Gender Politics and Post-Communism

Gender Politics and Post-Communism PDF Author: Nanette Funk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429759002
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In the wake of communism’s decline, women’s concerns had become increasingly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet most discussions of post-communism changes had neglected women’s experiences. Originally published in 1993, this title was the first collection of its kind, presenting original essays by women scholars, politicians, activists, and former dissidents from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, along with essays by Western feminists and scholars. They discuss gender politics during the often turbulent transition and crises of post-communism, offering vivid accounts and analyses of the conditions facing women in each country.

Gender Politics and Post-Communism

Gender Politics and Post-Communism PDF Author: Nanette Funk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429759002
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the wake of communism’s decline, women’s concerns had become increasingly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet most discussions of post-communism changes had neglected women’s experiences. Originally published in 1993, this title was the first collection of its kind, presenting original essays by women scholars, politicians, activists, and former dissidents from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, along with essays by Western feminists and scholars. They discuss gender politics during the often turbulent transition and crises of post-communism, offering vivid accounts and analyses of the conditions facing women in each country.

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism PDF Author: Kristen R. Ghodsee
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568588895
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
A spirited, deeply researched exploration of why capitalism is bad for women and how, when done right, socialism leads to economic independence, better labor conditions, better work-life balance and, yes, even better sex. In a witty, irreverent op-ed piece that went viral, Kristen Ghodsee argued that women had better sex under socialism. The response was tremendous — clearly she articulated something many women had sensed for years: the problem is with capitalism, not with us. Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives. She tackles all aspects of a woman's life - work, parenting, sex and relationships, citizenship, and leadership. In a chapter called "Women: Like Men, But Cheaper," she talks about women in the workplace, discussing everything from the wage gap to harassment and discrimination. In "What To Expect When You're Expecting Exploitation," she addresses motherhood and how "having it all" is impossible under capitalism. Women are standing up for themselves like never before, from the increase in the number of women running for office to the women's march to the long-overdue public outcry against sexual harassment. Interest in socialism is also on the rise -- whether it's the popularity of Bernie Sanders or the skyrocketing membership numbers of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's become increasingly clear to women that capitalism isn't working for us, and Ghodsee is the informed, lively guide who can show us the way forward.

Women After Communism

Women After Communism PDF Author: Helen Frink
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This book describes the status of women in the former German Democratic Republic, and their transition from a socialist (communist) economy to the capitalist free market system of united Germany. Women After Communism outlines the provisions which East Germany's socialist regime made for integrating women into the workplace, and also describes women's losses with the collapse of socialism, abortion rights, and secure employment. The comprehensive background of Women After Communism is complemented by the inclusion of provocative personal narratives.

Living Gender after Communism

Living Gender after Communism PDF Author: Janet Elise Johnson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025311229X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
How has the collapse of communism across Europe and Eurasia changed gender? In addition to acknowledging the huge costs that fell heavily on women, Living Gender after Communism suggests that moving away from communism in Europe and Eurasia has provided an opportunity for gender to multiply, from varieties of neo-traditionalism to feminisms, from overt negotiation of femininity to denials of gender. This development, in turn, has enabled some women in the region to construct their own gendered identities for their own political, economic, or social purposes. Beginning with an understanding of gender as both a society-wide institution that regulates people's lives and a cultural "toolkit" which individuals and groups may use to subvert or "transvalue" the sex/gender system, the contributors to this volume provide detailed case studies from Belarus, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. This collaboration between young scholars -- most from postcommunist states -- and experts in the fields of gender studies and postcommunism combines intimate knowledge of the area with sophisticated gender analysis to examine just how much gender realities have shifted in the region. Contributors are Anna Brzozowska, Karen Dawisha, Nanette Funk, Ewa Grigar, Azra Hromadzic, Janet Elise Johnson, Anne-Marie Kramer, Tania Rands Lyon, Jean C. Robinson, Iulia Shevchenko, Svitlana Taraban, and Shannon Woodcock.

Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe

Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe PDF Author: Richard E. Matland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191529923
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
This book considers women's access to formal positions of powers in the newly formed democracies of post communist Europe. While acknowledging the relevance of recent history, this book takes an important step away from the communist legacy and explicitly argues for a framework based on causal variables identified in the existing literatures from industrialized democracies on women and politics and legislative recruitment After a brief introduction, the second chapter sets forth a general theoretical framework, which posits that the level of female legislative representation in a given country is a function of the relative supply of and demand for female candidates. After a chapter considering a broad overview of public opinion on women and politics in Eastern Europe, thirteen country chapters, spanning the spectrum of Eastern European democracies, address and test hypotheses about the key variables affecting the supply and demand sides of the equation in individual countries. Relevant aspects of the communist cultural and developmental legacy are addressed, but authors give particular attention to political factors, such as electoral rules and the characteristics of the emerging party systems, that vary within the Eastern European countries. The new democracies of Eastern Europe provide a novel context in which to test and extend our theories about the consequences of political institutions for the quality of democracy. Since institutional arrangements are more malleable than developmental or cultural characteristics, those variables also offer the greatest promise to scholars and practitioners wondering what can be done to improve women's access to formal arenas of political power? How can we build democracies that are stable, lasting and representative? A careful analysis of the post-communist context can help us to address issues concerning institutional design and development that has relevance well beyond the Eastern European context.

