The Czech Republic,

Poland, Slovakia

2009

and Ukraine

Issues

Gender

Gender Issues 2009:

Gender Equality

Discourse in Times

of Transformation,

1989-2009

Foundation

Böll

Heinrich Böll Foundation

Regional Office Warsaw

ul. Żurawia 45, 00-680 Warsaw, Poland

phone: + 48 22 59 42 333, e-mail: hbs@boell.pl

Heinrich

The Czech Republic,

Poland, Slovakia

and Ukraine

Gender Issues 2009:

Gender Equality

Discourse in Times

of Transformation,

1989-2009

The publication was elaborated within the Framework

of the Regional Programme „Gender Democracy and Women’s Politics”

Translation: Kateřina Kastnerová, Natalia Kertyczak,

Katarzyna Nowakowska, Eva Riečanská

Editing: Justyna Włodarczyk

Project coordinator: Agnieszka Grzybek

Graphic design: Studio 27

Published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Regional Office Warsaw.

Printed in Warsaw, November 2009.

This project has been supported by the European Union: Financing of organizations

that are active on the European level for an active European society.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors alone.

They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

ISBN: 978-83-61340-48-5

Copyright by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Regional Office Warsaw.

All rights reserved.

This publication can be ordered at:

Heinrich Böll Foundation Regional Office Warsaw,

ul. Żurawia 45,

00-680 Warsaw, Poland

phone: + 48 22 59 42 333

e-mail: hbs@boell.pl

www.boell.pl

conTEnTs

Agnieszka Rochon, Agnieszka Grzybek

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Nina Bosničová, Kristýna Ciprová,

Alexandra Jachanová-Doleželová,

Kateřina Machovcová, Linda Sokačová

Gender changes in the

czech Republic after 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Anna Czerwińska

Poland: 20 years – 20 changes . . . . . . . . 47

Jana Cviková, Jana Juráňová

Feminisms for Beginners.

Aspects of the origins of

Gender Discourse in slovakia . . . . . . . . . 79

Oksana Kisselyova, Natalia Moussienko

Five Years after the orange

Revolution: a Gender Analysis . . . . . . . 129

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

www.boell.pl

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

In TImEs oF TRAnsFoRmATIon, 1989-2009

4

InTRoDucTIon

Introduction

www.boell.pl

5

GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

In TImEs oF TRAnsFoRmATIon, 1989-2009

The year 2009, which is drawing to an end, brought about many recaps and ana-

lyses as we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of democratic changes in the old

Eastern Bloc. Despite many new studies dealing with the successes and failures of

the transformation, an evaluation of the past two decades from the perspective of

gender equality was stil missing. Looking at the changes initiated in 1989, such as

the introduction of market economy and the adoption of neoliberal ideology as

the foundation of the new political, economic and social system, it is important to

see how they influenced the situation of men and women.

The publication Gender Issues 2009: Gender Equality Discourse in Times of Trans-

formation, 1989-2009: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine is yet another

initiative1 of the Heinrich Böl Foundation regional Office in Warsaw trying to fil this gap

and, at the same time, it is also the result of the Foundation’s cooperation with part-

ner organisations from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine, which, since

2007, have been monitoring the progress of the implementation of gender equa lity

politics and adherence to EU standards in this field. The country reports for 2009, com-

piled in this publication and prepared by ASPEKT from Bratislava, Gender Studies from

Prague, Feminoteka Foundation from Warsaw and Liberal Society Institute from Kiev,

are concerned with the changes which took place in the past twenty years in the disco-

urse of gender equality and women’s rights. Other areas analysed in the reports include

women’s political participation, economic situation, violence against women, reproducti-

ve and sexual rights, including the rights of sexual minorities. The authors focused mostly

on events which they consider to be the milestones of changes; which influenced the

situation of women, the language of the debate, the perception of women’s rights and

their place in social, political, economic and private life.

1 In 2009 the Heinirich Böl Foundation Regional Office in Warsaw published a book

titled Women in Times of Change, 1989: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany

and Ukraine, containing essays by female journalists, writers, academics and activists of

feminist and women’s organisations. The publication presents their personal views of the

past two decades in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany and Ukraine.

The publication is available at the Foundation’s website: WWW.boell.pl

6

InTRoDucTIon

Evaluating the facts is cause for reflection. For women in the region

the freedom regained in 1989 was connected – paradoxically – to restricting

their economic, social and reproductive rights and marginalisation in the political

sphere. Even though women constituted the majority in the structures of the

democratic opposition in Poland and former Czechoslovakia; even though they

carried out many responsible tasks and, just like men, risked their freedom,

professional careers and family life, after 1989 they did not find themselves

within power structures and had a negligible influence on the decisions made

in the following years. Compared to the political representation of women

before 1989, the numbers of women in parliament decreased dramatically in

the new political reality. During the past twenty years very few women have

been members of governments. This phenomenon occurs practically in all the

countries. It is pointed out by Olga Krzyżanowska, the first female deputy speaker of the Polish Sejm; Jiřina Šilková, signatory of Charter 77 and wellknown Czech sociologist as well as by Jana Cviková and Jana Juráňová, the founders of

ASPEKT, the first feminist organisation in Slovakia. Although the transformation

process took a different course in Ukraine, it is significant that after the elections

in 2007, which resulted in the parliament achieving real power in the Ukrainian

Verkhovna Rada, only 7.6% of the deputies are female.

The worsening of the material status of women, connected to, among

other factors, the rise of unemployment among women, the gender wage gap

and horizontal and vertical segragation of the labour market on the basis of sex

can be seen in all the countries of the region. The feminisation of poverty has

also increased. Every third woman in Ukraine receives wages bordering on

the absolute biological minimum. In 2008, in Poland 64% of all unemployed

persons were female and 21% of the society was living below the minimum

subsistence level. Such data prove that the reality is different than the slogans

pronounced by supporters of neoliberal free market economy, according to

which women have possibillities for development and simply need to learn

how to take advantage of them.

www.boell.pl

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

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The Fourth UN Conference on Women, which took place in 1995 in Be-

ijing, played a key role for many gender equality initiatives. The Platform for Action

adopted during the conference was an impulse for governments who signed the

final document of the conference to undertake – more or less willingly – activities

leading to overcoming the discrimination of women. As the authors of the Ukrainian

report write, one of the ef ects was the creation of institutional mechanisms for

gender equality and then, in consequence, the adoption of pertinent legislation – for

example on preventing domestic violence in 2000 and the law on equal rights and

opportunities of men and women in 2005 as well as national action plans.

In addition to the Beijing conference, the process of European integration

was a significant impulse for the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. It forced EU

candidate countries to make national legislation conform to the standards of the

European Union, also in the sphere of gender equality politics. Even though the

realisation of any international committments depends, to a large extent, on the

political will of subsequent governments – and in Ukraine, additionally, on the ra-

ther unstable political situation – women’s organisations have stil gained concrete

tools in their struggle for the realisation of their demands.

The analyses prepared by authors from the Czech Republic, Poland,

Slovakia and Ukraine also refer to the history, transformation and significance

of the women’s movement in CentralEastern Europe after 1989. The deve-

lopment of the women’s movement in all the countries was aided by Western

feminist and women’s rights organisations – from the USA, Germany, Canada

and other countries – which actively supported democratic changes from the

beginning of this period. Additionally, the beginnings of the women’s movement

in Poland stand out in a special way. One of the most important impulses for

women speaking up on behalf of women was the draft law restricting abortion,

submitted in the Polish Sejm in the early 1990s. For most feminist activists re-

strictions on terminating pregnancies were the starting point of their activity.

The authors of al the reports agree that a significant change has taken place in

social consciousness in the past years. Antifeminist discourse, typical of the 1990s, has

8

InTRoDucTIon

subsided and the society increasingly understands the need to prevent discrimination

on the basis of sex and to improve the situation of women. This change is particularly

wel visible in the Czech Republic. Whereas the equality of men and women did not

use to be an interesting topic for public opinion and the media, for more or less five

years, that is since the Czech Republic’s entry into the EU, non-governmental women’s

rights organisations have begun to encounter social support. Businesses are also much

more eager to take part in equal opportunities programmes.

The authors of all the reports unanimously claim that one of the successes

of the past two decades has been the change which took place in the language of

public debate – though, of course, to various degrees. The activities of women’s or-

ganisations have played a key role in publicising topics connected to gender inequality

in the public and private spheres, for example discrimination of women in the labour

market, women’s unpaid work and women’s low participation in politics and public

debate. Women’s organisations have gradually managed to introduce taboo and con-

troversial themes into public discourse. These include violence against women, sexual

and reproductive rights, forced prostitution, sexual harrasment and molestation, and

sexism in advertising and in the media. These problems had been present in social and

political reality before 1989. However, there was no language available to talk about

them. After “normalcy” was reinstated, the façade of “socialist emancipation” peeled

off to reveal that in spite of apparent equality, the power relations between the sexes

had not changed and – preserved by the system of real socialism – revived with huge

force after 1989. They became visible because women started talking about them.

Agnieszka Rochon

Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation

Regional Office in Warsaw

Agnieszka Grzybek

Coordinator of the Regional Programme

“Gender Democracy and Women’s Politics”

Warsaw, November 2009

www.boell.pl

9

10

Gender changes

in the czech Republic

after 1989

Nina Bosničová,

Kristýna Ciprová,

Alexandra Jachanová-Doleželová,

Kateřina Machovcová,

Linda Sokačová

www.boell.pl

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

In TImEs oF TRAnsFoRmATIon, 1989-2009

1. Introduction

Much has changed for Czech women and men after 1989, both in a positive as wel as

a negative sense. Many new phenomena appeared, such as unemployment, and much

of the early nineties took place in the name of new movements and groups; new envi-

ronmental, civil rights, women or gender or feministoriented NGOs were founded.

Sometimes they were founded by former women dissidents who were well-known for

their work in the political underground, or by women who had encountered feminism

and the women’s rights movement abroad while they lived in exile.

Many foreigners who came to the Czech Republic in this era, often Ameri-

can women, provided valuable momentum for the emerging women’s and gender

movements and thus exerted great influence upon what was happening despite

resistance on the part of Czech women activists and academics who often criticised

the “militant” style of these activists from abroad. The inability to “listen and learn”

from each other seems to be a misunderstanding typical of the 1990s. It must be

acknowledged, too, that many of these gender activists assumed the superior role of

a mentor in their engagements with Eastern and Central Europe. Jana Hradilková, a

representative of the Czech women’s movement, made the fol owing comment at

the time: “Western feminism imitates the eagerness of the maledominated system

to equal the other half of humankind. Czech feminism seeks to avoid this pitfall.”

In retrospect, however, the movers and shakers of Czech gender studies

today view the historical influence of foreign feminists as positive. “Impulses were

coming from abroad and that was an important change,” said Petra Štogrová Jedli-

čková of the Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship at the Charles Univer-

sity at a 2009 roundtable, 1 and added: “We had Canadian, American, and German

1 Transcript of a roundtable discussion with key activists, academics and writers moving the fields of gender, feminism and equal opportunities forward in the Czech Republic. The

discussion took place on May 26, 2009 in NGO Gender Studies and was attended by

Marie Čermáková, Pavla Frýdlová, Hana Havelková, Pavla Jonssonová, Alena Křížková,

Petra Štogrová Jedličková, Jiřina Šiklová, Marie Vavroňová a Alena Wagnerová.

12

NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová

women coming here.” An expert from the Department of Gender Studies and the

Charles University Faculty of Humanities agreed on their positive contributions.

Foreign influence was of critical importance to the Czech Republic also

because the first financial support for women’s NGOs came from Germany

and the United States. NGOs were very diverse in their foci in the 1990s

and experienced few restrictions in terms of grant criteria or donor projects.

Thanks to the long term support of the Heinrich-Boll Stiftung the Gender Stu-

dies NGO, for instance, has been able to work toward a broad range of goals

and to address timely issues as they arose in the Czech society; the organisation

has not been forced to adjust its programmes to fit the narrowly defined criteria

of grant competitions.

On the other hand, there was a strong rejection of feminism in the society

in the 1990s, owing partly to celebrities reporting on the negative ef ects of the

feminist movement and on socalled feminist hysteria. Josef Škvorecký, a Czech

writer of great moral authority spoke about the dangers of American feminism,

for example. Another important reason for popular resistance to feminism was a

general opposition to anything that used to be commonplace in the era of socia-

lism. Everything that worked in the socialist system was automatical y dismissed

after the revolution. Politicians, such as Marián Čalfa, encouraged women to re-

turn to the household, which was viewed as exactly what women wanted. “The

call for the return of women to the home was presented as progress even though

it really meant a big step back to conservatism,” said Alena Wagnerová, 2 a writer

and publicist who has been living in Germany since the 1980s.

Unfortunately, this sweeping renunciation of everything socialist negati-

vely affected kindergartens and nurseries. The high levels of women’s partici-

pation in technical and construction professions as well as the high numbers of

women in employment in general were also subject to strong criticism. Today,

2 Quote from a roundtable discussion held on May 26, 2009 in NGO Gender Studies

(same as 1)

www.boell.pl

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

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upon reflection, we see this as shortsighted, although a deeper critical analysis

and evaluation of the position of women and men before 1989 is yet to be

made. Alena Wagnerová, made an interesting comment when she wrote that

she had felt freer as a citizen in Germany than in socialist Czechoslovakia but as

a woman, her position had deteriorated.

1.1. Radical gender change

Gender relations changed dramatically in the Czech (-oslovak) society after

1989. The new political system, capitalist economy, and European trends and

values all played a role in the changing of men’s and women’s social roles, be-

sides the impact of awareness-raising, educational and political activities of the

NGO sector aimed at promoting equal opportunities and gender issues.

Similarly to other European countries, statistical inequalities between

men and women have now been recorded in the Czech Republic: greater

unemployment among women in comparison with men, a gap in women’s and

men’s pay, a growing segregation of the job market and the increasingly less se-

cure work opportunities for women (especially for migrant and ethnic minority

women). Socialist heritage in the form of the double shift for women (consisting

of women working full-time and also being responsible for looking after the

family and the household) has also had an undermining effect. Although the

socialist regime had significantly improved the position of women at the job

market and developed a system of childcare institutions, it paid little attention to

transforming gender stereotypes. Women continued to carry the main burden

of care for their families and households. Socialism had eliminated formal rather

than practical inequalities among women and men.

Recently, however, public opinion on the position of women and men

has been changing. Five years ago, people as well as the media tended to dismiss

gender equality. Today, many NGOs addressing discrimination and promoting

equal opportunities for women and men meet with interest and support of

14

NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová

the public. The attitudes of employers have also changed. Around the year

2000, companies simply refused to participate in equal opportunity program-

mes. Today, some are interested in implementing them and others are at least

careful and do not explicitly refuse. Equal opportunities have become an intergenerational issue of interest even for young people of both sexes, although women and girls are often more interested as they experience gender-based

discrimination more often than men.

1.2. A conservative turn?

Some opinion pol s indicate that Czechs would like too see women going “back”

to the household, it is not clear how many people real y consider this option. In

the Czech society, conservative opinions are confronted with the wel -established

model of two-career partnerships and the model of an active, emancipated wo-

man who prioritises her role as a mother during the first three years of a child’s

life. This constel ation determines the social position of men as fathers: men are

under pressure as breadwinners to work extremely hard when their children are

little and they are discriminated against as fathers after divorce.

All these attitudes may be a reaction to the great liberalisation and diver-

sification of the woman’s role in the society. Women’s participation in the labor

force, sports, or leisure activities has been growing as fast as women’s financial

independence. The man’s role has been transforming as wel although that seems

to be happening more slowly and more quietly. This could be the reason why

anti-feminist and even anti-women voices are cropping up, going as far as Milan

Kubek, the President of the Czech Medical Chamber, for example. Kubek proc-

laimed the feminisation of medical professions as harmful for the health industry,

prompting gender experts to observe a certain turn to conservatism in the

contemporary Czech society. As equal opportunities are enjoying more public

support as a result of effective awareness-raising of gender-oriented NGOs,

conservative political opposition has strengthened. In spite of these forces, wo-

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

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men’s active role in the society and in the job market is deeply rooted here and

wellrespected.

The following articles outline the transformations and develop-

ments in the fields of gender, feminism, and equal opportunities between

1989 and 2009. They are published as a col ection by NGO Gender

Studies3 with the support of HeinrichBöl Foundation. The authors discuss

the most important gender issues in the Czech context, such as equal

opportunities for women and men in the job market, violence against

women, women’s participation in politics, the position of the LGBT com-

munity, reproductive rights, and the work of non-profit organisations and

informal gender initiatives. Although each author approaches the topic in

her own style, all contributions include the following elements: the institu-

tional framework for each issue, the dif erences in the way it is perceived

by decision-makers, gender experts and the public, and the effect of me-

dia. Each article ends with recommendations for NGOs and other equal

opportunity professionals.

2. Gendered job market

– discourse shifts

This article describes the development of discourse in relation to the gen-

der dimension of the Czech job market between 1989 and 2009. The

first part looks at academic discourse used by two prestigious research

institutions: the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Science

and the Research Institute of Labour and Social Affairs. The second part

fol ows the development of discourse on gender in the job market in the

Czech media. The goal of this article is to elaborate on the topics that

3 Edited by Linda Sokačová of NGO Gender Studies.

16

NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová

received the most attention: discrimination, balancing work and family life,

and sexual harassment. The analysis focuses also on the most significant

changes in these areas.

