Reproducing Gender

448 pages. Cover slightly worn 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 transformation s. The fourteen studies in this volume result from a comparative, collaborative research project on the complex relationship between ideas and practices of gend er, and political economic change. The book presents detailed evidence about wom en's and men's new circumstances in eight of the former communist countries, exp loring the intersection of politics and the life cycle, the differential effects of economic restructuring, and women's public and political participation. Indi vidual contributions on the former German Democratic Republic, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria provide rich empiric al data and interpretive insights on postsocialist transformation analyzed from a gendered perspective. Drawing on multiple methods and disciplines, these origi nal papers advance scholarship in several fields, including anthropology, sociol ogy, women's studies, law, comparative political science, and regional studies. The analyses make clear that practices of gender, and ideas about the difference s between men and women, have been crucial in shaping the broad social changes t hat have followed the collapse of communism.In addition to the editors, t he contributors are Eleonora Zieliãska, Eva Maleck-Lewy, Myra Marx Ferree, Shar on Wolchik, Irene Dölling, Daphne Hahn, Sylka Scholz, Mira Marody, Anna Giza-Po leszczuk, Katalin Kovács, Mónika Váradi, Julia Szalai, Adriana Baban, MaÏgor zata Fuszara, Laura Grunberg, Zorica Mrseviâ, Krassimira Daskalova, Joanna Gove.…