Women in Power in Post-communist Parliaments

Women in Power in Post-communist Parliaments PDF Author: Marilyn Rueschemeyer
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book examines the life and work of women who have reached positions of political power after the end of communism in Europe. It explores the roles they have adopted, the relationships they have cultivated, and the agendas they have pursued. This volume treats the issues comparatively, in six countries -- the Czech Republic, Germany (with a focus on the former GDR), Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland, and Russia. It also includes interviews with and written statements by the very "women in power" discussed in the first half of the book, giving voice to their common and divergent experiences as political actors within an environment of stormy economies and new foreign engagements, particularly with the European Union.

Genre and the (Post-)Communist Woman

Genre and the (Post-)Communist Woman PDF Author: Florentina C.Andreescu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317747356
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
This work is a critical intervention into the archive of female identity; it reflects on the ways in which the Central and Eastern European female ideal was constructed, represented, and embodied in communist societies and on its transformation resulting from the political, economic, and social changes specific to the post-communist social and political transitions. During the communist period, the female ideal was constituted as a heroic mother and worker, both a revolutionary and a state bureaucrat, which were regarded as key elements in the processes of industrial development and production. She was portrayed as physically strong and with rugged rather than with feminized attributes. After the post-communist regime collapsed, the female ideal’s traits changed and instead took on the feminine attributes that are familiar in the West’s consumer-oriented societies. Each chapter in the volume explores different aspects of these changes and links those changes to national security, nationalism, and relations with Western societies, while focusing on a variety of genres of expression such as films, music, plays, literature, press reports, television talk shows, and ethnographic research. The topics explored in this volume open a space for discussion and reflection about how radical social change intimately affected the lives and identities of women, and their positions in society, resulting in various policy initiatives involving women’s social and political roles. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of gender studies, comparative politics, Eastern European studies, and cultural studies.

How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed

How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed PDF Author: Slavenka Drakulic
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060975407
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Hailed by feminists as one of the most important contributions to women's studies in the last decade, this gripping, beautifully written account describes the daily struggles of women under the Marxist regime in the former republic of Yugoslavia.

The Politics of Gender after Socialism

The Politics of Gender after Socialism PDF Author: Susan Gal
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400843006
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
With the collapse of communism, a new world seemed to open for the peoples of East Central Europe. The possibilities this world presented, and the costs it exacted, have been experienced differently by men and women. Susan Gal and Gail Kligman explore these differences through a probing analysis of the role of gender in reshaping politics and social relations since 1989. The authors raise two crucial questions: How are gender relations and ideas about gender shaping political and economic change in the region? And what forms of gender inequality are emerging as a result? The book provides a rich understanding of gender relations and their significance in social and institutional transformations. Gal and Kligman offer a systematic comparison of East Central European gender relations with those of western welfare states, and with the presocialist, bourgeois past. Throughout this essay, the authors attend to historical comparisons as well as cross regional interactions and contrasts. Their work contributes importantly to the study of postsocialism, and to the broader feminist literature that critically examines how states and political-economic processes are gendered, and how states and markets regulate gender relations.

Reproducing Gender

Reproducing Gender PDF Author: Susan Gal
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691228019
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
The striking fact that abortion was among the first issues raised, after 1989, by almost all of the newly formed governments of East Central Europe points to the significance of gender and reproduction in the postsocialist transformations. The fourteen studies in this volume result from a comparative, collaborative research project on the complex relationship between ideas and practices of gender, and political economic change. The book presents detailed evidence about women's and men's new circumstances in eight of the former communist countries, exploring the intersection of politics and the life cycle, the differential effects of economic restructuring, and women's public and political participation. Individual contributions on the former German Democratic Republic, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria provide rich empirical data and interpretive insights on postsocialist transformation analyzed from a gendered perspective. Drawing on multiple methods and disciplines, these original papers advance scholarship in several fields, including anthropology, sociology, women's studies, law, comparative political science, and regional studies. The analyses make clear that practices of gender, and ideas about the differences between men and women, have been crucial in shaping the broad social changes that have followed the collapse of communism. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Eleonora Zieliãska, Eva Maleck-Lewy, Myra Marx Ferree, Sharon Wolchik, Irene Dölling, Daphne Hahn, Sylka Scholz, Mira Marody, Anna Giza-Poleszczuk, Katalin Kovács, Mónika Váradi, Julia Szalai, Adriana Baban, MaÏgorzata Fuszara, Laura Grunberg, Zorica Mrseviâ, Krassimira Daskalova, Joanna Goven, and Jasmina Lukiâ.