The main source of data we selected for our analysis was research

by the Department of “Gender & Sociology” of the Institute of Sociology

at the Czech Academy of Science, which is published through several

outlets: the Journal of Sociology, Gender, Equal Opportunities, and Rese-

arch (published since 2000), and the website http://www.genderonline.

cz. We have also used research reports by the Research Institute of La-

bour and Social Af airs (VÚPSV), particularly its studies on women and

management. Our choice of sources was based on the reputation both

abovementioned institutions enjoy. Considered the ultimate experts on

the academic understanding of the gender dimensions of the job market

by the media and the general public, their research is wel -respected,

followed and published.

One of our main conclusions about academic discourse in the last

20 years is that the research carried out in the 1990s focused on comparing

the pre and post1989 periods and on describing the specific features of

the Czech context while later research is largely determined by the entry

of the Czech Republic into the European Union and the legislative changes

that accompanied it. Texts published in the 1990s, often authored by Marie

Čermáková, already outlined al the gender problems academics have been

focusing on to this date: horizontal and vertical gender segregation of the job

market, feminisation of some professions (and one-sidedly viewing gender in

isolation), the gender pay gap, gender gaps in access to education, work and

career, etc. More recent studies have looked at these same issues at greater

depth, particularly at family and work balance, women in business and ma-

nagement, and sexual harassment. We also noticed an interesting dif erence

in the role of intertextuality played in the two time periods. In academic

discourse in the 1990s, Čermáková usual y referres to domestic research by

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

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Havelková, Hradecká, Navarová, Tesařová, Možný, and other researchers,

while her younger col eagues typical y “rely” on research from abroad by

frequently referring to research published in English or French.

3. Domestic violence in the context

of violence against women

Domestic violence, and particularly its negative impacts on women and chil-

dren, has received a lot of attention in the last 20 years. The results of a 2003

study by the Czech Academy of Science showed an alarming state of af airs:

59% women respondents had experienced violence at least once in their life

and 38% respondents had experienced violence from their partner. 4

The fact that domestic violence was ignored in the socialist era

made it very difficult to raise awareness about it after 1989, as the expe-

rience of specialists working on the issue has shown. In 1993, Marie Va-

vroňová and Zdena Prokopová first founded a group cal ed Club ROSA

for single women after divorce. Soon they observed that “rather than

from loneliness or problems related to child-raising, the club members

suf ered from violence they had experienced either during their [marital]

relationship or in the course of and after divorce.” 5 There was little in-

formation available on the specifics of domestic violence at the time, or

about how to work with victims, witnesses or perpetrators. ROSA was

among the first organisations fighting domestic violence. The others were

proFem, Bílý kruh Bezpečí (White Circle of Safety) and Poradna pro ženy

4 S. Pikálková, „Comments on selected results of international research on violence against women in the Czech Republic“, [ in:] Gender – Equal Opportunities – gender, 2 – 3, The

Institute of Sociology, Praha 2004, p. 22 – 24.

5 „15 years of Helping Women Victims of Domestic Violence“ , ROSA, Praha 2008.

18

NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová

v tísni (Counsel ing Centre for Women in Crisis). Al the groups sought

professional information from abroad, as they were addressing the de-

spair of the victims on the one hand, and fighting people’s distrust and

ridicule on the other. Not only were there practical y no ef ective tools in

place but the Czech society, recovering from 40 years of heavy-handed

government encroaching upon people’s private and intimate lives, was

not ready to seek solutions to social problems that might possibly regulate

private lives again.

An essay by a wel known writer Josef Škvorecký also had a lasting

impact on the social climate in the 1990s. In this essay, the author ri-

diculed American feminists and coined the derogatory term “sexuální

harašení” as the Czech equivalent of “sexual harassment.” By translating

“sexual harassment” into a catchy phrase “haraší ti na věži?” (a metaphor

for “you must be going crazy” or “you are making up stories”), Škvo-

recký intentional y ridiculed the meaning of the term and implied that

the sanity of the victim ought to be questioned. 6 In this way, Škvorecký

strengthened popular prejudice that feminist initiatives had to overcome

in the 1990s as they strove to establish domestic violence and sexual

harassment as legitimate public concerns. And even though feminist gro-

ups played a crucial role in changing the image of domestic violence and

finding ways to address it, they never managed to establish violence as

a feminist issue. To date, domestic violence is understood as a conflict

between two people, which not only limits the possibilities of personal

intervention, but also precludes institutional preventive solutions. De-

spite continuous efforts to downplay the seriousness of violence, data

collected by the Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund in 2008 however, indica-

ted that 85% of Czechs do believe that violence is typical y perpetrated

by men upon women, and that violence against women in the Czech

6 M. MarksováTominová, http://www.genderstudies.cz/tiskovezpravy/tz.shtml?x=220540

www.boell.pl

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GEnDER IssuEs 2009: GEnDER EquAlITY DIscouRsE

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Republic is a real problem. 7 In addition, the slowly developing legislative

measures toward greater victim protection demonstrate that there is a

growing understanding of the issue and a willingness to address it.

3.1. Successful lobbying initiatives

When the Czech Republic entered a new era of democracy in 1989, its legal

system had no definition of domestic violence. Attorneys and advocates who

strove to help violence victims listed all the specofic crimes committed in ca-

ses of domestic violence (abuse, intentional assault) to bring the perpetrators

to justice. Activists also had to repeatedly highlight the problems arising from

the legal duty to obtain the victim’s permission to prosecute a family mem-

ber in a criminal lawsuit, 8 as many women are threatened into withdrawing

their permission. This roadblock disappeared in 2004 with the introduction

of § 215a, Act 91 of 2004 that defined „abuse of a person living in a shared

household (apartment or house)“ as a new crime that had not been included

in §163 (Criminal Prosecution with Victim‘s Permission) in the Rules of Crimi-

nal Procedure (Act 141 of 1961).

The next major milestone in increasing victim protection came in

2006 when the option of a temporary restraining order was codified (and

passed in 2007). This new development was paralleled by the establish-

ment of County Crisis Intervention Centers funded by the Ministry of Labor

and Social Af airs, which of er counsel ing as wel as shelter services and

employ social workers. Unfortunately, the accessibility and capacity of the

centres remains insufficient.

7 SlovakCzech Women’s Fund: http://www.womensfund.sk/blade/c/418/przkumovni-

maninasilinazenachvcechachanamorave.html, http://www.feminismus.cz/fulltext.

shtml?x=2103958

8 A. Rezková, „Domácí násilí z pohledu českého práva“, [in :] Ženská práva jsou lidská práva, ed. J. Tesařová, K. Lišková, Nesehnutí, Brno 2002.

20

NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová

Finally, the next breakthrough in improving victim protection is ho-

pefully coming with the new Criminal Code in 2010. This law will replace

the 40yearold Criminal Code currently in effect. The Code is now going

to include the crime of „stalking“, which means incessant tracking of a

victim either in person or via communication devices such as telephone,

email or others.

4. Public attitudes are changing,

reality is not: initiatives for

increased representation of

women in politics 1989 – 2009)

The political participation and representation of women forms a cornersto-

ne of the gender equality agenda as equal representation of women and

men is considered to be a precondition and an expression of well-functio-

ning democracy. Despite the fact that opportunities for political participation

are equal de jure, women struggle with discrimination more in the field of

politics than in other areas of social life. Opportunities for women in politics

are not equal de facto.

The representation of women in politics in the Czech Republic is low.

In its comments on the Czech Republic‘s 2006 report on CEDAW (Conven-

tion on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), the United Nations

criticised the low number of women in managerial positions. 9 “The Committee reiterates its concern about the continuing underrepresentation of women in Parliament and Government, including in standing commissions and ad hoc

committees, at the international level and in the private sector. The Commi

9 U.N. response to the 3rd periodic report of the Czech Republic on compliance with the

Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

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ttee10 is also concerned about an apparent reluctance within Government mi-

nistries to apply temporary special measures in accordance with the article 4,

paragraph 1, of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation

25 on temporary special measures. It is also concerned about the suspension of

the adoption of the draft election bill that envisaged at least 30 percent repre-

sentation of either sex.” 11

The country’s entry into the European Union, and the accession pro-

cess itself, marked a breakthrough in regards to women’s participation in poli-

tics and the position of women and men in the society in general. The media

and the public started taking the issue of underrepresentation of women in

public life more seriously, and in the last few years, after the office of the

Minister for Human Rights and Minorities was established, women’s political

participation has been receiving a lot of attention. The current Minister Ko-

cáb and his predecessor Stehlíková have been putting the issue at the top of

the gender equality agenda. With the exception of violence against women,

also highlighted by Stehlíková, women’s participation in public life has pushed

other “gender” issues to the side.

Strategies to increase the number of women in politics include legi-

slative measures, internal party regulations, training for women politicians,

information campaigns, women‘s political fractions, networking, working

together across political parties, programmes to support politicians‘ work

and family balance, or initiatives to combat gender stereotypes. In the public

debate the question of whether quota ought to be mandated by law has

been a major one. There are two types of quota systems: quota required

by law, with sanctions for failing to meet them, and informal quota that par-

ties volunteer to fol ow in the process of composing their candidate listings.

10 U.N. Commission on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

11 Concluding comments of the U.N. CEDAW Committee on the 3rd period report of the

Czech Republic in 2006.

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The latter one is considered to be the most effective. 12 Currently, the only

party in the Czech Parliament that uses a quota system is the Green Party.

In both public and internal elections, the party ensures women assume one

third of all positions. The Green Party’s bylaws also use genderneutral

language for its quota system by saying that for each three candidates, there

must be one person of the opposite sex. The Czech Communist Party has

adopted a principle that demands including at least one woman in the first

five top candidates. The Czech Social Democratic Party requires internal

party organs to reserve one quarter of all the seats for women, although

female party members do not seem to find this regulation helpful. Feminist

researcher Hana Havelková says that the quota system used by Social De-

mocrats represents the maximum, not the minimum level of representa-

tion. It pitches women against each other in their fight for the one deputy

seat assigned to women, rather than encouraging them to compete for all

the party posts with all the party candidates. 13

Drafts of the affirmative action law have been proposed both by the

Government Council for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and by

the Commission on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women under the

Government Council for Human Rights. So far, all of them have been rejected.

However, the Ministry of Interior has been assigned with drafting an election

law by the end of 2009, which should ensure a 30% representation of each sex

on the candidate listings in elections for the Parliament House of Representati-

ves, County Council and the Prague Municipal Council.

The issues of women‘s representation and participation in politics have

been pushed mainly by NGOs since the early 1990s. NGO representatives

12 P. Rakušanová, Česká politika: Ženy v labyrintu mužů? NGO Fórum 50 %, Praha 2006.

13 H. Havelková, „Jako v loterii: politická reprezentace žen v ČR po roce 1989“, [In:]

Mnohohlasem: Vyjednávání ženských prostorů po roce 1989, ed. H. Hašková, A. Křížková,

M. Linková, Institute of Sociology, Praha 2006, p. 25 – 42.

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have also played an active role in commissions and bodies proposing legislative

changes. NGO groups regularly meet with politicians and other public officials

to discuss gender equality issues (violence against women, family-friendly po-

licies, anti-discrimination legislation) and systematically work with the media to

raise their visibility.

Still, we also need to keep in mind that higher numbers of women po-

liticians do not necessarily yield political support for equal opportunity policies.

In the last 20 years of democracy we have met many women who were not

interested in equality and whose actions have undermined the idea. On the

other hand, we have met men who have made gender equality their issue.

We have learnt that it is important to work with people who believe in equal

opportunities regardless of whether they are women or men.

Public opinion polls indicate that voters are interested in seeing more

women in politics but political parties seem to pay little heed. In conclusion, we

can say that even though the attitudes of the media and the public have been

changing, the real number of women involved in politics has not increased.

5. changing position of the lGBT

community

This section outlines the historical changes in the position of LGBT persons

in the Czech society since 1989 and their media representation in respect to

the development of legislation on samesex partnerships. It examines three

LGBT shows on Czech national TV: Žijeme mezi vámi ale…, (We live among

you, but...), LeGaTo and Q. These programmes have been the only compre-

hensive programmes on LGBT issues for both LGBT and mainstream audien-

ces to date and this comprehensiveness in respect to audience and content

determined our selection. The analysis is based on the assumption that media

discourse and social discourse on LGBT persons are intertwined, and that

24

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the discourse in the media reflects and actively shapes the real position of the

LGBT community in the Czech society. In the study, I examine three specific

time periods: a period shortly after 1989, next the year 1997 when the law

on samesex partnerships was first proposed, and final y the time period after

2006 when it was passed.

The article shows that since 1989 the LGBT community has gone

through a tremendous change of media representation, which was certa-

inly aided by the spread of the internet and the establishment of gender

studies. The antidiscrimination law and the law on registered partnerships

have been passed and the LGBT community has become a lot more selfconfident. What is yet to be addressed, for example, are parenting rights.

The issue of parenting continues to stir controversy even though the LGBT

community is enjoying growing tolerance. Paradoxically, according to the

current law on adoption, a registered LGBT couple is in a worse legal posi-

tion than it is as two single people wishing to adopt a child. The discussion

of homoparentality (parenthood of a homosexual couple) is stil taking place

only on the margins of public debate and closer analysis reveals the roles

dif erent stereotypes play in it.

As far as the representation of the LGBT community to the majority

of the population is concerned, we are stil lacking people wil ing to share

their daily lives or to be the media face of LGBT. Homosexuality continues to

dominate the debate on socalled LGBT issues. Bisexual or transgender per-

sons receive only marginal attention and bi-sexuality struggles for credibility

both among the heterosexual majority and within the LGBT community.

Not only bisexuality is being challenged. The LGBT community is

perceived as fragmented and dysfunctional by its members themselves. Pe-

ople who see it as a real entity typical y refer to its virtual form. Many LGBT

persons do not think political LGBT activism is necessary in the Czech Repu-

blic. However, the question of what ful life real y means and to what extent

LGBT people adopt the view of the majority begs further examination. It is

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not enough to have freedom of choice, tolerance and protective legislation

(stil insufficient); it is essential to realise where our ideas of what is acceptable

originate. Our sexuality is grounded in a specific model of society – and the

LGBT community might consider taking the next logical step and analysing

this model more deeply.

6. Abortion in czech society:

pro-life and pro-choice movements

Abortion became politicised in Central and Eastern Europe after the

collapse of the socialist governments. 14 Gender role equality was cal-

led into question as a reminder of socialism and some countries began

defining women primarily as mothers and cal ing on them to become

fulltime homemakers. In the Czech Republic, abortion became a con-

troversial issue at the end of the 1990s. Two hardline approaches came

into conflict: the prolife and prochoice movements.

In brief, the pro-life movement opposes abortion under any cir-

cumstance and demands that it is made illegal. Their approach is ethical-

ly grounded in viewing abortion as murder. The movement typical y has

international ties to the Catholic church or Catholic groups. 15

The pro-choice movement advocates for the woman’s right

to abortion. The belief that a woman should have the right to make

autonomous decisions about her life and body underlies the pro-

choice approach. The term reproductive rights is central in its disco-

14 Wall et al. 1999; 443, Kulczycki 1999.

15 There is no monolithic unity of opinion on abortion within the Catholic church either.

Catholics for a Free Choice, for example, is an NGO that advocates for free choice,

reproductive rights and gender equality.

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urse. The movement is usually associated with feminist and women’s

rights movements.

6.1. Efforts to change legislation

Due to the long established tradition of legal abortion in the Czech Re-

public, people believe that women should “natural y” have the right to

decide whether to have a child or not. Despite this widespread opinion,

pressures to change the existing legislation occurred in the society after

the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Proposals to amend the existing regula-

tions to prohibit abortion or limit its availability have been coming from

prolife NGOs and the Christian Democratic Party (KDU – ČSL ) and its

representatives.

In 2001, the al iance of pro-life groups and politicians celebrated

its first victory in their effort to restrict abortion. The ProLife Move-

ment NGO of the Czech Republic (HPŽ) successful y influenced the

language in the final version of the new law on funeral services enacted

in the spring of 2001. The law states that: “...the mortal remains that

must be buried include a dead body, its parts, or a fetus after abortion.”

However, the law was amended later that year and its new version no

longer included this caveat.

The next piece of abortion legislation brought up by the pro-life

movement concerned the legal prohibition of abortion and it was di-

scussed by the Parliament in the first quarter of 2004. It was proposed

by a coalition of MPs led by the conservative politician J. Karas. The law

proposed the prosecution of doctors who would carry out abortion

with five years of imprisonment, and possibly with a suspension of their

license. The law was also to prosecute a person who would incite or

aid a woman in abortion. The House of Representatives rejected the

proposal on March 30, 2004. The last time the Christian Democrats

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took on the issue of abortion was in the context of health care reforms

by the then Minister of Health Tomáš Julínek (Social Democrats / ODS)

in the spring of 2008. Specifical y, they raised objections against the Law

on Health Care Services that proposed to make abortion available to

foreigners who do not permanently reside in the Czech Republic.

