In Croatia, women's history as a historical research field to a large extent remains underdeveloped. Few publications appear in the field, and there is limited research being carried out dealing with women as a legitimate subject. Even though history has occasionally shown interest in the history of women in the nineteen eighties with the first publications in the field, history of women is still not being approached systematically, nor is there any academic framework that would recognize women's history as a specific area. This article provides a fundamental framework for research into the history of women and women's history and demonstrates, using the example of women in the Illyrian movement, the need to develop women's history as a complementary part of cultural history.