Reproducing Gender: Politics, Publics, and Everyday Life after Socialism

Published by Princeton University Press 2000

Reproducing Gender

Politics, Publics, and Everyday Life after Socialism

Edited by: Susan Gal and Gail Kligman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691228013

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Susan Gal is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, and has written widely on questions of language, politics, and gender in East Central Europe. Gail Kligman is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has written widely on culture, politics, and gender in East Central Europe. She is most recently the author of The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's Romania.

Reviews

". . . unusually sophisticated and subtle."

"The particular strength of the volume is that it includes many essays by scholars who are living what they analyze; eastern Europe is not viewed from within universities across the Atlantic, rather it is assessed by a number of scholars who are working in the countries they describe."---Robert G. Moeller, Journal of Social History

"This is an excellent and timely collection of essays, which I highly recommend. It is a truly collaborative project in which the authors address the same themes in different countries, and develop and apply analytical categories in different settings. These essays are based on serious primary research that combines the regional traditions of scholarship with disciplined social science methods and style. They introduce new concepts and ideas as well as propose new ways of analyzing social change. I am convinced that many of the arguments will be cited in the literature for years to come."—Eva Fodor, Dartmouth College

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Susan Gal and Gail Kligman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE: REPRODUCTION AS POLITICS
CHAPTER 1 Between Ideology, Politics, and Common Sense: The Discourse of Reproductive Rights in Poland Eleonora Zielińska Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
CHAPTER 2 Reproductive Policies in the Czech and Slovak Republics Sharon L. Wolchik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
CHAPTER 3 Talking about Women and Wombs: The Discourse of Abortion and Reproductive Rights in the G.D.R. during and after the Wende Eva Maleck-Lewy and Myra Marx Ferree Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
CHAPTER 4 Birth Strike in the New Federal States: Is Sterilization an Act of Resistance? Irene Dölling, Daphne Hahn and Sylka Scholz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
PART TWO: GENDER RELATIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
CHAPTER 5 Changing Images of Identity in Poland: From the Self-Sacrificing to the Self-Investing Woman? Mira Marody and Anna Giza-Poleszczuk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
CHAPTER 6 Women's Life Trajectories and Class Formation in Hungary Katalin Kovács and Mónika Váradi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
CHAPTER 7 From Informal Labor to Paid Occupations: Marketization from below in Hungarian Women's Work Júlia Szalai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
CHAPTER 8 Women's Sexuality and Reproductive Behavior in Post-Ceausescu Romania: A Psychological Approach Adriana Băban Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
PART THREE: ARENAS OF POLITICAL ACTION: STRUGGLES FOR REPRESENTATION
CHAPTER 9 New Gender Relations in Poland in the 1990s Małgorzata Fuszara Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
CHAPTER 10 New Parliament, Old Discourse? The Parental Leave Debate in Hungary Joanna Goven Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
CHAPTER 11 Women's NGOs in Romania Laura Grunberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
CHAPTER 12 Women's Problems, Women's Discourses in Bulgaria Krassimira Daskalova Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
CHAPTER 13 Belgrade's SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence: A Report Zorica Mršević Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	370
CHAPTER 14 Media Representations of Men and Women in Times of War and Crisis: The Case of Serbia Jasmina Lukić Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
CONCLUSION Susan Gal and Gail Kligman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	424
CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	427
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	429