6.2. Is Czech society liberal? Is it going to stay liberal?

Pro-choice discourse is currently the mainstream discourse while pro-life discour-

se remains marginal, despite its smal successes. Historical and social forces (legal

and health care systems, public debate, religion) have led the Czech society to

view abortion as a “natural” part of life and as a woman’s rightful decision.

Efforts to undermine this common belief began after 1989 and gained momen-

tum at the end of the 1990s. The first and foremost actor in the abortion debate was and

is the pro-life movement that advocates the concept of protecting life from the moment

of conception until natural death in the areas of political, media and public discourse. The

expression of this belief on the practical level is the prohibition of abortion. By defining

and presenting issues for discussion, the pro-life movement controls the abortion debate

in the Czech Republic. The prochoice movement has evolved in reaction to the achie-

vements of the prolife movement. Its main goals are to maintain the existing legislation

on abortion and to protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her life and body.

Despite their lack of success in lobbying, the pro-life movement has done well

in spreading its ideas among the public, in the media and in politics. Abortion is no longer

taken for granted. Nowadays, abortion means more than one thing. To some it means

murder and to others it symbolises free choice. And even though the prochoice move-

ment is currently stronger as far as mobilising its supporters and keeping legislation intact,

its awarenessraising among the public and the elites lags behind the prolife movement.

Today we live in a society where pro-choice discourse is mainstream, but as social dialo-

gue continues and different viewpoints compete for the limelight and along with shifting

social conditions, we may find ourselves living in a society dominated by prolife values.

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7. Non-profit activities in the fields

of equal opportunities and feminist

activism 1989 – 2009

7.1. Women‘s activism and women‘s initiatives

in the 1990s

The totalitarian regime has suppressed civic and political activism; women‘s ac-

tivism disappeared entirely for a long period of time. According to Mirek Vo-

drážka, 16 the discourse on the woman question was eliminated not only on the

levels of propaganda and ideology, but it was eradicated in the society in gene-

ral: „as if the founding female subject had fallen into pieces, the original woman‘s

experience had become extinct and her language, behavior, and gestures had

disappeared.“ Rejection and belittling of feminist issues was characteristic for the

period of transformation in the 1990s when the first women‘s groups emerged.

Even though the social climate has since changed, gender and feminist agendas

have not become integrated into the mainstream discourse. On the contrary,

negative reactions against feminism, gender and equal opportunities continue

to be spread by the media

In spite of resistance on the part of many celebrities as well as the media,

tens of organisations and women‘s groups were created in the 1990s with the

support of international organisations and individual feminists who contribu-

ted ideas, (wo)manpower, and funds. The first women‘s projects were fun-

ded thanks to personal contacts with private foreign foundations and bi-lateral

agree ments on foreign aid from Western Europe, Canada, the USA., and inter-

national organisations.

16 M. Vodrážka. „Aktivismus bez hnutí nebo protohnutí? Ženské organizace a skupiny v ČR

v letech 1989 – 2006?“, [in:] Mnohohlasem: Vyjednávání ženských prostorů po roce

1989, (ed.) H. Hašková, A. Křížková, M. Linková, SoÚ, Praha 2005, p. 61 – 80.

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7.2. Gender NGOs after 2000

After 2000 new groups were created and existing organisations were beco-

ming professionalised. This process af ected organisational structures, employee

training and programme planning. On the exterior, organisations grew more

professional in communicating with the media and the public and defined their

target groups in more precise terms. NGOs have been playing a crucial role

in pushing forward the issue of equal opportunities for women and men in the

Czech Republic. Nonprofit groups raise issues that are important nationally

and for the EU and initiate solutions to gender inequality problems. As the main

providers of legal counselling for people experiencing discrimination and other

services, gender NGOs are also essential in combating gender discrimination

on the practical level.

7.3. Cooperation among groups advocating for equal

opportunities for women and men

A strong network that would coordinate the activities of Czech gender and

women‘s organisations and that would represent their interests was missing for

a long time. There have been two networks – Koordona and the Circle of Pre-

vention of Violence Against Women (no longer in existence) – but both of these

focused on domestic violence. In 1999, the Association for Equal Opportunities

was founded but this entity no longer serves as a network that coordinates

the activities of its members like it used to do in the period following 2000. Its

strong point is that it unites a number of small organisations across regions.

Finally, there is the national platform of the European Women‘s Lobby.

The first steps toward its founding date back to the preaccession period (pre2004). Since 2008, the Czech Women‘s Lobby (ČŽL) has been operating independently under the direction of its board. It runs its own projects and besides

promoting equal opportunities at national and European levels, the Lobby ad-

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vocates for the interests of its member NGOs. The effectiveness of the Czech

Women‘s Lobby has varied contingent on the availability of funds and on the

capacity of its member groups. .

7.4. Funding for gender and women‘s NGOs

Funding has been one of the major obstacles in the work of gender NGOs. It

has been irregular and inconsistent. The European Structural Funds have be-

come practically the sole source of financial support. These Funds will only be

available until 2017 and if the state does not offer financial support to the nonprofit sector, the majority of NGOs from all fields will be forced to either restrict or to end their programmes. The state should fund NGOs for several reasons:

NGOs identify the gaps in civil society and address issues ignored by the state,

as well as often provide services citizens are not able to find elsewhere.

7.5. Non-institutional feminist initiatives

Informal feminist groups and initiatives have developed in the Czech Republic

alongside the abovementioned gender NGOs. These groups are not registe-

red and they do not possess the NGO organisational structure. They operate

on a volunteer basis and do not receive grants or subsidies. They often refuse

such types of funding because they seek to maintain their independent and

critical position toward the state and the European Union. Another element

these groups share is their antiestablishment position. They frequently distance

themselves from the patriarchy, the state or the capitalist system and assume

anarchist or leftist points of view and are associated with countercultural lifesty-

les and communities.

Bloody Mary and the Anarcho-Feminist Group have been the

most influential informal initiatives. The feminist fanzine Bloody Mary

(BM) has been published since 2000. From its beginnings, it has cla-

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imed allegiance to the riot grrrl movement and the position of women

in different subcultures and in culture in general constitutes one of its

central themes. It also deconstructs and critiques the heteronormati-

vity of the current social system. When the fifth issue of Bloody Mary

informed about the Global Women‘s Strike, it inspired some women

to organise a similar strike in the Czech Republic. A group with the

goal of organising a happening and an information campaign began

forming at the end of 2000. Eventually, it started calling itself The 8th

of March Feminist Group and it held the first Global Women‘s Strike

on the occasion of International Women‘s Day in 2001. This initiative

has always defined itself as a group with feminist values that rejects

the dominant liberal feminist movement established among the ma-

jority of Czech NGOs. It has adhered to its principles even after

it changed its name to the AnarchoFeminist Group. Their feminist

critique of patriarchal society has been closely tied with a critique of

the capitalist system.

8. Recommendations

8.1. Recommendations in the field of job market (for

the academy and NGOs)



Make a greater effort to publish research results in the media and to imple-

ment them in daytoday life.



Collect data and carry out basic research on the gender aspects of the roles

and impact ethnic groups have on the job market.



Carry out a complex analysis of the historical development of gender relations

in the Czech job market since 1989 with a focus on its specific local features.

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NiNa BosNičová, KristýNa Ciprová, alexaNdra JaChaNová-

-doleželová, KateřiNa MaChovCová, liNda soKačová



Continue detailed research on the origins of the gender pay gap and on potential methods

of its elimination (including creating pressure on respective political actors), as there appear

to be no practical tools available to combat the gender pay gap in the Czech Republic.



Look closer at the horizontal segregation of the job market and its causes,

and at possible methods of de-segregation (including bringing men into pro-

fessions dominated by women).



Broaden the scope of analysis of job market discrimination to include new

social groups, such as LGBT, the elderly and ethnic minorities.

8.2. Recommendations in the field of combating

domestic violence



Continue expanding the network of organisations working together on violence

issues (NGOs, counselling centres, county councils, the police, schools, etc.).



Conduct detailed analyses of domestic violence (track regional specifics, age, etc.).



Develop a system of support for children and other witnesses of violence.



Prioritise design and development of services for perpetrators and make

them available instantly after restraining orders are issued.



Incorporate safety issues in municipal planning.

8.3. Recommendations in the field of political

participation of women

For the Government:



Create a government campaign on increasing the numbers of women in

high political offices and target it to political parties.



Maintain the Committee for Equal Representation of Women and Men in

Politics established under the Government Council for Equal Opportunities

for Women and Men. The Committee should develop a strategy to equalise

the numbers of men and women in decisionmaking positions.

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

Adjust the election law to give greater weight to preference votes.

For Political Parties:



Define clear criteria for the selection of candidates in municipal, county and

parliament election listings.



Establish internal quota system that ensures that there is one person of the

opposite sex for each three listed candidates in any type of election. This

system would protect both sexes against discrimination.



Make it possible for politicians to fully participate in political meetings and nego-

tiations as wel as maintain and worklife balance, even in a high political office.

For NGOs:



Target NGO initiatives at politicians interested in the equal opportunity agenda.



Lobby political party leadership, not only members.

8.4. Recommendations in the field of LGBT’s rights



Systematic lobbying for legislation that would ensure the same rights to LGBT

and as it does to heterosexual people (artificial insemination for lesbians, ad-

option for registered couples, shared property in registered partnership, equal

estate tax, the rights of transsexual persons after sex change, etc.).



Fund projects on LGBT issues.



Integrate LGBT issues into basic and secondary school curricula with the

goal of reducing homophobia.



Greater and more diverse media coverage of LGBT issues.



Cooperation among gender and LGBT NGOs.

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8.5. Recommendations for gender NGOs



Build international connections, implement good practices from abroad in

the Czech context and share good local practices with international coun-

terparts (such as the knowledge of Czech gender NGOs and experts).



Expand networking among local groups, especially by supporting an inde-

pendent network. This is currently the Czech Women‘s Lobby with useful

connections with European structures and a strong membership base. This

network is currently well-positioned to advocate for equal opportunities and

for the interests of gender NGOs on political level.



Expand networking with groups working on equal opportunity and discrimi-

nation issues nationally and internationally.

Translated by Kateřina Kastnerová

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36

Poland: 20 years

– 20 changes

Anna Czerwińska

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1. Introduction

In the report “20 years – 20 changes”, we focus mainly on the issues we consi-

der to be milestones, in the context of the 20 years of systemic transformation

seen from the perspective of women.

Those years had their influence upon the language of debate, the si-

tuation of women, the perception of their rights and their place in social, po-

litical, economic and private life. Abortion, participation of women in politics,

violence against women, feminisation of poverty – those are some of the

areas analysed in our report.

We asked activists of women’s organisations: the authors of the trans-

formation and of the first campaigns on domestic violence, on human traffic-

king, on women’s unpaid work, on the rights of supermarket workers, as well

as politicians, about the last 20 years of changes. We asked them, because it

would be impossible to talk about the situation of women in Poland without

presenting the development of the women’s movement, formed after 1989.

It was the women’s organisations, feminist academics, writers, artists and po-

liticians, who marked out the map of problems facing Polish women; they

pioneered discussion about al those issues, often stil unsolved. They gave

us the concepts, the names, the legislation, good practices, they created the

ground on which we can operate.

Today, public debate in Poland concentrates mainly on two issues: the

right to terminate pregnancy and women’s participation in politics – the two have

always been interconnected. Those two topics have always united women from

dif erent political and non-political circles in coalitions for the right to legal abortion

(Federation for Women and Family Planning, Pro Femina, Same o Sobie SOS),

or for the increased participation of women in political life (as in the case of the

PreElectoral Coalition of Women, or the Women’s Party). They also combined

those two issues, since the private is political, of course. According to Professor

Małgorzata Fuszara, one of the most important impulses for organised women’s

38

aNNa CzerwińsKa

actions was the draft act limiting women’s right to abortion, which was presented

in parliament. This analysis is consistent with reminiscences of the first feminist

activists, 1 for whom limiting the right to termination became a starting point of

activism. “On the wall, next to the nearby shop, I spotted a typed note, which

read: ‘If you are against imprisonment for abortion, come to the manifestation at

the Copernicus statue. Saturday, May 6th, 12 o’clock’ [1989 – editor’s comment].

This small scrap of paper changed my life”, recalls one activist. 2

2. Women’s great failure: abortion

As Elżbieta Matynia observed in her book Demokracja performatywna, analysing

the famous first election poster of the Solidarity (with Garry Cooper in High Noon,

who holds a bal ot paper instead of a gun), right from the very beginning of the

transformation, during the first election campaign, “contrary to the image of the

homeland, which has always been feminine, the image of the democratic state of

Poland in its brand new institutional framework, the source of social hope at the

end of the 20th century, proved to be unquestionably male.” 3 Not just symboli-

cal y. Matynia, having come back from abroad in 1989, noticed that women who

had been involved in the independence movement, in Solidarity, withdrew from

political life. “Where are the women?”, she asks, and answers: “Democratical y,

but quietly, they were pushed out of the new polis, and sent back home.” 4 The

Roman Catholic Church became the chief actor of the political scene.

1 See in: Biuletyn OŚKa. Pismo Ośrodka Informacji Środowiska Kobiecych, no. 2 (11)/ 2000, OŚKa Foundation, Warsaw.

2 E. DąbrowskaSzulc, “Wspomnienia feministki ulicznej”, [in:] Biuletyn OŚKa. Pismo Ośrodka Informacji Środowiska Kobiecych no. 2 (11)/ 2000, OŚKa Foundation, Warsaw, p. 4.

3 E. Matynia, Demokracja performatywna, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnoślaskiej Szkoły

Wyższej, Wrocław 2008, p. 142.

4 Ibidem.

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The female “colleagues” from the “underground” did not make a fuss about

it. They became preoccupied with the things they had no time for when they were

busy fighting for independence. A few reached for power, where they were swiftly

put in their new place, and taught which matters were to be important from then

on. “First, it was too early for women’s rights, and then it was too late. Immediately

after 1989, many MPs were of the opinion that the economy and politics were

more important. I thought so too, in spite of being a woman. Because the problems

of the transformation concerned everybody, regardless of sex”, says Olga Krzyża-

nowska, Solidarity activist, MP during the years 1989-2001, deputy Speaker of the

Parliament and then Senator, in her interview published in the report.

Meanwhile, the first, most urgent issue the new authority took care of

was not the economy, even less so the politics, but women’s rights, or limiting

them, to be precise.

“Ironically (or perhaps not), women’s issues became one of the main

battlefields for the last communist parliament and all the subsequent ones, al-

ready democratically elected after 1989. This battle, which was part of a cultu-

re war, concerned women’s right to self-determination, and in particular, their

reproductive rights.” 5 At the very foundation of the new Polish state, women

were shown their inferior position. The power was taken over by the men.

“The antiabortion law became the first showcase of the insecure,

young authority in Eastern Europe. For the time being, nobody knew what

to do with galloping inflation, or how to reform the agriculture, but you could

always ‘collectivise’ women’s reproduction. Authority needs someone to go-

vern; in order to feel like authority, it needs to subordinate someone. In the

democracy after communism, this ‘someone’ happened to be women”, wrote

Agnieszka Graff in Świat bez kobiet and, before that, in the text6 which caused a

stir in Polish public debate in the late 1990s.

5 Ibidem. p. 164.

6 A. Graff, “Patriarchat po seksmisji”, Gazeta Wyborcza, 1920 June 1999.

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Demonstrations against the restrictive draft acts aiming to limit the right

to abortion (some propositions suggested punishing women for terminating

pregnancy) started as early as 1989. In November 1992, at the initiative of

the Parliamentary Group of Women, a proposition was put forth to carry out

a referendum on limiting the right to abortion, signed by 119 MPs. Also in

November, the Public Committee for a Referendum on Penality of Abortion

was created, otherwise known as the “Bujak Committee”, because of the in-

volvement of this democratic opposition activist. The leading and coordinating

role in the Committee was played by Barbara Labuda, leader of the Parliamen-

tary Group of Women. In total, 1.3 million Polish men and women signed the

Committee’s petition!

This huge public mobilisation was completely ignored by the authorities.

The referendum did not take place. The law was changed. Analyses indicate

this moment as decisive for the future involvement of Poles in public life. Never

again was it possible to collect so many signatures, or gather such huge crowds

for demonstrations. The lost battle for the right to abortion resulted in general

despondency and frustration. Professor Barbara Stanosz, active in the “Bujak

committees”, writes: “The state’s ignoring of the huge public movement for the

referendum on penality of abortion, and then withdrawing from the attempt to

liberalise the act pertaining to the issue, resulted in progressing passivity of the

public on the issues of the worldview neutrality of the state. Furthermore, most

of the organisations defending the idea went silent or disappeared. This allows

politicians to refer to the restrictive anti-abortion act and other laws restricting

personal freedom for purely religious reasons, as ‘a reasonable compromise’.

I am afraid that an equally ‘reasonable’ (or rather rotten) compromise will end

the parliamentary discussion about the proposed act on in vitro fertilisation.”

In 1993, it was obvious to researchers, as it was to most women, that

the new anti-abortion law would result in deterioration of their reproductive

rights, that it was written mainly to reduce the number of legal abortions (cre-

ating limitations difficult to circumvent), and that it made women fearful for their

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life and health. The researchers had an impression that the act’s text “and its

interpretation” made women feel helpless.

