Ugarskog udruženja zaposlenih žena i Feminističkog udruženja Ugarske, te Bertom Papenhajm koja se borila protiv prostitucije i trgovine ljudima, i koja je u borbu protiv prostitucije uključila ženske organizacije iz Srbije.
Savka je pisala o narodnim običajima, a u jednom tekstu je pisala o običajima koje pratkituju Grci, Bugari i Srbi kada se rodi dete, te zapisala da muško novorođenče otac tri puta digne u vis, a žensko spušta na zemlju da bi bila potpora kući, koja ne stoji na zemlji nego na ženi. Savka se zalagala za osnivanje ženskih škola i za to da se talentovanim, a siromašnim devojčicama omogući da se obučavaju za učiteljice. Savka je bila na čelu organizovanja i otvaranja viših devojačkih škola u Novom Sadu, Pančevu 1874. i Somboru 1875. godine.
Savka Subotić was a feminist, well known for her actions and her persistence in the fight for women’s rights in Balkan. She was acting in the late 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century.
Savka was born in the rich family in Novi Sad and she got the best possible education of the time. She did a research about the life of women and their social conditions, she wrote articles about it and she held seminars. Her main focus was the education of female children. In 1910 she held a seminar in the Scientific Club of Vienna, named: Women in the East and in the West. She underlined: “Rules of intellectual life are the same among women and men, what looks like a difference comes from the difference in work given and education of the centuries…. Nature didn’t take away the freedom from a woman – it was man who did that. By being stronger – men deprived the freedom of women.” After this seminar Savka got a nickname „Die Mutter ihres Volkes“ (the mother of her nation).
Under the philosophy of materialism, Savka formed her ideas and she created a successful program for the economical empowerment of women that lived in villages. The base of the program was the development of the DIY industries of the time. She was encouraging women of the villages to do works that were often in their families traditions – weaving, spinning, entwinement – and to find the position of the created projects on the market.
She believed that women organisations and societies were very important and she was the head of a few such. She was very famous and respected, and her work was acknowledged in Balkan and abroad. She was a vip member of the “Women Society of Amsterdam” and of the “Congress for Women Rights in Stockholm”. She was collaborating with many famous feminists of the time like Carrie Chapman Catt, who founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, Rosika Schwimmer – who founded Hungarian Society of Working Women and Feminists Society of Hungary and with Bertha Pappenheim as well, who fought against prostitution and human trafficking, and which in her fight included female organisations of Serbia as well.
Savka wrote about national and local (Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian) customs when a child is born. When a male child is born father takes him and lifts him three times in the air, while if a female child is born he puts her down on the ground because woman is a foundation stone of every house. Savka was founding schools for girls where talented but poor girls were educated to be teachers. She was one of the heads of the organisations that opened higher educational institutions for women in the cities of Novi Sad and Pančevo in 1874, and in Sombor in 1875.