Women in Transition in the Czech and Slovak Republics: The First Three Years

International Trends in Central and Eastern Europe Women in Transition in the Czech and Slovak Republics: The First Three Years Sharon L. Wolchik Women in what was, until January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia and is now the Czech and Slovak repubUcs faced many of the same issues as women in other post-communist countries after the end of communist rule. As I have argued in earlier essays,1 women's situation at present and the way in which women's issues are considered by poUtical leaders have been influenced in important ways by the economic and political transitions from communism. The dramatic political and economic changes that have followed the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe have created many new opportunities for all dtizens in the region. Thus, the end of the communist party's monopoly of power, the elimination of censorship, repluralization of political life, and the opening of the region to the rest of Europe have aUowed people in these countries to partidpate in poUtics, organize with others of similar views, and pressure political leaders to take action on issues of interest to them. Efforts to recreate the market, which have involved the relegitimization of private enterprise, restitution of confiscated economic assets to their original owners, and, in some cases, attempts to privatize state enterprises by a combination of foreign investment and mass ownership through coupons or vouchers, have opened new career possibUities and freed the creative economic energies of many. The opening of countries previously closed, with few exceptions, to influences from the rest of Europe has allowed new ideas to enter and has brought far greater levels of contad with outsiders. However, as is the case with large-scale change in other contexts, the end of Communist rule has also brought about expected and unexpeded difficulties. Women have also been affected by the legacy of communism. Many fadors have made it difficult for women to articulate their interests and put pressure on poUtical leaders. As a result, women continue to be marginalized from poUtics and women's issues continue to be seen as low-priority concerns. © 1994 Journal of Women's History, Vol 5 No. 3 (Winter) 1994 International Trends: Sharon L. Wolchik ιοί Legacy of the Communist Past As in other post-Communist countries, the end of the Communist Party's monopoly of power and the elimination of censorship led to a number of poUtical changes that proved to be important for women. Many of these, such as the repluraUzation of poUtical Ufe; recreation of old voluntary, charitable, and professional assodations and founding of new ones; and the broadening of the process of poUtical recruitment beyond the grasp of one poUtical party were positive, for they created new possibüities for women as weU as men to be involved in poUtical Ufe. At the same time, the rejection of much of the Communist past and the new freedom of conservative reUgious groups to be active in politics and openly voice their opinions have created new barriers to greater activism on women's part. The uneven pattern of gender role change that occurred during the Communist period and the many problems that women and their famüies faced as the result of this pattern led many women and men to rejed the goal of gender equaUty.2 The fact that women's equaUty was a goal emphasized by the regime and implemented from the top down rather than chosen by women themselves meant that it was very much assodated with the Communist system. Once that system ended, many rejected the goal of gender equaUty along with many other aspects of the old system. One of the many ironies of this rejection, of course, arises from the fad that, although it was offidaUy supported by the regime, women's equaUty was never a very high priority poUcy goal under Communism. Nonetheless, many women in Czechoslovakia and now the Czech and Slovak repubUcs share the view, often articulated by male leaders, that levds of women's employment were too high. Many also share the view that poUtics is an area of activity somehow inappropriate for women.3 In both of these areas, the arguments made by women...