WOMEN IN THE LEADERSHIP AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WRITTEN ALBANIAN PRESS 1848-2024

During the 19th century National Awakening, visionary intellectuals, most notably
Sami Frashëri, conceptualized women’s education as a fundamental catalyst for national emancipation and social modernization. Despite this early advocacy, the active integration of women into the public sphere and the professional press was long stifled by restrictive historical contingencies and traditional socio-cultural structures. This study provides a critical analysis of the evolution of women’s roles within the Albanian press, grounded in an extensive longitudinal documentary analysis. Utilizing the Registry of the Written Albanian Press (1848-2024) as its primary empirical framework, the research examines the transition of women from peripheral contributors to central editorial leaders. The analysis is structured across four transformative epochs: the foundational years pre-1912, post-independence, the socialist era (1945-1990), and the contemporary democratic period (1991-2024). A primary focus of this paper is the institutional “turning point” following the Declaration of Independence. Specifically, it highlights the pioneering leadership of Parashqevi Qiriazi and the establishment of “Ylli i Mëngjesit” (The Morning Star), the first periodical in the Albanian language to be both founded and directed by women. The study further explores the paradox of the socialist period, where numerical participation increased under state mandated gender quotas while remaining ideologically constrained, and concludes with an examination of the post-1991 democratic period, where women emerged as autonomous founders and executives of independent media outlets within Albania, Kosovo, and the diaspora. By synthesizing these historical stages, the paper reveals that overall, only 4.0% of all Albanian periodicals were founded or directed by women (1848–2024), underscoring a pervasive model of structural gender exclusion from media leadership.