Jasminka Pešut was born in Zagreb in 1961 and graduated with a degree in sociology from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb under the mentorship of Vjeran Katunarić. She has been employed as a librarian at the Centre for Women's Studies in Zagreb since 1999, but based on the overall work she has been doing she can be considered a project manager. She participated in the writing and implementation of most of the projects conducted by the Centre, and in the Centre’s research. The focus of her professional work is feminism and women's rights.

Pešut believes that the culture of dissent in the form of feminism in Yugoslavia was reflected in "disagreement with every form of dogmatic thinking, of any orientation," "theoretical critical ranges based on the Marxist paradigm" were questioned through critical thinking, there was also a "constant opposition to the present and visible dogmatic forms of thought and action that were opposed by so-called open Marxism" (Pešut, interview, 24 April 2018). Pešut believes that feminism does not have a "dissident" character only in socialism, but constantly, because “such a way of thinking that is always in tension, and resistance to all stereotyped opinions, whether theory, politics, religion or any other sphere of thought and action“ is dissent or opposition (Pešut interview, 24 April 2018).