This sense of helplessness is still expressed today by activists of women’s

groups and organisations, who consider the issue of abortion to be the Polish

women’s great failure, a problem, which has its bearing on all others. “This is

simply dramatic. Such amount of illwill and indelicacy on the part of politicians,

towards so intimate, so private a woman’s business. Every two or three years

we begin to talk about uteruses and abortion, or nonabortion. To me, this is

something beyond belief! Whenever I think that we, in this underground – be-

cause I’m Solidarity’s orphan of sorts – fought all our battles for this, I get the

chills”, says Anna Mieszczanek, coordinator and originator of the first campaign

for remunerating women’s housework “Zrobione – zapłacone” (“Done – paid

for”). “Those last 20 years cannot be appreciated enough as far as emancipation

of women for independence, privacy and certain areas of public life is concer-

ned; however, on the political level, we lost those two decades horribly. Our

powerlessness concerning the most crucial issues of political freedoms, i.e. the

shamefully lost issue of abortion, is out defeat” – as Teresa Oleszczuk, feminist

activist and cofounder of La Strada, bitterly summed up.

We lost this cause not only in the area of legislation, but also by way

of the radical change in the language used in public debate, where the Roman

Catholic Church won, and started to dominate, in order to subject subsequent

areas of life to “Christian values”.

Agnieszka Graff in Świat bez kobiet calls the process of appropriating the

language, which could be observed in the 1990s, the “lost war on language”.

The way of thinking, talking of and valuing issues connected with abortion, which

has been validated in Poland, makes sense only within a religious paradigm. Du-

ring the last few years, words like “foetus” and “pregnancy” practically vanished

from colloquial language. They were substituted with “unborn children” and

“protection of conceived life”. “Abortion is referred to as ‘killing’, and a pregnant

woman today is simply a ’mother’” – writes Agnieszka Graff. Over the course of

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the twenty years which have passed since 1989, the language of those opposed

to the right to abortion became a valid language of the media. Importantly, lan-

guage has become instrumental in shaping policies: the most obvious example

is the word “compromise”, used by politicians, journalists and representatives

of the church to describe the antiabortion act. When, in 1993, the new law

on abortion was passed, a part of the ZChN Catholic party called the new

regulations a “compromise”, because they provided for punishing doctors, and

not women; furthermore the ban on abortion was not unconditional. “Com-

promise” proved a popular choice among the journalists and politicians, who

did not want to discuss the subject of abortion, and wanted to steer clear of

the “extremities” of feminism and radical Catholicism. On the other hand, since

the publication of the Letter of the Hundred Women7, feminists have used the

word “compromise” to describe the arrangement between the government

(led, at the time, by Leszek Miller) and the Church, providing that the Church

would agree to support Poland’s accession into the European Union in turn for

the government’s refraining from liberal reforms regarding women’s rights.

The language in question dominated the shape of public debate, which is

taking place at the moment, pertaining no longer to abortion, but to in vitro fer-

tilisation, called by the Church a “sophisticated abortion”. As Agata Chełstowska

writes in the report, “Subsequent governments not only find new ways to limit

access to abortion. They go one step further. They introduce new regulations,

which enable the authorities to avoid responsibility for not conducting abortions

approved by the existing law. The authorities do not merely want to penalise

termination of pregnancy; they want to prevent abortions by controlling course

7 The Letter of the Hundred Women, initiated by the 8 March Women’s Alliance, was

written by Professor Maria Janion. The letter, protesting against trafficking in women’s

rights in return for the Catholic church’s support for European integration, was signed

by over 100 women from the world of science, culture, business, including Nobel prize

winner Wisława Szymborska and director Agnieszka Hol and. The letter was broadly

discussed by the media.

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of pregnancies and checking whether they conclude in birth. New regulations

are meant to force women to report their pregnancies to the authorities as

early as possible. Having achieved almost everything in the area of criminalising

abortion, politicians moved on to a new subject: IVF treatment”.

Debates on “reproductive” topics, and political careers built on them,

indicate that in the upcoming decade we can expect new, restrictive regulations

concerning in vitro fertilisation. The question remains open what further sub-

jects politicians will bring up to continue demonstrating their power in the area

of reproductive policies.

In a survey conducted in 1993, women were asked about the outco-

mes of the new act. Almost all respondents (80%) were convinced that “the

material situation of many families would worsen”. Only slightly fewer women

(72%) predicted deepening of social inequalities. In this context, let us quote

the number of abortions legally carried out due to the difficult material situation

of the woman. Since 1993, it has been 0. This means that between 1993 and

2009, women living in difficult conditions or in poverty had to give birth to

unplanned children, whose upbringing they could not afford, worsening their

families’ poverty, or they had to terminate their pregnancies illegally.

Abortion is an economic problem, and not just one related to one’s

worldview, as was observed by Kinga Dunin in her column Dwa tysiące za

skrobankę8 (Two thousand for an abortion”). In effect, women who “have dosh”

have a free choice.

The law simply does not concern those who are relatively wealthy.

They can afford to make autonomous moral decisions – “to use the services

of a private medical practice, or to have an unplanned baby with the know-

ledge that they had another option.” 9 “Access to state of the art methods of

8 K. Dunin, “Dwa tysiące za skrobankę ” , Wysokie Obcasy, 23 June 2001, quoted after A.

Graff, Świat bez kobiet, op.cit.

9 A. Graff, Świat bez kobiet, op. cit. p. 111.

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contraception, as well as to healthcare related to reproductive health, inclu-

ding advisory services, is severely limited in Poland; a fact which contributes

to accidental pregnancies. This fact is not without influence upon women’s

situation in the job market and it contributes to women being viewed as ‘risky’

employees by employers.” 10

3. The great losers of the Polish

transformation: the economic

situation of women

1989 saw the emergence of a phenomenon unknown to the socialist eco-

nomy: unemployment. Unemployment in Poland (data for both sexes)

amounted to: 6.5% in 1990; 16% in 1994, and 20% in 2003. In December

2008, it amounted to 9.5%, but in January 2009, it began to grow again. 11

Women’s presence in the labour market correlates to the level of unem-

ployment – the employment of women increases along with the reduction

of unemployment. Still, if we consider the data for the years 19922008,

the level of women’s employment is currently still lower than at the be-

ginning of the researched period. Never in the period researched by the

Central Statistical Office were the figures of unemployment among women

lower than the analogical figures for men.

As observed by Kinga Lohman, president of the Karat Coalition, an or-

ganisation monitoring the labour market: “Not in all countries of our region

unemployment among women was higher than among men. In several coun-

tries the situation was reverse, e.g. in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Poland,

10 www.feminoteka.pl/kobiety i aborcja

11 http://www.stat.gov.pl/gus/45_677_PLK_HTML.htm, “ Stopa bezrobocia w latach

1990 2009.”

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before joining the EU, had had the highest unemployment, exceeding 20%.

Once we began to analyse those statistics, it became obvious that women were

most affected by the transformation, not even those with lowest education, but

those with qualifications which suddenly became outdated, which did not sell

well in the new system. Those women did not become unemployed – they

were totally pushed out of the labour market.”

Supporters of the free market economy reckon that the capitalist sys-

tem 20 years after the transformation is full of opportunities for women. The

practice looks entirely different. In 2004, almost 21% of the population lived

below the subsistence level. In 2003, women constituted 52% of the total

number of unemployed, and in 2008, as many as 64%.

The level of awareness regarding valuation of women in the labour

market has not changed significantly, which is illustrated by one of many similar

examples: “The HR manager smiled: ‘You are looking for a job. Wouldn’t you

be better off marrying well?’” 12 In the report, Bartłomiej Kozek draws attention

to the stereotypical treatment of women in the labour market and the com-

plete lack of solutions counteracting this phenomenon: “In 2004, when the

situation in the labour market was even worse than now, a question was asked

as a part of the European Social Survey. 42% men aged 1565 and 35% mar-

ried women agreed with a statement that ‘when the situation in the job market

becomes difficult, men in that market ought to have priority before women’. In

Sweden, the approval rate was merely 5%. 13 This shows that there is significant

public acceptance for the treatment of women as not fullyfledged participants

of the labour market.” In the period of systemic transformation, women en-

countered previously unimaginable discrimination in the labour market: due

12 www.rynek%20pracy%20w%20mediach/bezrobotne%202008.html,Gazeta Wyborcza

on 22.04.2008, Poznań.

13 D. DuchKrzystoszek, A. Titkow, “Polka i jej rodzina na tle Europy”, [in:] W środku Europy? , ed. H. Domański, A. Ostrowska, P. Sztabiński, IFiS PAN, Warsaw 2006, p. 127–185.

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to sex, age, the state’s withdrawal from social services, such as providing free

and broadly available childcare. Kinga Lohman remembers this as follows: “The

message was: you are 4045? You are redundant in the job market! The only

thing you can do is start a business! This illustrates the trends in the labour

market: look after yourself, the state washes its hands clean of everything, gives

no guarantees, such are the principles of the new market, we are withdrawing,

because we do not want to be a communist welfare state.”

Unemployment is accompanied by other phenomena, equally difficult for

the people who experience them: “the working poor”, i.e. part time workers and

insufficient earnings, learned helplessness and longterm unemployment (af ecting

mainly women), inherited poverty (women as “poverty managers”).

Another term, which appeared along with the transformation, was “femi-

nisation of poverty”. It had two meanings: firstly, it was women, who constituted

the majority of the unemployed, excluded from the labour market; secondly,

the labour market of ered women jobs in low-paid professions connected with

services, care or education, which pushed them into niches on the verge of subsi-

stence level, lack of perspectives for development, and doomed them to poverty

after retirement. This situation includes public services, such as healthcare (nur-

ses) and education (teachers). In the private sector, the situation is similar in the

growing sector of large area retailing. Those professions are a good il ustration of

the pyramid model of women’s presence – the higher the rank, the less women.

It is mainly women who work at cash registers in supermarkets, for which they

receive minimal wage. If separate posts for warehouse workers exist, they are

usual y occupied by men, who get paid more than cash register workers – in

spite of the fact, that in many shops, due to permanent workforce shortages, cash

register operators must do warehouse workers’ jobs anyway. 14 It is hardly surpri-

14 “Warunki pracy i respektowanie praw pracowniczych w supermarketach z perspektywy

równouprawnienia płci” , Karat Coalition, Warsaw 2008, available at: http://www.kobi-

etypraca.org/dokumenty/super1.pdf (site viewed on 24, September 2009).

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sing that the latest Social Diagnosis (2009) brings information that the least happy

social group in Poland are the cleaners. On average, they are 44 years old, they

practice no sports, they do not use the internet, they know no foreign languages,

they get divorced often, and 14% of them have suicidal thoughts. 15

Women’s caring functions – looking after children and the elderly, doing

the vast majority of housework – not only push women out of the labour mar-

ket and contribute to “working two jobs”, but they influence women’s choices

in the job market as well. This is emphasised by Irena Wóycicka: “Observation

of women in the labour market leads to a conclusion that they largely remain

within the public sector, which on average offers less pay than the private one.

A very apparent segmentation of the labour market took place, which may be

related to the fact that the public sector gives more security, more job oppor-

tunities and often more flexibility. Women consciously choose the public sector,

since they have no chance of finding a similar offer in the private one, where

the employers’ expectations are often lethal to the functioning of the family as a

whole, and particularly for women, who remain chief caretakers of the home.

The caring roles are still attributed to women, although it seems that certain

changes are taking place in the younger generation.”

The novella to the labour code of 1996, and the later ones, of 2002 and

2004, enriched Polish labour law with regulations forbidding discrimination ac-

cording to sex. However, between 1996 and 2004 there were no regulations

allowing for claiming compensation by victims of discrimination, and the burden

of proof was on the victim, and not the employer. The antidiscrimination regu-

lations were introduced in accordance with the requirements of the European

Union only in 2004. The labour code was expanded to include regulations

regarding the definition of, and punishment for sexual harassment, mobbing

and other forms of discrimination, and the burden of proof was shifted from the

injured party to the perpetrator.

15 Quoted after: Polityka, no. 36, 5, September 2009

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Over the last 20 years, women’s groups and organisations have shown

extensive interest in the changes at the labour market and the situation of wo-

men. In their reports, demonstrations, during consultations for new laws, they

discussed the issues of: feminisation of poverty, women’s unemployment, in-

creasing their professional activity and introduction of equal retirement age for

women and men. They introduced the concepts of the glass ceiling and the

sticky floor into public debate, they proposed new solutions, and even founded

job agencies for women.

Finally, they formed alliances with trade unions. About 2006, activists

of the women’s movement became involved in the work of the Committee

for the Defence and Aid of Repressed Workers (KPiORP); in the same year,

thanks to the initiative of the women’s movement, miners from the Sierpień

80 trade union took part in street demonstrations concerning the right to legal

and safe abortion, and in the 8th of March Manifa concerning unemployment

and workers’ rights. The following year, also women from Tesco’s Sierpień

80 actively participated in women’s meetings and demonstrations. In the same

year, women’s groups joined the unprecedented protest of the National Trade

Union of Nurses and Midwives, which lasted for over a month and is now

historically known as “the White Town”. Meanwhile, the Karat Coalition began

to implement projects regarding conditions of work and workers’ rights in the

clothing industry and supermarkets. The first woman to initiate those actions

was a “Biedronka” supermarket worker, Bożena Łopacka, who sued her em-

ployer for violating workers’ rights. Women’s grassroot initiatives facilitated,

finally, the use of a new language in talking about trade unions and workers’

rights in Poland, because in a free market economy, even in a country where in-

dependence is strictly related to workers’ strikes, a huge contempt is expressed

towards the unions by bankers, economists, presidents of the stock exchange;

there are even suggestions of liquidating the unions, which “hinder develop-

ment of businesses”. As Bartłomiej Kozek observed: “Court cases of Bożena

Łopacka and ‘Biedronka’, and the first strike in a hypermarket in Poland, led

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by Elżbieta Fornalczyk, were greatly publicised by the media, and were among

the few workers’ initiatives (next to the nurses’ ‘White Town’), which were not

pigeonholed as ‘claims resulting from demanding attitudes’.” 16

4. violence against women

Systemic transformation, lifting of censorship, the fall of the iron curtain, have

brought into light the socially inconvenient topics, masked in communist Poland,

such as bullying in the army or the problem of alcoholism, domestic violence,

prostitution, human trafficking.

“There is a close link between the demise of national economies and the

sudden impoverishment of societies during the first decade of transformation, and the

occurrence in this part of Europe of a certain criminal activity yielding speedy profits:

trafficking of women” – writes Elżbieta Matynia. 17 Teresa Oleszczuk, founder of La Stra-

da, an organisation fighting human trafficking, gives a straightforward opinion: “Escort

agencies, which provide disguise for brothels in Poland, have appeared along with the

freeing of structures of the market. An escort agency has a business status, which, on

the one hand, proves the freedom, and on the other – the hypocrisy and powerles-

sness in solving the problem, not only in Poland, but worldwide. Since prostitution is

not penalised, but it is punishable to draw income from it or force somebody to it,

then perhaps a new form might be required – not prostitution, but a particular kind

of escort and other pleasure services. Poland was a country, which needed economic

activity, and needs it stil; we keep kiling ourselves over those indicators of the number

of registered businesses. Agencies must have increased those indicators.”

16 There were, however some aggressive comments, mainly from right-wing columnists

supporting the governments of the Law and Justice party, e.g. Łukasz Warzecha, Pielę-

gniarki vs Policja – 0:1. I dobrze – http://lukaszwarzecha.salon24.pl/5125,pielegniarkivspolicja01idobrze (page viewed on 24, September 2009).

17 E. Matynia, Demokracja perfotmatywna, op. cit., p. 147.

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Trafficking women and prostitution became a subject of public debate

during the transformation thanks to organisations from the Netherlands, which

were the first to draw attention to the problem of Polish women “sold to bro-

thels”. La Strada, which has been working since 1995, familiarised the Polish

society with the concept of human trafficking, trafficking in women, sexual vio-

lence. As Stana Bukowska, president of La Strada recalls: “We soon found out

that Poland is not only a country of origin; it is also a transit country and the pla-

ce of destination for women from the former Soviet Union, Romania, Bulgaria

and other neighbouring countries. In the mid1990s, we were not aware that

human trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe concerns forced labour as well,

exploitation and so on. We focussed on prostitution.”

But forced prostitution and human trafficking are closely linked not only

to the situation in the labour market and economic changes, but to the pheno-

menon and the scale of violence against women in Poland as well. Izabela Jaruga

Nowacka has a bitter conclusion about her 20 years of working in this field: “We

did not do enough, that is obvious. Violence is stil of the female gender. If anything

has changed, it is public awareness, sensitivity, manner of reacting to family dra-

mas. But we owe this to women’s organisations, not to the authorities.”

In Poland, about 800 thousand women a year experience violence, and about

150 Polish women die as an effect of socalled ‘domestic misunderstandings’. 18 As Jo-

anna Piotrowska writes, analysing the problem of violence against women during the

years 19892009: “Although the scale of violence against women and girls is huge in our

country, the quoted figures seem to make no impression on subsequent governments.

