Gender Issues in Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article aims to indicate a working agenda of Eastern European gender issues and to generate critical reflection and further research questions. Although many alternative definitions exist, Eastern Europe is identified here as the totality of postcommunist countries (from ex-East Germany to the ex-USSR [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] countries, including Russia) that are now undergoing a process of transition to democracy and a market economy (see map). Despite past similarities caused by the sharing of the same type of political oppression, these countries differ somewhat in their treatment of gender, partly due to their precommunist past, partly due to their particular socioeconomic and historical circumstances. Thus, any generalizations drawn here must be taken with a grain of salt, and one must remember that neither the category of women nor the concept of Eastern Europe, or postcommunism for that matter, is monolithic.