Such were the times Serbian peasant women born in the 1920s and 1930s and the stories of their lives

Eight life stories of peasant women from Serbia born in the 1920s and 1930s serve as a basis for analyzing two phenomena characteristic of the Serbian patriarchal family: marriage against the woman's will and her subordinate position in the family. The analysis points to the ways in which the women themselves perceive these phenomena and to verbal strategies they use in constructing their life stories.