Most at empts to introduce a consistent and ef ective anti-violence system, which would

take into account the largest group of violence victims, i.e. women, came to nothing.” 19

18 B. Gruszczyńska, Przemoc wobec kobiet w Polsce. Aspekty prawnokryminologiczne, Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw 2007, quoted after: Joanna Piotrowska, Przemoc wobec kobiet: 1989-2009, Report for the Congress of Polish Women, Feminoteka 2009.

19 J. Piotrowska, Przemoc wobec kobiet: 1989-2009, op. cit. p. 229.

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Alina Synalkiewicz in her report presents the history of actions aimed

at reducing the scale of violence in Poland, from the emergence of the first

organisations, through the first public campaigns, to the antiviolence act, with

particular focus on the presence of the issue in public discourse. The women’s

movement for counteracting violence against women developed very dyna-

mically, considering the scale and complexity of the problem. A lot has been

achieved, and in subsequent years non-governmental organisations introdu-

ced many initiatives aimed at helping victims of violence. But only in 2003 did

workd, initiated by the Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men,

begin on the first government draft act, which was to ensure safety for victims

of domestic violence. The draft caused extensive discussion. The most contro-

versial part was the possibility of issuing a restraining order, including temporary

eviction from one’s dwelling, against the perpetrator of violence. According to

the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration at the time, such an eviction

order would interfere with ownership rights too much, and the unregulated

issue of alternative accommodation for the evicted perpetrators could increase

crime. The Ministry of Justice, on the other hand, questioned the idea of such

deep interference with family relations. It explained that such regulations could

“ruin human bonds”. 20

The act on counteracting violence in its final form came into power

in 2005. It obliges the state to provide al types of assistance to persons

experiencing violence, particularly: legal, psychological, medical and social

advice; crisis intervention and support, protection from further violence

(isolating the perpetrator from the victim); providing a safe refuge in centres

for victims of violence. Local authorities are to create communal systems

of counteracting violence. However, implementation of the act was broadly

criticised by organisations working for counteracting violence (mainly wo-

20 S. Spurek, Ustawa o przeciwdziałaniu przemocy w rodzinie. Komentarz, Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw 2008, p. 4651.

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men’s organisations). The main objections are: not using the provision abo-

ut restraining orders in practice, and the lack of specific mention of domestic

violence against women in the act itself. According to the act, domestic

violence is gender neutral. 21 In 2009, under pressure from non-govern-

mental organisations, the Ministry of Justice admitted that the actions of the

government and the public administration were insufficient and ineffective.

It promised to improve the situation and work on a novella to the act on co-

unteracting family violence. 22 Similar declarations are made by the present

Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment, Elżbieta Radziszewska.

Unfortunately, no actual action follows the declarations.

As we have mentioned, the involvement of women’s organisations in

solving this issue is hard to overrate. Unfortunately, there is a negative side

to this. Decisionmakers, unwilling to notice the problem of violence and not

undertaking any effective action, pushed the problem of counteracting violen-

ce to nongovernmental organisations. This delegation of duties was not, alas,

accompanied by funding or favourable legislation. As Synalkiewicz sums up: “In

spite of the strategy of burying their head in the sand, presented by the Po-

lish government as far as violence against women is concerned, the issues are

permanently present in the Polish media (they pop up in popular soap operas,

thanks to which information about victims’ rights penetrates to small towns and

villages), more and more publications and articles appear on the subject. Opi-

nion polls show that the Poles are aware of the significance of the problem of

domestic violence and violence against women.” 23 Will the seriousness of the

issue get through to Polish politicians?

21 A. Mrozik, E. Rutkowska, I. Stefańczyk, Kogo chronimy przed przemocą. Dwa lata

ustawy o przeciwdziałaniu przemocy w rodzinie. Raport Krytyczny, Fundacja Feminoteka,

Warsaw 2007.

22 Quoted after: J. Piotrowska, Przemoc wobec kobiet: 1989-2009, op. cit.

23 Polacy wobec zjawiska przemocy w rodzinie oraz opinie ofiar, sprawców i świadków o wystę-

powaniu i okolicznościach występowania przemocy w rodzinie, TNS OBOP, Warsaw 2007.

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5. Women in politics

After 20 years, the new Polish democracy remains incomplete – women are

still unable to decide about themselves. Men still prevail in the public domain

and, continue to retain monopoly over setting the hierarchy of importance of

topics and problems to be dealt with. They create governments, and in infor-

mal groups, behind closed doors, decide about the composition of electoral li-

sts. Women, if they are admitted into the exclusive club of politics, usually reach

a line they cannot cross. It is not defined by competence, and competence is

not decisive when lists of candidates are composed before elections, or when

the winnings are divided afterwards. This barrier is sex.

Obviously, women do not remain passive. They want to enter politics

and they want power, because they are aware of its attractions. In order to

achieve it, they overcome social or moral, as well as economic barriers, they

must face stereotypes, they have less experience than men. The breakthrough

of 1989 did provide an impulse for their increased activity. The history of this

awakening can be illustrated by certain facts from the last 20 years, which were

most significant from the perspective of women’s participation. No Polish wo-

man has ever become a president, though two – Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz

in 1995 and Henryka Bochniarz in 2005 – did stand for the post. Only one –

Hanna Suchocka in the years 199293 – ever led the government. Four times

women were nominated as deputy prime ministers: Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka

in Marek Belka’s first government (2004) and in his second government (20042005); and Zyta Gilowska in the governments of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński. None of them ever became the speaker of Parliament,

though some were nominated as deputy speakers: Olga Krzyżanowska, Teresa

DobielińskaEliszewska, Genowefa Wiśniowska and Ewa Kierzkowska in the

present term. Only once a woman headed the upper chamber of the Parlia-

ment – her name is Alicja Grześkowiak. Deputy speakers of the Senat were

Zofia Kuratowska, Jolanta Danielak and Krystyna Bochenek.

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Women are practically absent from top positions in political parties (with

the exception of nonparliamentary parties: the Zieloni 2004, the Democratic

Party, the Women’s Party). When listing female political personalities, we cannot

omit the Government Plenipotentiaries for Equal Status of Women and Men. 24

Izabela JarugaNowacka (20012004) and Professor Magdalena Środa (20042005). An important role was played by Joanna KluzikRostkowska during her work at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, in the Department for Women, Family and Counteracting Discrimination.

Women’s representation in the parliament has been relatively stable

(though low), at the level of 20%. Right from the very beginning, women in

the Sejm wanted to unite around women’s issues. The women we talked to,

activists of nongovernmental organisations, attribute great significance to the

Parliamentary Group of Women, founded during the first term of the Parlia-

ment by Barbara Labuda, who believed that women can cooperate on the

issues important to them, regardless of their party allegiance. As Magdalena

Kicińska wrote: “The Parliamentary Group of Women, designed to initiate a

Polish pro-women lobby, is an informal group inside the Parliament, formed at

the beginning of each new term of the Sejm and the Senat. Its origins can be tra-

ced back to the Contractual Parliament, and it was most active during the initial

terms of the Sejm. In those days, it used to organise press conferences, national

and international meetings, it issued stances on current affairs and worked for

increased public activity of women. It consisted of female MPs and senators

from different parties. Beginning with the term of 19972001, the PGW began

24 The Plenipotentiary’s office underwent changes as well. In the years 19971999, in

Jerzy Buzek’s cabinet, there was an office of government plenipotentiary for the family,

headed by Kazimierz Kapera. The Office of Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women

and Men was established on 17, December 2001, by Prime Minister Leszek Miller. Such

office was demanded by the European Union. Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz’s government

liquidated the Plenipotentiary’s office on 3, November 2005. Once again, in a changed

formula, the office returned by Donald Tusk’s decision in March 2008. The post was

taken over by Elżbieta Radziszewska.

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to lose its politically heterogeneous character; women MPs increasingly rarely

expressed their shared opinions. For the last two terms, the PGW has been

invisible; there is practically no information about its activity of any sort, and the

media begun to speculate about its dissolution.” 25 The weakening activity of the

PGW and its eventual marginalisation on the political scene meant that non-go-

vernmental organisations lost valuable contact with politicians, potential allies in

the struggle for women’s rights. Organisations have less access to information,

they find it hard to lobby, they lost their network of contacts, which used to

be helpful while monitoring legislative processes, and they lost the forum for

discussion, where they could present their experiences and recommendations

to female MPs.

According to Agnieszka Grzybek, a lot of positive changes have taken

place in the recent years as well. To begin with, the issue of political participation

of women has become present in the media; secondly, the public’s attitude

towards the presence of women in politics has changed significantly; thirdly, the

women’s lobby for increasing female representation has been strengthened;

fourthly, each election brings higher numbers of women standing for parliament

and in local elections; number five – parties have begun to pay attention to

women’s issues, and some introduced 30% quotas on their electoral lists (the

Labour Union, the Democratic Left Alliance, the Freedom Union); the Zieloni

2004 party was created – which has 50% parity on their electoral lists and on

leading party positions, – as well as the Women’s Party. 26

The image of female politicians in the media has evolved to a certain

extent. Until the breakthrough of 1989, women were a rare sight in politics.

The systemic transformation has increased their numbers (and consequently the

25 More about the Parliamentary Group of Women in: M. Kicińska, “Parlamentarna Grupa

Kobiet – lobby kobiece w polskim parlamencie”, Gendermeria – równościowy monitoring,

Raport z wyników monitoringu 2008, Feminoteka.

26 A. Grzybek, “Polityka a płeć ” , [in:] Polityka a płeć, ed. A. Grzybek, J. Piotrowska, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Office in Poland, Warsaw 2006.

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frequency of their appearances on television, radio or in the press). Unfortuna-

tely, this does not translate into objectivity and material character of comments

accompanying the actions of female politicians. Often, what they are wearing is

more important than what they have to say. They encounter a condescending

tone, remarks on their appearance or private situation much more often than

men. Their achievements are often dismissed. However, it would no longer

be possible for the media to dismiss the questions from the Pre-Electoral Co-

alition of Women (PKK), as was the case in the first, most intensely active year

of operation of this coalition of non-governmental organisations and women’s

groups for increasing the participation of women in politics. This is how Agata

Teutsch, the first coordinator of the PKK, which was founded in 2001, describes

her experiences: “The difficulties began when we attempted to ask questions

during preelection meetings with individual candidates. A planned scenario for

such meetings clearly did not provide for any surprise questions from the public,

but if someone did ask them, they were ridiculed by the audience or ignored by

those they were addressed to.” 27 Now, merely a few years later, such situation

seems unimaginable. The role of the PreElectoral Coalition of Women in in-

creasing the knowledge and awareness about women’s rights among women,

politicians and the media was huge. Thanks to its actions, the number of wo-

men in the Sejm and the Senat increased to 22% in the election of 2001, from

13% in the previous term. Never again was the campaigning and the lobbying

for increasing the participation of women in politics so intense, and never again

were so many women elected.

Women’s organisations have developed a broad range of methods and

strategies to increase the political participation of women. They are listed by Mi-

rella Panek, a longtime activist of nongovernmental organisations in this field:

“educating voters, encouraging women to stand in local and national elections,

27 A. Teutsch, “Studium przypadku: Przedwyborcza Koalicja Kobiet”, [in:] Polityka a płeć..., op. cit. p. 66r.

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supporting the candidates, who include in their programmes the issues of gen-

der equality, conducting campaigns against the policies contrary to women’s

rights and supporting programmes supporting women’s rights at the level of

candidates and parties.”

In June 2009 the Congress of Polish Women was held in the Con-

gress Hall in Warsaw. It was initiated by women from different circles: Henryka

Bochniarz, president of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers “Lewia-

tan”, former First Lady Jolanta Kwaśniewska, and Magdalena Środa, feminist,

professor at Warsaw University and former Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of

Women and Men. The Programme Council of the Congress included promi-

nent women from the world of art, media, business and non-governmental

organisations, trade unions and the academia. The objective of the Congress

was to create a lobby independent of political membership and allegiances,

aimed at increasing women’s activity. 28 The result of the Congress was, among

other things, the largest ever media debate on the issue of parity on electoral

lists – one of the postulates of the Congress – with the participation of journa-

lists, politicians, organisers of the Congress, in which the government had to

participate as well.

Paritiy became another important subject of the public debate in Poland.

The struggle for full political representation of women, and a place for them in

the process of taking crucial decisions, was and remains the most important

postulate of the feminist movement, or more broadly, the women’s movement

(next to the right to abortion). After the Congress of Women, the first largescale campaign for introducing obligatory paritiy on electoral lists is under way.

“One of the postulates of the women’s movement is close to becoming reality.

I am talking about gender parity on electoral lists, for which the women’s circles

have been calling for almost 20 years. For several months, the issue was pre-

sent in press headlines, in the main editions of news programmes on public and

28 http://www.kongreskobiet.pl/readarticle.php?article_id=4 (30, September 2009).

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private TV stations, it became a subject of public debate. All of it in earnest”,

writes Joanna Piotrowska in her article entitled “Parytet bohater 20lecia” (Pa-

rity – the hero of the two decades).

The Civil Committee “Time for Women” was registered and commen-

ced the action of collecting signatures in support of the citizens’ draft act on gen-

der parity on electoral lists. The act provides for amendments to the electoral

law regarding the elections to the Sejm, the European Parliament and to com-

munal, local and regional councils, in order to ensure at least 50% presence of

women on electoral lists. 29

The women’s movement is facing another chal enge, as do the politicians

– will they ignore the citizens’ initiative so broadly discussed by the public?

6. Twenty changes

Since the mid-1990s, women in Poland have managed to leave, as Matynia

put it, “the fencedoff playgrounds and kindergartens, where women could

do whatever they wanted, but they could not advance.” And they managed to

enter the public domain. Matynia gives the example of taking over the univer-

sities (creation of gender studies at many colleges), the media, “for which wo-

men designed strategies of active presence by writing, discussing, “familiarising”

feminism. Women begun to actively participate in art and run mediumsized

businesses. 30

In the issue of Societas Communitas, the semi-annual publication of the

Institute Of Applied Social Sciences of Warsaw University (No. 2(6) 2008), en-

29 According to the act on the citizens’ legislative initiative, the committee has three months to col ect 100 thousand signatures for the draft to be presented in the Parliament as

a citizens’ initiative.

30 E. Matynia, Demokracja performatywna, op. cit., p. 156157.

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titled Kobiety, mężczyźni, płeć ( Women, men, gender), in the opening discussion,

Professor Krystyna Slany indicates an important change, which took place in

Polish science over the last 20 years: “The consequence of the new knowledge

and new explanations, is the mass of works written by students. Nobody would

have expected it ten years ago. The popularity of, an willingness to write about

gender and feminist issues, or even appreciating the importance of gender in

research by young sociologists, has been unprecedented.” 31

Quality of public debate significantly differs from what dominated in the

1990s. As Matynia writes, “In the first years of the transformation, there was

large social and cultural pressure both from men and women, to ignore, dimi-

nish, even ridicule those trying to raise the issue (of gender).” 32 The researcher

draws attention to the fact that in those days, more than anything else, there

was no language in which one could talk about women’s rights.

20 years later we do have the language. Many concepts, which entered

the language of public debate, we owe to countless actions and publications of

women’s organisations and movement: reproductive rights, violence against

women, parity, feminisation of poverty, human trafficking, the glass ceiling, the

term gender itself, herstory, discrimination, equal status, stereotypes etc. The

problems which were first brought to light in Poland by the women’s mo-

vement include: discrimination in the labour market, family violence, forced

prostitution, sexism in advertising, the effects of the anti-abortion law, the lack of

sex education, domination of the Roman Catholic church in public debate and

politics, workers’ rights of women, equal retirement age for men and women,

unpaid women’s work, sexual violence: rape and sexual harassment, political

participation of women, unequal pay, the state of maternity care etc. It is difficult

to imagine all this was lacking! Nobody used those terms, nobody named the

31 Societas Communitas, no. 2(6)2008, Institute Of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw, 2008, p. 16.

32 E. Matynia, Demokracja performatywna, op. cit., p. 143.

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phenomena concerning half the population. The image of a feminist has been

disenchanted as well. In the last few weeks a statement from the conservative

Ombudsman that he “does not like feminists, because they are unfulfilled wo-

men” was met with fierce criticism from the media and politicians of all sides

of the political scene. This shows most clearly how many things the feminist

movement has gained and changed.

The situation is similar in the case of the LGBT movement. Lambda ac-

tivist Yga Kostrzewa comments: “Everything or nearly everything has changed.

Twenty years ago nobody was seriously interested in the issue: there were no

debates, organisations, public campaigns, articles in the press, programmes on

television with lesbians, gays or transsexual people in them, no parades and

marches for equality. There were no openly homosexual or bisexual celebrities.

There were no meeting places, or they were hidden. Politicians did not deal

with those issues at all. Today, we have national debates, popular programmes

with the participation of lesbians and gays, famous people openly declaring their

homosexuality, a significant number of publications, books, films, over a dozen

LG organisations. Although, obviously, we still strive for further improvement, if

we look back at those 20 years, the changes are striking.”

Translated by Katarzyna Nowakowska

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Feminisms for

Beginners. Aspects of

the origins of Gender

Discourse in slovakia

Jana Cviková, Jana Juráňová

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1. Introduction

This summary is meant to be a brief commentary on a collage of texts conta-

ining fragmentary roundtable musings and reflections of feminist “beginners” in

Slovakia, analyses and textdocuments related to the period, and so on. The

collage is part of the project “20 Years Later: Gender Aspects of the New Pu-

blic” and names some aspects of the origins of gender discourse in Slovakia after

November 1989. This project, carried out in the year of the 20th anniversary of

the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, strives to summarise and analyse several

themes important from specifically women’s and gender viewpoint. It mostly

touches upon the media and partly also political presentation of first concrete

themes of gender discourse as public issues.

