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Women in Eastern Europe
| Article
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19717 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1991 |
3,938 Words |
| Author
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Sharon Wolchik
Sharon Wolchik is presently director of the Russian and East
European Studies program and associate professor of political
science and international relations at George Washington
University. Her most recent book, Czechoslovakia: Politics,
Economics, and Society in the Transition to Post Communist
Rule, will be published in London by Pinter Publishers in
1991; it will be distributed in the United States by Columbia
University Press. |
When communist leaders came to power in Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War, they adopted constitutions that guaranteed women full equality in all areas of life. This commitment was also reflected in changes in the legal codes that prohibited discrimination against women. As a result of these changes, the legal status of women improved.
Women's lives were also influenced by other, higher priority policies of the elite. Among the most important of these were political changes and the new strategy of economic development that was adopted. In these areas, as in others, the new leaders in the region copied Soviet experience as much as possible.
Thus, women were encouraged to become aware of politics and to be active supporters of the new political order. In the early communist period, special efforts were made in many of these countries to mobilize women, who were perceived as politically backward, to join the national political community.
In the economic arena, Central and Eastern European leaders adopted Soviet practice as it existed at the time. Thus, they established centrally planned economies and took steps to eliminate most forms of private property. They also instituted economic strategies designed to industrialize their countries very rapidly. Since these countries had little access to external capital, the effort to recover from the damage of the war and further modernize was based on a labor-intensive plan. Women were the main labor reserve, and policies were therefore adopted to encourage women to enter paid employment outside the home. The new economic and political policies also required better educated labor forces.
As a result of these policies, women's situation and gender roles changed in a number of important ways. With the expansion of educational opportunities, women's educational levels increased. In the less developed countries, literacy campaigns succeeded in reducing the number of illiterate women. In all countries, women came to comprise a larger proportion of students in secondary and higher education. In some, such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the former German Democratic Republic, women's educational levels were higher than men's by the late communist period.
There were also important changes in women's participation in the labor force. As the result of economic policies and wage structures that made it very difficult for families to maintain an adequate standard of living without two
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