Cinderella goes to market : citizenship, gender, and women's movements in East Central Europe

An introduction to the experience of women in former state socialist countries, which attempts to unravel the legacy of state socialism in relation to women. The book explores women's status in East Central Europe, both before and after 1989. With the collapse of state socialism, women in Eastern and Central Europe are now faced with more than the double burden of paid and domestic labor. Soaring unemployment is driving women out of the workplace, and nationalist ideologues are urging them to reassume their primary responsibilityto produce babies for the nation. Lack of childcare and attacks upon abortion rights are narrowing choices. Can these issues provide the catalyst for transforming the embryonic womens groups into something like a mass womens movement? Or will the current allergy to feminism prevail? Many women now claim to have suffered from too much emancipation under socialism, and are seeking what they see as new forms of freedom in femininity and maternity. Barbara Einhorns timely account of womens position before and after the demise of state socialism in Eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary shows how the issues of gender are today at the heart of potentially explosive processes of social and political transformation. Her book provides incisive sociological, economic and political analysis, along with perceptive commentary on the ways in which the changes in womens daily lives are being represented in literature and in the media. Introduction: Why Cinderella? -- The Ẁoman Question': The Legacy Of State Socialism -- New For Old? Ideology, The Family And The Nation -- Self-determination Under Threat: The State And Reproductive Rights -- Right Or Duty? Women And The Economy -- Where Have All The Women Gone? Politics And Participation -- An Allergy To Feminism: Women's Movements Before And After 1989 -- Imagining Women: Literature And The Media -- Can Cinderella Become A Citizen? -- Appendix: Tables. Barbara Einhorn. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.