Gender discourse in Slovakia has been interlinked with the rise of the

gradually pluralising public, or publics, after the Revolution and the discussion

about feminism became its component at the beginning of the 1990s. At the

end of the nineties and the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century,

before the themes related to EU accession came to the media, project and

institutional scene, four big themes had sprung up in public gender discourse

in Slovakia: violence against women, women’s reproductive rights, women’s

political participation and the rights of sexual minorities.

This publication is a reminder of the fact that gender issues and perspec-

tive have been an important part of the democratisation process. It is crucial

not to forget about those initiatives which stood at the beginnings and which

introduced gender discourse also in Slovakia.

When working on this collage of texts, we1 took into account the exi-

sting academic papers and analyses, various documents, media monitoring etc.

1 In this publication we use the perspective of our experience. In this sense “we” in this

text does mean authors and editors of this publication: Jana Cviková and Jana Juráňová.

We are aware of this individual personal perspective, and we tried as much as possible to

complicate the picture with the reflection of other women – beginners.

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JaNa CviKová, JaNa Juráňová

We tied this work up with our longterm project “Women’s Histories”. 2 “In

our understanding of the project, history is not just a sum of important events

or personalities (…) it is also our experience and the source of legitimisation of

what we are doing and what we have done.” Similarly to the abovementioned

project, our starting point here is the fact that “´the Aspekt frameworkís a fra-

mework of political feminism, and in a sense it is a continuation of what women

in the past strove for and what they have been striving for in the present: to

place their thinking about gender dimensions of society in the context of either

the really existing and/or desired distribution of power.” 3

Together with historian Gerda Lerner we understood political feminism

as that moment of development of feminist thinking when women started to

articulate their claims consciously as political claims.

This publication is authored by those women who accepted the invi-

tation of ASPEKT to take part at a round table meant to stimulate recollections

about beginnings of feminisms in Slovakia. The representatives of ASPEKT, its

founders, collaborators, supporters, those women for whom ASPEKT had

been an impulse for their own activities, all were remembering their beginnings

– the beginnings of beginners in feminism. What followed from the discussion

was, among others, that it was not just these women who participated in fo-

unding and the life of the organisation, which has encompassed many projects

and initiatives. ASPEKT was not just the first feminist organisation; it is also an

organisation most publicly present in the 1990s – be it through its activities,

or through its reactions to concrete social and political events in the country.

This is the reason why a lot has been derived from ASPEKT – while we do

not want to belittle the importance of other feminist and women’s NGOs or

2 One of the outputs of this project was the cited publication: J. Cviková, J. Juráňová, L.

Kobová (eds.): Histórie žien. Aspekty písania a čítania. ASPEKT 2006.

3 J. Cviková, “Histórie žien. Aspektovský rámec a rámec politického feminizmu” , [in:]

ibidem, p. 6 – 7.

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individual personalities and concrete impulses and activities. After all, the round-

table discussion also revealed that much of what has been done has its origins

in ASPEKT. Therefore, the recollection of the beginnings of feminism related

to ASPEKT is also the recollection of memories about and reflections upon a

broader context.

And last but not least, this publication is part of cooperation of partner

organisations from the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia with the

Heinrich Böll Foundation, which this year focused on mapping the develop-

ment of gender discourse in these countries after the year 1989. This publica-

tion – after the analyses “Equal Pay for Equal Work? Aspects of the Gender Pay

Gap” 4 and “Education through the Prism of Gender. Aspects of Key Risks“5 – is

the third contribution to longterm efforts to map and reflect upon gender

discourse and gender relations in Slovakia.

2. The public against violence

2.1. Gender as a foreign word

When we want to talk about the development of gender discourse in Slovakia,

especially about the sensitisation of the society to the gender perspective in the

last twenty years, we must talk about the very beginning of the change itself –

about the socalled Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. Of course we must

keep in mind that in Slovakia and in former Czechoslovakia under communist

rule, as well as in the early 1990s, the word gender was not known and it was

4 J. Cviková(ed.), Aká práca, taká pláca? Aspekty rodovej nerovnosti v odmeňovaní, ASPEKT

2007.

5 J. Cviková, J. Filadelfiová, Rodový pohľad na školstvo. Aspekty kľúčových rizík, ASPEKT 2008.

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JaNa CviKová, JaNa Juráňová

used in the sense of social sex or cultural sex. 6 It was used only to refer to women and men and to talk about the socialist emancipation of women.

The term gender started to be used through translations from the

German and, especial y, the English language. In the Slovak language we

started to gradually use the Slovak word rod in the same sense as the English

word gender, so the original meaning of this word was broadened. 7 This

word has been a part of the domestication of feminisms and the gender

perspective in Slovakia. The search for adequate expressions in the Slovak

language was important due to the fact that in our efforts to discover and

propagate feminisms in Slovakia we would often be reprimanded for impor-

ting (into our society) “foreign” useless and unusable ideas and approaches.

The idea that feminism is something foreign to “our women” has been

around since the 19th century.

It is important, from the perspective of the origins and further deve-

lopment of gender discourse in Slovakia that the issue of gender relations and

gender equality was from the very beginning intensely treated from explicitly

feminist positions – it was the case of the feminist cultural magazine Aspekt as

well as lectures at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University. Some researches

published in those times as well as official (state and political) approaches using

6 However, the word feminism was known mostly as an insult; its true meaning was not known. See e.g. the text by Marta Frišová “Slúžtičky“ in the first issue of the Aspekt magazine 1/1993; the editorial by Jana Cviková and Jana Juráňová to Aspekt 3/1994 on the

topic of Feminisms. Also the diploma thesis of Veronika Wöhrer deals with the analysis of

usage of the word feminism ´Das verfluchte Wort Feminismus´: Eine Deutungsmusterana-

lyse zu Feminismus-Begriffen slowakischer Wissenschafterinnen, Universität Wien 2001.

7 From the onset, we deem as gender themes those themes which under this label

entered the public discussion, while we are also aware of the fact that all and especially

al important themes – such as the economic and social situation – include an important

gender dimension. However, it is important to highlight the fact that e.g. unemployment

has not been seen through the gender lens and the dif erence in the rates between men

and women has been negligible, and analyses have not taken into account hidden unem-

ployment of women – at least before accession to the European Union (see e.g. gender

aimed projects from EQUAL Programme).

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the gender terminology without internalising its feminist basis occurred later –

especially after the accession of Slovakia to the EU in 2004.

The concept and the term gender stabilised gradual y in the second

half of the 1990s. Actors and subjects who embarked on the issue (e.g. wo-

men’s human rights organisations, the public administration and academics)

mostly accepted and adopted the Slovak translation of the term gender. The

terminology related to feminist and gender theories and praxes was further

developing and finding its place in the Slovak language; one of the outcomes

and also contributions to its formation was the Glossary of Gender Terminology

published in 2003. 8

One very important part of the whole process of gender sensitisation is

the coining and cultivation of gender sensitive language; i.e. the search for new

expressions that would as closely as possible convey the gender symmetry of

the message.

2.2. “Learned helplessness” and the “Sleeping Beauty”

In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution started and communist rule was gra-

dually tumbling down. This was a process formally going on for several months,

but the democratic transformation of society is still unfinished. At the beginning

the key word of the whole process was the public. Also the first political and

civic movement (not a party at that time) was called The Public against Violence.

Until the split of former Czechoslovakia it had been the political partner of the

Czech political and civic movement Civic Forum.

The name of the civic movement The Public against Violence reflects

people’s reaction to violence against students and other citizens during the de-

monstration in Prague on the 17th of November 1989, but this violence was

also perceived as various forms of oppression committed by the totalitarian

8 See “ Glosár rodovej terminológie“, accessible at glosar.aspekt.sk.

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state on its citizens – from incarcerations to restrictions on freedom of speech.

Not in the least, this was an important signal that this civic movement favoured

a nonviolent regime change and a nonviolent way of dealing with the past.

The word violence was understood as violence in the public sphere and it was

very important to stand against it as the civic public. Many years had to pass

till violence against women in the private sphere started to be formulated as

a public and not just a private problem; this was the outcome of the feminist

approach to the issue, which led to national campaigns at the end of the 1990s

and in 2001. 9

At the beginning of the 1990s it was absolutely crucial in both parts of the former

Czechoslovak Republic to start to revive and build the civil society. The concept of the

public as a place of association and discussion based on the principles of participative de-

mocracy started to be the key point of the new post-socialist society and at that time it was

very new. Therefore, it was also talked about the “new public” that citizens were to re-

present. During the communist regime the public was extraordinarily controlled not only

through censorship. Feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser, when speaking about the public in

the really existing socialism, writes that “the conflation of the state apparatus with the public

sphere of discourse and association provided ballast to processes whereby the socialist

vision became institutionalised in an authoritarian statist form instead of in a participatory

democratic form.” 10 State control was absurd and sometimes funny, but most of the time

frightening. People were socialised to absolute passivity and lethargy. Also because of this,

the term “learned helplessness” was used to express the nature of the people in postsocialist Slovakia. As sociologist Zora Bútorová claimed in the first sociological research in our country that used the gender perspective, as concerned women it was a “specific

feminine variant of learned helplessness that characterised political culture during the era of 9 The initiator of the public discussion about violence against women was the coalition of

five feminist NGOs The Fifth Woman.

10 N. Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy”, [In:] Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed.C. Calhoun, 1992, p. 110.

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real socialism. If the general syndrome of learned helplessness is the willingness to leave the

representation of citizens in the hands of ‘experts’, its specific symptom related to women

was, and still is, to delegate these powers and competencies to men. ” 11

After 1989, the public was often compared to the Sleeping Beauty from a fairy

tale; when she woke up after many years it was not only a happy ending, but also the

beginning of a very different story. Sleeping for such long time is not the best activity to

prepare the “Beauty” for the coming turbulent days of social transformations.

This traditional patriarchal example of a sleeping woman and a “wakeful”

man is unconsciously very typical for the gender order of society in Slovakia.

To wake up the Beauty a Prince is needed. But after he fulfilled his role and the

fairy tale is over nobody knew what the continuation would look like. It can be

said that the “princes” on speakers’ tribunes at mass public demonstrations had

awakened the sleeping society, but the continuation was vague at best.

Nevertheless, the public was starting to be awake. There were several key points in

this process, e.g. so called round tables on TV, which were very important because they were

accessible also to the people living outside of the capital city of Bratislava. This radical change in Slovakia is also called “the television revolution”, because of the key role of these discussions.

At the time when the public was starting to form, not many people noticed

that this public was mostly male. Most of us perceived the public as gender neutral.

Squares and streets were full of people of both sexes. Down below, in front of spe-

akers’ tribunes there were both men and women, but it was mostly men who were

standing on the tribunes. Also the TV round tables were full of men. Only after several

years did some women start to reflect on this phenomenon. 12 It can be said that the

11 Z. Bútorová, et al: “Ona a on na Slovensku. Ženský údel očami verejnej mienky”, Focus, 1996, p. 169.

12 It was symptomatic for the situation in Slovakia that the first one to write about the absence of women on the tribunes of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution (and also about

risks of the return of traditional gender stereotypes) was the expat writer Irena Brežná

in her article “Schreckliche Rache“ original y written for the German feminist magazine

EMMA 4/1992 (it was published in the Slovak translation as “Strašná pomsta“ in the first

issue of Aspekt 1/1993).

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lack of consciousness among women was at that time a negative testimony to the

socialist emancipation of women. Had the emancipation been really genuine, the wo-

men would have immediately noticed this asymmetry of power. It was evident that

the socialist emancipation – in spite of the fact that education and paid employment of

women was commonplace – had not left any trace in the minds of the population –

no awareness of the problem of gender inequality – by both women and men. The

paradox of the minimal transformation ef ect of the socialist emancipation in terms of

the reflection on gender relations and the gender power asymmetry was first mani-

fested during socialism in a simplistic rejection of feminism as a “bourgeois aberration”,

and after its fall as a “totalitarian communist ideology”.

2.3. Feminism and socialism

Our History with Socialism and Feminism13 – that was, in 1993, the title of a

conference and publication of the German feminist foundation Frauen Ansti-

ftung. It was symptomatic that this conference and the publication were initia-

ted by western feminists; Slovak authors would usual y look back at the past

regime only when inspired to do so by their western col eagues, especial y in

the first years after 1989. 14 In this case the impulse came from leftist-orien-

ted, political y active women around the Foundation close to the Green Party

who did not want to be just observers of the lives of women in post-socialist

countries, but who, after the fal of real socialism, wanted to come terms with

their own socialist ideas and their ideas concerning the status of women in

13 P. Sammler, C. Sperling, Unsere Geschichte(n) mit Sozialismus und Feminismus. Dokumentation eines internationalen Seminars der Frauen Anstiftung Hamburg, Frauen Anstiftung

1994, December 1993.

14 The first publication about the lives of women under socialism was published later,

preceded by several years of research by the Center of Gender Studies. Zuzana

Kiczková(ed.), Women’s Memory. The Experience of Self-shaping in Biographical Interviews,

IRIS 2006.

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socialism. 15 This international conference attested to the fact that they strove

to start a real dialogue, while keeping in mind equal value of their different

experiences – despite the fact that Western women had an advantage given

their long experience with theoretical, practical and political articulation of

their situation in a patriarchal, but stil democratic and pluralistic society. We

succeeded in overcoming our lack of experience with public discourse by

using the method of biographies of the participants in our approach to the

main theme of the conference. 16

The first feminist activities in Slovakia had nothing to do with the

former Socialist Union of Women; if it was mentioned at all then it was mo-

stly to answer questions from the West. This organisation was one of the

symbols of totalitarianism and, as we perceived it, it had nothing to do with

us. Feminism came with an of er of openness, plurality, reflection on gender

relations, i.e. with something completely different than the mandatory and

uniform socialist emancipation.

2.4. Personal is political

The relation between the personal and the political is one of the key issues in the fe-

minist movement and feminist theory. The dichotomy of the private vs. public sphere

and overcoming this dichotomy also became the theme through which theorists from

post-socialist countries often dif erentiated themselves from their western coleagues and

underscored the argument of dif erent experiences in the context of real socialism. In

15 One of the initiators of the conference Heidi Burmeister articulated her disappointment

about the fact that socialism had not become a more just alternative to capitalism:

“From my perspective, socialism has not fulfil ed its promises. (…) Feminism was also

discredited because it cal s into question the power asymmetry of gender relations. But

also because it measures the claim for freedom and human dignity (…) against the real

situation of women.“, [in:] Ibiotem, p. 9.

16 The participants from Slovakia were Anna Daučíková, Jana Cviková, Zuzana Kiczková.

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this place we do not want to deal with this rather broad theoretical discussion, and we

do not want to deny the dif erence in experience related to the dif erent geo-political

space. In the background of one of the main contradictions of this discussion we strive to

pinpoint the motivation that gave rise to the first feminist activities in Slovakia.

For instance, Czech feminist philosopher Jiřina Šmejkalová in her study “Gender

as an Analytical Category of PostCommunist Studies” writes that “for those who had

spent their entire lives protecting the dignity of personal space from the aggressive inte-

rvention of the political sphere, the feminist slogan ‘the personal is political’ sounded like

a bad joke.” 17 The reason was the experience of people with intrusions upon the private

space (wiretapping, spying and other techniques), as well as the lack of political conscio-

usness due to the fact that there was only one proper politics – that of the communist

leaders. These were the causes behind the special experience with politics as such. Only

after some time was it possible to talk about politics and about the private and the political,

and about the private in the political. But on the other hand, the concept was revolutio-

nary for women who understood it albeit intuitively. We felt very strongly that our lives

were a part of the public, that we were the public; politics influenced our lives and formed

them. Later we started to comprehend the complexity of the slogan and it helped us to

formulate our positions and our claims, it helped us to understand how to take advantage

of our freedom after November 1989 – how to take freedom not just as an abstract ideal

(as it sometimes sounded from former male anti-communist dissidents), but as practical

freedom, as freedom to work on new issues and topics which were important to us.

The possibility to express our own feelings, needs, and deficits was the starting point for

the first feminist activities in Slovakia: a series of lectures on feminist theories at the Faculty

of Arts of Comenius University (which later developed into the Gender Studies Centre)

and the feminist cultural magazine Aspekt (which later developed into the first feminist

organisation ASPEKT with broad publishing and educational activities).

17 J. Šmejkalová, “Gender as an Analytical Category of PostCommunist Studies”, [In:]

Gender in Transition in Eastern and Central Europe: Proceedings, ed. G. Jahnert et al, Trafo Verlag 2001.

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In former Czechoslovakia as wel as in al post-socialist countries, politics and

the public were defined from the male point of view and through male experience.

