During the Communist period, in most of these contries, even women with small children typically worked outside the home, and their participation in formal institutions was virtually mandatory. Today, as they are being disproportionately affected by marketization, downsizing, the dramatic erosion of social services, and as their sons are being drafted to participate in an unending series of border wars, have women found a new political voice?

"A useful text and reference book. These essays are at their best in serving both area study and political sociology."--Slavic Review --

This book considers women's access to formal positions of powers in the newly formed democracies of post communist Europe. While acknowledging the relevance of recent history, this book takes an important step away from the communist legacy and explicitly argues for a framework based on causal variables identified in the existing literatures from industrialized democracies on women and politics and legislative recruitment After a brief introduction, the second chapter sets forth a general theoretical framework, which posits that the level of female legislative representation in a given country is a function of the relative supply of and demand for female candidates. After a chapter considering a broad overview of public opinion on women and politics in Eastern Europe, thirteen country chapters, spanning the spectrum of Eastern European democracies, address and test hypotheses about the key variables affecting the supply and demand sides of the equation in individual countries. Relevant aspects of the communist cultural and developmental legacy are addressed, but authors give particular attention to political factors, such as electoral rules and the characteristics of the emerging party systems, that vary within the Eastern European countries. The new democracies of Eastern Europe provide a novel context in which to test and extend our theories about the consequences of political institutions for the quality of democracy. Since institutional arrangements are more malleable than developmental or cultural characteristics, those variables also offer the greatest promise to scholars and practitioners wondering what can be done to improve women's access to formal arenas of political power? How can we build democracies that are stable, lasting and representative? A careful analysis of the post-communist context can help us to address issues concerning institutional design and development that has relevance well beyond the Eastern European context.

Important new findings on sex and gender in the former Soviet Bloc! Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia is a groundbreaking look at the new sexual reality in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe after the fall of communism. The book presents the kind of candid discussion of sexual identities, sexual politics, and gender arrangements that was often censored and rarely discussed openly before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1987. Authors from a variety of disciplines examine how the changes caused by rapid economic and social transformation have affected human sexuality and if those changes can generate the social tolerance necessary to produce a well-rooted democracy. The first theoretical and empirical body of work to sexuality in (post)transitional countries, Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia examines the effects of the profound social transformation taking place in the former Soviet Union. Through an interdisciplinary perspective, the book addresses vital issues of this transformation, including gender relations, gender roles and sex norms in transition, sexual representations in the media, patterns of adult sexual behavior, gay and lesbian issues, sex trafficking, health risks, and sex education. The book also presents a critical examination of whether the fall of communism has, in fact, induced changes in sexuality and gender relations. Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia examines the changes in sex and gender in countries in transition, including: the negative consequences of Serbia’s “state-directed non-development” during the 1990s the causes and consequences of trafficking in women from the Russian Federation the ongoing debate over human rights for sexual minorities in Romania the effects of two Yugoslavian films released in the 1990s that feature transgender characters sexualities in transition in Croatia problems created by changes in sexual behavior among urban Russian adolescents the social and legal state of lesbians in Slovenia Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia fills in the gap in the current knowledge and understanding of the effects of the profound social changes taking place in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. The book is an essential read for academics and researchers working in gender studies, political science, and gay and lesbian studies. Handy tables and figures make the information easy to access and understand.

The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics is an authoritative overview that will help a wide readership develop an understanding of the region in all its political, economic, and social complexity. Including Central Europe, the Baltic republics, South Eastern Europe, and the Western Balkans, as well as all the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is unrivalled in breadth and depth, affording a comprehensive overview of Eastern European politics provided by leading experts in the fields of comparative politics, international relations, and public administration. Through a series of cutting-edge articles, it seeks to explain and understand patterns of Eastern European politics today. The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, researchers producing new material in the area, and those interested and working in the fields of East European Politics, Russian Politics, EU Politics, and more broadly in European Politics, Comparative Politics, Democratization Studies, and International Relations.

Eastern Europe addresses the emergence of uncertain pluralism in the region following the disintegration of the communist regimes in 1989. Taking a broad historical approach, the volume considers issues and challenges that have marked Eastern Europe from 1939 through World War II and the era of socialism, up to the present. Eight comprehensive country studies are augmented by detailed assessments of economic developments, security issues, religious currents, cultural policies, and gender relations in the region.

This is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and multilingual bibliography on "Women and Gender in East Central Europe and the Balkans (Vol. 1)" and "The Lands of the Former Soviet Union (Vol. 2)" over the past millennium. The coverage encompasses the relevant territories of the Russian, Hapsburg, and Ottoman empires, Germany and Greece, and the Jewish and Roma diasporas. Topics range from legal status and marital customs to economic participation and gender roles, plus unparalleled documentation of women writers and artists, and autobiographical works of all kinds. The volumes include approximately 30,000 bibliographic entries on works published through the end of 2000, as well as web sites and unpublished dissertations. Many of the individual entries are annotated with brief descriptions of major works and the tables of contents for collections and anthologies. The entries are cross-referenced and each volume includes indexes.

This book explores the politics of gender and democracy in post-communist Europe. Utilising the concept of political representation, the book scrutinises women’s legislative presence and highlights the opportunities and obstacles to parity democracy in this region of Europe. The book examines the link between women’s membership of national parliaments and the substantive representation of gender interests. It investigates the role of civil society, the state and the European Union in representing women’s interests and in promoting gender politics. The book provides an important and timely contribution to the classical political questions of who represents, what is represented, and how representation takes place. In adopting an integrated approach to political representation, the book extends current understanding of this fundamental concept. Using new research, it provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the interplay between emerging democracies and gender politics in post-communist Europe.

This collection highlights changes in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 from the perspectives of gender and identity. Resistance to the negative consequences of certain changes demonstrate that women's activities have played a large part in democratic developments in various countries.

A comprehensive analysis of the progress and problems of post-communist development attending to aspects of transition in the region as a whole and to specific issues in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. Goldman (political science, Northeastern U.) diagrams the commonalities of development and the diversity of the various countries' rejection of communism, setting forth the difficulties in moving from communist monolithic authoritarianism to pluralistic democracy, coping with threats to progress and stability, and the international implications of these transitions. Paper edition (758-5), $32.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR