- Katja Boh
Katja Boh (1929-2008) was a
Slovenia nsociologist ,diplomat andpolitician .Early life and career
She was born in a wealthy
middle class family inLjubljana ,Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now the capital of Slovenia). Her father was anAustria nJew of who had converted toRoman Catholicism , her mother was Slovene. DuringWorld War Two , she was imprisoned by theNazis . In 1946 she got engaged toLjubo Sirc who later became a famouseconomist . [Ljubo Sirc, Med Titom in Hitlerjem (Ljubljana: DZS, 1992)] The same year, however, Sirc was imprisoned by theCommunist regime and triled at the so-calledNagode trial . Due to Sirc's long confinement and later exile, their engagement failed.She studied sociology at the
University of Ljubljana and obtained her PhD in 1974. She dedicated herself to the study offamily patterns, becoming one of the leadingEurope an experts in the field.Involvement in politics
A decided supporter of
human rights and political pluralism, she became involved in politics during theSlovenian spring in the 1980s. She was among the co-founders of theSlovenian Social Democratic Party in 1989, together withJože Pučnik ,Matjaž Šinkovec andFrance Tomšič .After the victory of the
DEMOS coalition in the first free elections in Slovenia in April 1990, she became theminister for health inLojze Peterle 's cabinet. She remained in office until 1991, when she was appointed as the first Slovenianambassador toAustria . She remained inVienna until 1997 when she retired. She remained an advisor to theSlovenian Democratic Party , and was one of the co-authors of the party's programm on social issues for the 2004 parliamentary elections.She was also an active member of the
International Paneuropean Union .She died in August 2008 in Ljubljana and was buried in the
Žale cemetery.Major works
*"Changing Patterns of European Family Life" (co-author, New York - London, 1990).
*"Cross Cultural Perspectives on Families, Work, and Change" (togehter withGiovanni Sgretta , New York - London, 1989).
*"Ženske in diskriminacija" ("Women and Discrimination", co-author; Ljubljana, 1986).See also
*
Alenka Puhar Sources
* [http://213.250.55.115/Ris2007/default.asp?kaj=3&id=2008081205351582 Article in the daily newspaper Večer]
* [http://www.demokracija.si/index.php?sekcija=clanki&clanek=4164 Aricle in the journal Demokracija]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