This experience was considered to be neutral and to be good both for men and wo-

men. But we felt very much that this experience was not ours. At the beginning this

grasp of the relationship between the political and personal was more intuitive than

conscious. Only after several years were we able to look at this issue from a feminist

point of view. 18 On the occasion of recapitulating the past two decades we gathered

at a round table of “beginners” to speak about our memories. We agreed that this

knowledge that the personal is political had realy empowered us and given us the

courage to take a political stance, in the sense of civic political action. All “beginners” at

the round table stressed the high critical potential of feminist thinking and action. Artist

Anna Daučíková even explicitly recalled that in the political and social situation in Slova-

kia after 1989 for her “feminism was the only opportunity to take a critical stance”.

And we had often realised that the political is personal. But from the very

beginning we have not identified this political with the state, but with our own acti-

vity, our own power to name and define, with our own construction of the public

space – i.e. with politics as action. At the same time, our public activity has been very

closely interlinked with our personal (professional and private) motivations.

3. “the feminism of aspeKt was

anti-nationalist from the very beginning…”

3.1. Slovak-Czech feminist magazine Aspekt

Even though the road was difficult and not short (more than two years passed

between the birth of the idea and the publication of the first issue of Aspekt) it

18 The theme of “the Personal is Political” was, among others, tackled in one whole issue of the Aspekt magazine 2/1999.

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was very inspiring and fascinating. After the fall of communist rule women who

founded the ASPEKT project, as well as some other women’s groups, started

to see politics and the public space in a new way. We examined the concept of

“the personal is political” in our firsthand experience (through our personal as

well as professional interests) as it was formulated in the second wave of femi-

nism (in German Neue Frauenbewegung). We learned a lot from women from

the West (European – mainly from the Vienna University and from the Ham-

burg feminist foundation FrauenAnstiftung, the USA, etc.) and the East (mainly

from the Polish feminist Foundation eFKa, Gender Studies Prague, etc). 19

In autumn 1991 women editors from the prestigious literary journal

Slovenské pohľady invited other female authors to prepare a “women’s issue” of

the journal. A group of women (from the field of literature, art, cinematography

etc.) started to meet more regularly. After some time more women joined this

informal group; later these women felt the need to work on some concrete

project. They started to prepare the 1st issue of the feminist cultural magazine

Aspekt. In that period of time, publication possibilities were narrowing because

nationalist tendencies were growing stronger. The first impulses came from

abroad – mostly from Western Europe and the USA – but these were not the

only impulses. When journalists asked us why we were feminists our answer

was always something like: “And why are there so many women confronted

with the reality and with feminist ideas who have not become feminists?” There

was so much information, so many books and possibilities to study new ma-

terials. The period after 1989 was very turbulent, and many women around

ASPEKT were active in the public sphere. Some of them where confronted

with the specifics of their private lives (maternity, etc). We started to study, to

selfimprove through selfeducation. At the same time we felt very strongly the

turbulences of the time, one of which was the splitting of Czechoslovakia in

19 See also the publication Prelude about feminist projects in Central and Eastern Europe prepared by ASPEKT for the foundation Frauen Anstiftung in 1995.

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1993, which we found very frustrating. In that year we published the first issue

of the Aspekt magazine. 20 It was published in Bratislava. We defined it as the

Slovak and Czech magazine to make a stance about cultural continuity against

the division of the republic. As time went by it was not so important to define

ourselves also through national identities – the feminist identification of the group

of women around ASPEKT started to be much more important. Vivid contacts

with authors from the Czech Republic continued, as well as with the first Czech

feminist organisation Gender Studies in Prague. In the 1st issue ( Aspekt 1/1993)

Germanist Jana Cviková (together with Jana Juráňová – editor in chief of the

magazine) wrote the editorial for the Slovak side, former dissident and sociolo-

gist Jiřina Šiklová (founder of Gender Studies in Prague) for the Czech side. We

declared our disagreement with nationalist tendencies.

The 1st issue of the Aspekt magazine was published in October 1993

with the financial support (only for printing costs) from the Frauen Anstiftung,

Pro Helvetia and the “old” Heinrich Böll Foundation.

3.2. Feminism and nationalism

A very important milestone on this road to the first issue of the Aspekt ma-

gazine was the first event organised in Bratislava by the German feminist

foundation Frauen-Anstiftung with the cooperation of the informal group

of women around Aspekt – the conference “Feminism and Nationalism”.

It took place in Bratislava in June 1993. As Jana Cviková wrote in a short

note in the 1st issue of the Aspekt magazine: “From the 11th to the 13th of

June 1993, German, Croatian, Serbian, Czech and Slovak women gathe-

red in Bratislava at the conference Feminism and Nationalism. The topics

discussed at the conference were in particular aimed at how the well-

20 The public presentation of the first issue took place in Bratislava on the 11th of Octo-

ber 1993.

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established structures and instruments of power (original y patriarchal and

reproducing patriarchy) are misused in the present-day world; what the

routes of feminist work are, how to interfere with the things around us

under particular conditions of concrete countries, social and professional

groups and personalities. The feminism of ASPEKT was antinationalist

from the very beginning and in this regard we were in consent with all

women on the conference.” 21

It was the first big and notable feminist official meeting of women from

Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and other countries that took place in

Slovakia. We regarded the problem of nationalism as very important and at the

same time very dangerous. People living in the postsocialist part of Europe

were shocked by the phenomenon of nationalism.

The collection of texts from the conference Feminism and Nationalism

contained all contributions as well as the transcript of the discussion. It was

published in a Slovak and German version in the same publication. This confe-

rence looked at nationalism as the crucial problem of post-socialist society and

interlinked it with patriarchy (most explicitly in the paper by Zuzana Kiczková

“Image of Ourselves – the Picture Unified, True, Objective and Patriarchal” 22)

and that was the key approach to nationalism for those of us who identified

themselves as feminists. Nationalism was the problem of our everyday lives as

well as the problem of political elites, the problem of presentation of Slovakia

abroad. The topic of nationalism in the conference was set down by the wo-

men from the West, but it resonated with our experience. From that point of

view, the conference was a very memorable beginning of articulation of issues

as well as a very memorable point of meeting with feminists from Germany and

feminist lesbian women who openly declared their lesbian orientation, which at

21 J. Cviková, “Prvé feministické stretnutie na Slovensku”, [in:] Aspekt 1/1993, p. 89.

22 Z. Kiczková, “Slovensko. Obraz o ‚nás‘ – obraz jednotný, pravdivý, objektívny, patria-

chálny”, [in:] Feminizmus a nacionalizmus, Frauen Anstiftung 1993.

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that time was taboo in our part of the world. We also met with women from

former Yugoslavia, where nationalism divided the feminist movement.

The concept of the Slovak-Czech magazine Aspekt was introduced

at this conference (and in the related publication) as “the magazine aimed at

the womanspecific problems”, in which “we decided to take on a feminist

standpoint”. 23

3.3. “Splitting” of pro-democratic forces

The elation of November 1989 very soon vanished and the first wave of

revolutionary enthusiasm disappeared. From 1993 til 1998, nationalism was

one of the big problems of political representation in Slovakia. That meant that

ASPEKT as the first feminist project was functioning for the initial five years in

a not very favorable atmosphere of the non-democratic government of Vla-

dimír Mečiar. At that time disapproval of our work was expressed numerous

times by our mostly male friends and former colleagues – intellectuals, wri-

ters, etc. They told us that we were splitting the forces of resistance against

Mečiar and other nondemocratic actors. Our answer was something like:

“We are doing our work, we are doing what we think is very important for

democracy in this society.” We slowly formulated what we strongly felt at that

time: There is no democracy without democracy for women; there are no

human rights without women’s rights and without rights of children, rights of

sexual minorities and others. But for prodemocratic intel ectuals in Slovakia,

feminism was the splitting of forces, weakening of arrays of true democrats.

This was very painful for us because these democrats and intel ectuals were a

kind of avantgarde of our society. But we felt that their concept of democracy

excluded many and among them also us – women who defined ourselves as

23 J. Cviková, “List z Bratislavy: pokus o postsocialistický feminizmus”, [in:] Ibidem, p.

104105.

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feminists. We were no former communists; we were enthusiastic about the

change taking place in our society, we were against nationalism. On the other

hand, we were uncomfortable with a model of democracy that excluded us.

What we found extraordinarily important, they presented as antidemocratic.

We perceived democracy as plurality of opinions and we claimed to present

our interests, not interests defined by others.

On the 16th of December 1994 a conference of writers’ organisations

devoted to the 5th anniversary of November 1989 was held in Budmerice in

the Home of Slovak Writers. The text presented there by Jana Juranova was

later published in Aspekt. At the conference Juranova also said: “Yes, there is

a latently present reproach aimed at us, sometimes it is even spoken out very

loudly, and the reproach is that these days in Slovakia we have a lot of other

problems and we need not be occupied with some feminism. I hear that re-

proach and my answer is: I strongly disapprove. We must deal with everything

in Slovakia; with everything what we have neglected for the last at least twenty

years. (…) In my case that (…) means that I must and want to be occupied by

the phenomenon called feminism.” 24

4. The round table: persons and topics

4.1. Feminists – beginners

To commemorate the beginning of the process and its continuation it is very

important to benefit from the memories of women who started the process

in Slovakia in the early 1990s. We named all these women including us (Zora

Bútorová, Jana Cviková, Anna Daučíková, Hana Fábry, Katarína Farkašová, Mo-

24 J. Juráňová, “Bez kontextu“, [in:] Aspekt 3/1994, p. 4.

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nika Grochová, Jarmila Filadelfiová, Jana Juráňová, Zuzana Kiczková, Oľga Pie-

truchová) “the beginners”, which does not mean only that we had started thin-

king about feminism and gender in Slovakia in the early 1990s, but also that we

ourselves had been beginners in the topic. In this sense we were the beginners

for quite a long time and in some sense we still are beginners, even today.

We invited the “1st generation” of feminists who were active from the very

early 1990s. To stimulate the discussion we chose several motivational questions,

e.g.: How do you remember your first encounters with feminism, your begin-

nings? What has happened in Slovakia in the field of feminism and gender issues

since the beginning of the 1990s and how? Where do you see the positive and

negatives sides of the process? The questions were not very concrete; the goal

was to recall those times and to talk about them as much as possible.

ASPEKT as the first feminist organisation in Slovakia (officially founded

in 1993, but working more than one year before that) was the initiator of the

debate, because it was and still is one of the starting points of feminist and gen-

der thinking in Slovakia, as well as of civic activism and NGO networking in all

relevant topics of the feminist and gender discourse. The other very important

activity in the early 1990s was a feminist course of lectures which started at the

Comenius University at the Department of Philosophy in 1991 (initiated by

philosophers Zuzana Kiczková and Etela Farkašová). ASPEKT had very close

contacts with them almost from the very beginning.

Many other future activities in the feminist field in Slovakia were derived from

ASPEKT, which was a kind of basis for networking and introduction of new activities.

The initiators of the round table were the women from ASPEKT – Jana

Cviková and Jana Juráňová – the co-founders of ASPEKT and the only ones who

have been working in ASPEKT continuously from its start. The women invited to the

round table to talk about their common memories about the onset of feminism in

Slovakia were (in the alphabetical order): Zora Bútorová (sociologist dealing with

questions of public opinion; she started to cooperate with the Aliance of Women in

1995, later also with ASPEKT on sociological researches seen through the prism of

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gender; nowadays she is a key person in the Institute for Public Affairs); Anna Dau-

číková (artist, one of the co-founders of ASPEKT, she worked in ASPEKT til the spring

of 1997; she introduced to ASPEKT the theme of sexual minorities, later she was very

active as an LGBT activist, e.g. the Qarchive in Bratislava; now she is a vicerector

of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava); Hana Fábry (lesbian activist,

worked in ASPEKT for several years as an office manager, inspired by Aspekt journal

she was the editorinchief of the LGBT journal Atribute); Katarína Farkašová (the

head of the Alliance of Women, womenś NGO dealing with the theme of violence

against women and working with victims of violence and trafficking and many other

topics); Jarmila Filadelfiová (sociologist devoting herself to the question of the fa-

mily, gender, population, violence against women; she is now working at Institute for

Public Affairs and cooperates with NGOs, e.g. with EsFem and ASPEKT); Monika

Grochová (specialist on the issue of violence against women, she had founded the

very first mothers’ centre in Slovakia – FENESTRA in Košice, Eastern Slovakia – in the

middle of the 1990s, it was later transformed into an organisation providing support

and help of all kinds to women suffering from violence; nowadays she is working as a

trainer in the business sphere); Zuzana Kiczková (philosopher, co-founder of the

courses on feminist philosophy and gender studies at the Comenius University in the

school year 1990/1991, the course was later transformed into the Gender Studies

Centre at the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of Comenius

University in Bratislava); Oľga Pietruchová (for many years the leader of the organi-

sation “Pro Choice”; started to colaborate with feminist NGOs after 2000; when, in

February 2001, the Pro Choice organisation began to function as an umbrella organi-

sation of many NGOs she was working as a liberal politician; today she is working also

as a gender expert, she is the head of Women’s Lobby Slovakia).

4.2. Foundations and continuations

The memories recalled at the round table revealed also that most of the women

had had the first contacts with feminism from abroad; not only from the Western

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countries, but also from the East (e.g. Jana Cviková visited the 1st feminist seminar in

Krakow, Poland). Whether it was the feminist conference (Vienna as it was the case

of Zuzana Kiczková), or friendly contacts in some foreign country (Italy for Anna Dau-

číková, the USA for Jana Juráňová), or living somewhere abroad for some time (Ger-

many for Oľga Pietruchová), all these impulses were strong and as such they were the

beginning of the feminist orientation of particular women. Nevertheless, women who

met at the round table were not the only ones traveling abroad at that time; it means

that the experience of contacts with foreign feminists, feminist ideas, must be matched

with some life experience or special sensitivity to the gender asymmetry in society.

One of the key activities of Slovak feminism – the gender course at the

Comenius University, was started by philosopher Zuzana Kiczková, philoso-

pher and writer Etela Farkašová, and later the course was joined by philosopher

Marianna Szapuová. All three of them are still the main actors of feminist philo-

sophy and gender studies in the Slovak Republic. The gender course existed for

ten years and then, in 2001, it was transformed into a more official Gender Stu-

dies Centre at the Department of Philosophy and the History of Philosophy. 25

Zuzana Kiczková appreciated that ASPEKT had published the feminist

magazine and later also books, 26 which were according to her of high quality.

The editing of texts – both translations and those written in Slovak – was also

superb. This created the possibility for women philosophers to work with stu-

dents on textual analysis of feminist and gender theories.

ASPEKT with its publication and educational activities can be labelled

as the key actor, first of all because of the overall goal of its activities: gender

sensitisation of society. All themes through which we have tried to reach this

25 All three teachers prepared the collection of translations of philosophical texts Štyri pohľady do feministickej filozofie (Four Looks into Feminist Philosophy; Archa 1994).

Philosophers Herta Nagl-Docekal and Ingvild Birkhan from Vienna University consulted

the selection of the texts in this first Slovak book about feminist theory.

26 Also the first original Slovak book from the field of feminist theory – specifical y ecofeminism: Z. Kiczková, Príroda: vzor žena!? Hľadanie alternatív v ekofeminizme. ASPEKT 1998.

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goal (these were also the main topics of individual issues of the Aspekt maga-

zine) have thus far been relevant: the beauty myth, motherhood, women and

power, the personal is political, fears and barriers, women’s writing, feminist

philosophy, feminist pedagogy and many others.

4.3. Political participation

The issue of political participation has always been present in our work, so-

metimes indirectly. It was contained in topics of Aspekt magazine like “Per-

sonal is Political”, “Women and Power”, “Fears and Barriers”, “Patriarchy”,

“Women’s spaces”, etc. We covered the topic in many media presentations

in the 1990s and after 2000 and were active in formulating the principles of

women’s politics; this theme was mostly stimulated by the media, and we

were “just” answering their questions. Our role in the discussion was not

simple. On the one hand, we were supporters of women in politics, on the

other, not many female politicians in the Slovak Republic in the 1990s and

later were worth of supporting. (Also because they were mostly fulfilling

the tasks of their party leaders; they often played a service role in this male-

dominated sphere.)

The theme of political participation started to be really relevant to the

general public before the parliamentary election in 2002. Although we had

reacted to this issue in the media also before 2002, what we, in general, deem

to be more important is the quality of female politicians and the quality of wo-

men’s and feminist agenda in political programmes, rather than just formal par-

ticipation of women in politics. Activities of NGOs (associated in the Forum of

Women and supported by the Coordination Committee for Women’s Issues

and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs SR) were limited to the quantitative

side of women’s representation in decision-making positions and did not create

a chance of a more indepth public reflection on the social problem of the

malefemale asymmetry. Although they were referring to human rights by citing

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the CEDAW commission (which, in its comments to the Slovak report, recom-

mended using quotas in Slovakia) they never took steps to discuss the context

of gender stereotypes, gender division of labor and the like, which are issues

explicitly mentioned by the CEDAW. This way they avoided conflicts without

which a real change in the gender order can hardly take place. This way they

let the discussion focus on whether women belong in politics at all, what they

can contribute, and they examined the very legitimacy of women’s presence in

politics or their “quality”. Feminist and women’s NGOs, 27 have reflected on the

situations that were, given the social context, new (female candidates running

for president, female candidates in the parliamentary elections, etc.).

