Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship, and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovokia, 1918-1950 (Russian and East European Studies) - Hardcover

Feinberg, Melissa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 082294281X ISBN 13: 9780822942818

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006

Synopsis

When Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918, Czechs embraced democracy, which they saw as particularly suited to their national interests. Politicians enthusiastically supported a constitution that proclaimed all citizens, women as well as men, legally equal. But they soon found themselves split over how to implement this pledge. Some believed democracy required extensive egalitarian legislation. Others contended that any commitment to equality had to bow before other social interests, such as preserving the traditional family.

On the eve of World War II, Czech leaders jettisoned the young republic for an “authoritarian democracy” that firmly placed their nation, and not the individual citizen, at the center of politics. In 1948, they turned to a Communist-led “people's democracy,” which also devalued individual rights.

By examining specific policy issues, including marriage and family law, civil service regulations, citizenship law, and abortion statutes, Elusive Equality demonstrates the relationship between Czechs' ideas about gender roles and their attitudes toward democracy. Gradually, many Czechs became convinced that protecting a traditionally gendered family ideal was more important to their national survival than adhering to constitutionally prescribed standards of equal citizenship. Through extensive original research, Melissa Feinberg assembles a compelling account of how early Czech progress in women's rights, tied to democratic reforms, eventually lost momentum in the face of political transformations and the separation of state and domestic issues. Moreover, Feinberg presents a prism through which our understanding of twentieth-century democracy is deepened, and a cautionary tale for all those who want to make democratic governments work.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Melissa Feinberg cogently analyzes conflicts over the meaning of women's citizenship in Czechoslovakia, arguing that the issue of gender equality was central to Czech politics during the interwar period and immediately after. This well-researched volume fills a lacuna in the historiography of the country, indeed, of the region." --Nancy M. Wingfield, Northern Illinois University

"In rendering women's citizenship the test case for Czech democracy, Feinberg succeeds in gendering both Czech national history and the history of citizenship more broadly. Her arguments about Czech democracy offer compelling lessons for scholars of gender and citizenship in other republican or democratic settings." --Kathleen Canning, University of Michigan

"Elusive Equality successfully integrates fresh research with some of the most sophisticated current findings on gender history in modern Europe. Feinberg offers solid evidence for rethinking the place of gender in our concepts of democracy, and especially of citizenship. She brings to light entirely new aspects of the history of Czechoslovakia during the first half of the twentieth century." --Maria Bucur, Indiana University

About the Author:

Melissa Feinberg is assistant professor of history at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 082294281X
• ISBN 13: 9780822942818
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288