Reproducing Gender

by Gal, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780691048680
• ISBN10: 0691048681
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-08
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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 Zieliatilde;ska, Eva Maleck-Lewy, Myra Marx Ferree, Sharon Wolchik, Irene Douml;lling, Daphne Hahn, Sylka Scholz, Mira Marody, Anna Giza-Poleszczuk, Katalin Kovaacute;cs, Moacute;nika Vaacute;radi, Julia Szalai, Adriana Baban, MaIuml;gorzata Fuszara, Laura Grunberg, Zorica MrA>eviacirc;, Krassimira Daskalova, Joanna Goven, and Jasmina Lukiacirc;.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	3	(18)
Susan Gal
Gail Kligman
PART ONE: REPRODUCTION AS POLITICS	21	(128)
Between Ideology, Politics, and Common Sense: The Discourse of Reproductive Rights in Poland	23	(35)
Eleonora Zielinska
Reproductive Policies in the Czech and Slovak Republics	58	(34)
Sharon L. Wolchik
Talking about Women and Wombs: The Discourse of Abortion and Reproductive Rights in the G.D.R. during and after the Wende	92	(26)
Eva Maleck-Lewy
Myra Marx Ferree
Birth Strike in the New Federal States: Is Sterilization and Act of Resistance?	118	(31)
Irene Dolling
Daphne Hahn
Sylka Scholz
PART TWO: GENDER RELATIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE	149	(108)
Changing Images of Identity in Poland: From the Self-Sacrificing to the Self-Investing Woman?	151	(25)
Mira Marody
Anna Giza-Poleszczuk
Women's Life Trajectories and Class Formation in Hungary	176	(24)
Katalin Kovacs
Monika Varadi
From Informal Labor to Paid Occupations: Marketization from below in Hungarian Women's Work	200	(25)
Julia Szalai
Women's Sexuality and Reproductive Behavior in Post-Ceausescu Romania: A Psychological Approach	225	(32)
Adriana Baban
PART THREE: ARENAS OF POLITICAL ACTION: STRUGGLES FOR REPRESENTATION	257	(167)
New Gender Relations in Poland in the 1990s	259	(27)
Malgorzata Fuszara
New Parliament, Old Discourse? The Parental Leave Debate in Hungary	286	(21)
Joanna Goven
Women's NGOs in Romania	307	(30)
Laura Grunberg
Women's Problems, Women's Discourses in Bulgaria	337	(33)
Krassimira Daskalova
Belgrade's SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence: A Report	370	(23)
Zorica Mrsevic
Media Representations of Men and Women in Times of War and Crisis: The Case of Serbia	393	(31)
Jasmina Lukic
Conclusion	424	(3)
Susan Gal
Gail Kligman
Contributors	427	(2)
Index	429