The Politics of Gender in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Since the breakdown of communist rule in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe sweeping changes in political,economic and social life have taken place. This chapter considers the gendered aspects of such change in order to assess how women’s situations have been altered and how women are effecting change. Gender differences are often imperfectly understood and left unexplained,or they are exaggerated and described in perjorative terms which stress the ways in which women fail to be equal to men. In what follows I shall consider varying conceptions and conditions of political participation by women in Central and Eastern Europe, and how different situations have highlighted shifts in focus regarding the integration and autonomy of women’s groups.