4.4. Public opinion

Awareness in the sphere of political participation of women or the lack

of such awareness is connected with public opinion in Slovakia. Zora

Bútorová recalled that the person who had stimulated research using

the gender perspective in the 1990s had been her colleague Tatiana Ro-

sová (nowadays a Member of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic for

the SDKU – Slovak Democratic Christian Union). Rosová had come back

from a conference abroad and asked Zora Bútorová to cooperate on

sociological research conducted from a genderbased perspective. Infor-

mation on the first stage of the research and its findings (focus groups of

women) was published in the Aspekt magazine 3/1994. 28 This was the

preparatory stage of the later research,which resulted in the publication

She and He in Slovakia (1996).

27 We dif erentiate between feminist and women’s organisations; feminist organisations are

also referred to as human rights women’s organisations.

28 T. Rosová, Ženy na Slovensku. “Vyhodnotenie výsledkov kvalitatívnej sociologickej

sondy”, [in:] Aspekt 3/1994, p. 113116.

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Zora Bútorová was the leader of the research and the editor of

the book. 29 She recal ed that just after the downfal of communist rule

in the early 1990s she had not been interested in gender. The topic of

the family and women (as related to it) was absolutely repugnant to her

as a sociologist; during socialism the topic had been connected with mi-

nor social critique, permitted by the authorities. For Zora Bútorová this

was not a topic she would want to be engaged with after the fal of the

system. At that time she was interested mostly in the research of public

opinion. Only later did she realise that the gender view on sociological

data was very inspiring and needed. After the book had been published,

Zora Bútorová as the author (with others) met with a negative reaction

of some of her colleagues. She was quite sensitive to this irrational ne-

gative critique and she understood that the topic was important. In the

next years she was the main consultant for very important publications

of the Institute for Public Affairs (published annually since 1996). In A

Global Report on the State of Society there were also chapters devoted

to gender issues. 30 In 2002 there was a chapter on the issues around

sexual minorities and a public opinion pol related to it.

29 Partial results were published in Aspekt: Z. Bútorová et al, “Žena v rodine, práci, spoločnosti”, [in:] Aspekt 23/1995, p. 228244; Z. Bútorová, “Homosexualita vo svetle

verejnej mienky”, [in:] Aspekt 1/1996, p. 161162.

30 Gender issues (in the form of a “special” chapter) were covered in the publications

of the Global Report, see: Z. Bútorová, J. Filadelfiová, P. Guráň, O. Gyárfášová, K.

Farkašová: “Gender Issue in Slovakia”, [in:] Slovakia 1998-1999. A Global Report on the

State of Society, ed. G. Mesežnikov, M. Ivantyšyn, T. Nicholson, Institute for Public Af airs 1999; professional critiques: J. Cviková; A. Daučíková, Z. Bútorová, V. WallaceLoren-cová, “The Status of Sexual Minorities”, in the Report on the State of Society compiled by

the same editors and published by the Institute of Public Affairs in 2003; J. Filadelfiová,

Z. Bútorová, O. Gyárfášová, “Women and Men in Politics”, in the same volume; Z.

Bútorová J. Filadelfiová, O. Gyárfášová, J. Cviková, K. Farkašová, “Women, Men, and

Equality of Opportunities”, [in:] ibidem and Z. Bútorová, J. Filadelfiová, “The Equality

of Women and Men”, [in:] Slovakia 2006. A Global Report on the State of Society, ed. M.

Bútora, M. Kollár, G. Mesežnikov, Institute for Public Affairs 2007.

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Even though the findings of these researches were not very optimi-

stic (on sexual minorities, on the division of labour between men and wo-

men), these publications were crucial y important; it can be said that these

researches changed the consciousness of people very much, because the

population learned many unpleasant things, and opinions started to change,

at least formally.

Zora Bútorová continued to work on gender topics in many other pu-

blications, e.g. the book of interviews with women active in the public sphere

Krehká sila (Fragile Power, 2001). The Institute for Public Af airs also carried

out a project aimed at elderly women “Women plus 45+” within the EQUAL

Programme; the research part of the project was realised by Zora Bútorová

and Jarmila Filadelfiová. For Filadelfiová , just like for Bútorová, the topic of

the family and women was not interesting at the beginning, but later she star-

ted to collect data and to follow the issues around the family, gender, gender

policies, political tools, etc. Nowadays, she is a specialist in this field working

with data from the gendered perspective.

In the discussion both sociologist Zora Bútorová and Jarmila Filadelfiová

recalled they felt the lack of this kind of sociology in Slovakia. In comparisons

with some other post-socialist countries, also with the Czech Republic, in Slo-

vakia there is no feminist or gender sociology; there are just some sociological

views on some specific gender problems.

4.5. Political participation – the presence of the theme

in ASPEKT

The issue of the Aspekt magazine devoted to the topic of “Women and Power”

(23/1995) was the first publication discussing women in the public sphere. Also

the issues of the Aspekt magazine with the topic “Personal is Political” (2/1999),

and “Patriarchy” (2/20001/2001) were published afterwards. In 2002 the

anthology Hlasy žien. Aspekty ženskej politiky (Voices of Women. Aspects of

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Womenś Politics, eds. Jana Cviková and Jana Juráňová) was published with

many texts on political participation, suffrage, relations between the public and

the private sphere, etc. Some texts in the book were “recycled” from Aspekt

magazine and placed in a new context of the political situation, this publication

and also in the context of the common campaign “Hlasy žien” (Women’s Vo-

ices) organised by the umbrella organisation Možnosť voľby (Pro Choice) befo-

re the parliamentary elections. The campaign targeted primarily female voters

with an appeal “Ženy, kto rozhoduje za nás?” (Women, who decides for us?) to

make a decision about themselves by going to the ballots.

Another publication – the translation of the book by Barbara Stiegler Ako

uplatňovať rodové hľadisko. Aspekty stratégie Európskej únie (Gender Mainstre-

aming and How to Use It. Aspekts of European Union Strategy, 2002) was the

first publication on gender mainstreaming in Slovakia. Also the booklet Na ceste

do Európskej únie. Sprievodkyňa nielen pre ženy (On the Way to the European

Union. A Guidebook Not Only for Women, 2002) published in cooperation

with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and partner organisations from Poland and

the Czech Republic was the first one on women in the European Union – it

utilised materials of the European Womenś Lobby and was partly devoted to

the topic of political participation of women.

We pursued the issue of political participation of women in several

other projects, e.g. the publication Kradmá ruka feministky rozvažuje za

plentou. Aspekty parlamentných volieb (The Sneaky Hand of a Feminist

Ponders over a Pol ing Booth. Aspects of Parliamentary Election, 2006).

In the publication the authors Ľubica Kobová and Zuzana Maďarová ana-

lysed the parliamentary election in 2006 (candidate lists, media depictions

of women and men, etc.) from the feminist and gender point of view and

gave recommendations for gender-sensitive ways of writing about female

politicians in the media.

Direct recommendations for gender (sensitive) politics are given in the

already mentioned analyses; in the introduction to Equal Pay for Equal Work?

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Aspects of the Gender Pay Gap31 and Education through the Prism of Gender.

Aspects of Key Risks. 32 The first publication deals with the problem of equal pay.

This theme was not raised in Slovakia as a problem which ought to have been

solved before the Slovak Republic entered the European Union. The problem

was present, also some sociological researches pointed to it, but it was publicly

recognised and acknowledged only several years ago. The second publication

based on the research and the publication The Teaching Profession. Aspects of

Gender Equality in School33 which was realised in cooperation with the Institute

for Public Affairs as part of the project focusing on gender sensitive education

pinkandblueworld.sk (financed through the EQUAL Programme; carried out

by ASPEKT as leading organisations and partner institutions – the human rights

organisation Občan a demokracia /Citizen and Democracy/, Bábkové divadlo

na Rázcestí /Theater on the Crossroads/ and Škola základ života, n.f. /an ele-

mentary school/). 34

4.6. Sexual minorities

The theme of sexual minorities has been present in ASPEKT almost from the

very beginning – through Anna Daučíkova, the cofounder of ASPEKT. In 1996

she initiated the lesbian issue of the magazine Lesbická exitencia (The Lesbian

Existence) as well as the anthology of texts Lesby-by-by. Aspekty politiky identity

(Lesbybyby. Aspects of Identity Politics) published in 2004. Aspekt was the

31 For the English summary see http://www.aspekt.sk/download/summary_web_new.pdf.

32 For the English summary see http://www.aspekt.sk/download/Gender_Sensitive_Peda-

gogy.pdf.

33 J. Filadelfiová, Učiteľské povolanie. Aspekty rodovej rovnosti v škole, ed. Jana Cviková, Jana Juráňová, ASPEKT 2008. For the English summary see http://www.pinkandblueworld.sk/en/hlavnemenu/read/theteachingprofessionaspectsofgenderequalityinschool.

34 More information about this project on the webpage www.pinkandblueworld.sk.

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medium in which all important information on activism related to sexual mino-

rities was published when it was relevant. The issue of sexual minorities and

sexual “otherness” is one of the topics which diversify rigid gender stereotypes;

at the same time it is a topic which is both very personal and very political.

At the round table Anna Daučíková recalled that for her feminism in

the early 1990s had been the political alternative in the situation when former

Czechoslovakia and later also Slovakia had started its new era but with the

people from the old era, which had been, according to her, unbearable. As she

said, it had not been possible for her to hold the position of the conservative

“right” with their traditionalist attitudes to women, and it had also been impos-

sible for her to be on the position of postcommunist leftists or nationalists. As

she said, feminism had been the only opportunity to take a critical stance.

Anna Daučíková brought to ASPEKT her intellectual input and she was

also the one who introduced us to the ideas of Italian feminism of difference

which (in particular at the beginning) we found as very close to our positions

and we perceived it as an alternative to equality propagated by the communists

which in reality had often meant sameness.

During the discussion Daučíková said she greatly appreciated coope-

rating with ASPEKT. She literally said that she appreciated the fact that Jana

Cviková and Jana Juráňová had not rejected the topic of sexual minorities and

had not excluded it from their work. They even spoke about it on TV shows,

which in the mid1990s was quite crucial. Since feminists were maligned as

“abnormal” women it was not acceptable to us to legitimate ourselves through

references to our own obligatory heterosexuality. As Daučíková said ASPEKT

was mostly heterosexual, but nevertheless it gave a lot of space to lesbian wo-

men whenever it was needed and, according to her, this had been a specific

phenomenon of the 1990s. The introduction of the topic of sexual minorities

was very important for the further presentation of this issue and also for further

activism. ASPEKT was a target of unpleasant attacks of the media also because

of this issue. Paradoxically, some politicians and some media attacks on lesbians

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and gays later stopped, and it was not so important to talk about lesbian and

gay rights activism at the time when these groups started to raise the issue of

the samesex registered partnership in the late 1990s. Hana Fábry mentio-

ned during the discussion that she had started to be interested in feminism as

a lesbian woman. She cooperated with ASPEKT for a short time and later she

became engaged in lesbian activism. She was involved in working on the lesbian

issue of Aspekt. She then started to publish the LGBT magazine Atribút. No-

wadays she is still involved in lesbian and queer activism and she even was the

first nonheterosexual independent candidate in the elections to the European

Parliament in 2009 for the Green Party of Slovakia.

4.7. Violence against women

Also topics like violence against women and reproductive rights, although very cru-

cial and very confrontational, have been very significant for the work of ASPEKT.

The theme of violence against women was present in our work very early. Even

though we published a special issue on violence against women only in 1998, the

topic was present in many materials in other issues, and the same can be said about

reproductive rights. In 1998 we published the 1st Aspekt on violence (the 2nd issue

was published in 1999 with the topic violence against women and children).

Violence against women is one of the key themes for ASPEKT and many

other NGOs, as well as for the coalition “The Fifth Woman“. On the one hand,

the theme was very painful, but very important, and till the 1990s it had mostly

been dealt with by tabloids and not by the serious media. Two national cam-

paigns, both with no state support, were very important in changing the publi-

c’s perception of the issue. The campaigns were organised by the network of

NGOS grouped under the umbrella initiative “The Fifth Woman”. 35 During this

35 The 1st one took place from November 23rd 2001 until February 28th 2002; the

second one took place from November 25th 2002 until February 14th 2003.

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period more organisations focusing on helping abused women were created

(e.g. Alliance of Women, Fenestra, Pro Familia). ASPEKT published several pu-

blications on violence against women. 36 The possibility to publish the magazine

was a very good starting point for educational activities and later for networking

of organisations with similar educational interests. We cooperated with the me-

dia; we contacted journalists and educated them to be more sensitive to the

issue of violence against from the feminist perspective.

Not all important and relevant personalities could be at the meeting at

the round table dedicated to recalling our beginnings in feminism and the gen-

der equality agenda. There are several significant women who have done a lot

of work in this field, among others, Eva Sopková, who has been very intensely

devoted to the issue of violence. She is the head of the NGO Pro Familia and

a center for battered women. She was the only psychologist who reacted to

ASPEKT’s appeal for collaboration. Later, she started to be involved in the topic

of violence against women and cooperated with ASPEKT on preparing two

issues of the magazine about violence (3/1998, 1/1999). She is one the most

competent experts on violence against women and children; she has initiated

many educational activities on this topic, and was involved in preparation of the

publication The Fifth Woman published on the occasion of the national campaign

to stop violence against women. In fact, her cooperation facilitated the opining

of this theme.

36 Judith L. Herman, Trauma a uzdravenie ( Trauma and Recovery, 2001; E. Fröschl and S.

Löw, Konať proti násiliu na deťoch ( Take Action to End Violence against Children), 1999; E. Fröschl, S. Löw, Konať proti násiliu na ženách ( Take Action to End Violence against

Women), 2000, 2008; L. L. Heise, J. Pitanguy and A. Germain, Násilie páchané na

ženách. Skrytá ujma na zdraví ( Violence against Women), 1998; A. Jones: Nabudúce bude mŕtva ( Next Time Sheĺl Be Dead) 2003; G. Braun, D. Wolters, Proti sexuálnemu zneužívaniu dievčat a chlapcov. Príručka pre matky a otcov (Against Sexual Abuse of Girls

and Boys. A Handbook for Mothers and Fathers), 1999 – all in cooperation with Pro Fami-

lia; J. Cviková, J. Juráňová, Ľ. Kobová (eds), Žena nie je tovar. Komodifikácia žien v našej kultúre, 2005; J. Cviková, J. Juráňová (eds), Ružový a modrý svet. Rodové stereotypy a ich dôsledky, 2003, 2005; J. Cviková, J. Juráňová (eds), Piata žena. Aspekty násilia páchaného na ženách, 2001.

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In the discussion at the round table there were Monika Grochová

and Katarína Farkašová – two women also dealing with violence against

women. Monika Grochová founded a Mothers’ Centre in Košice in Eastern

Slovakia, the first one in Slovakia. The impulse for this was a bulletin in Czech

about mothers’ centres in Germany, sent to her from ASPEKT. The Mothers’

Centre called Fenestra began operating in 1996 and was one of the first partner

organisations of ASPEKT. After several years, Fenestra transformed from a Mo-

thers’ Centre to a Centre for Abused and Battered Women. Monika Grochová

was the leader of the organisation for several years and gained significant expe-

rience in this field. She was one of the women (together with women from

ASPEKT and Pro Choice and other NGOs) who initiated the very first media

campaigns on the problem of violence against women. 37

After some years many mothers’ centres were established in Slovakia

and nowadays there is also the Union of Mothers’ Centres in Slovakia. Ho-

wever, at present, these Mothers’ Centres are not based on feminist grounds;

only several women working there hold feminist positions. Mothers’ Centres as

such are still quite traditional in their understanding of motherhood. Fenestra’s

groundbreaking role in setting up Mothers’ Centres is not acknowledged.

Katarína Farkašová is the head of the womenś NGO Aliancia žien

(Alliance of Women). The organisation was founded in the early 1990s by bio-

logist Ľuba Lacinová, who then left for Munich to pursue her scientific career

and Katarína Farkašová continued in her work at Aliancia žien. This organisation

initiated the 1st sociological research realised from a gender perspective. The

research was carried out by the agency FOCUS and the publication with the

research findings Ona a on na Slovenku (She and He in Slovakia) was published

in 1996; later it was published also in English. The research had many short-

37 Although the campaign was initiated and officially organised by FENESTRA, other NGOs

of the coalition Piata žena actively cooperated and some of them also worked on the

organisation of the campaign: Aspekt, Pro Familia, Fenestra, Aliancia žien Slovenska,

EsFem (formerly Eset), Možnosť voľby, Podisea.

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comings because of the lack of gender-oriented sociologists, but still it was the

first step in this field. In her later career, Katarína Farkašová has also dealt with

violence against women, trafficking in women etc. The Alliance of Women, as

well as other feminist NGOs (ASPEKT, Fenestra, Pro Familia, Pro Choice, and

others) is in the coalition “Piata žena” (The Fifth Woman) and “Možnosť voľby”

(Pro Choice).

4.8. Reproductive rights

Another issue which has always been important for al feminist NGOs is

reproductive rights. As the topic has been present in political discourse in

Slovakia since the early 1990s, al feminist NGOs have reacted to it in many

ways and in many situations: in newspapers, discussions, etc. The most

relevant point for their identification with the issue was the impulse from

the Christian Democrats in 2001 when they proposed to change the Con-

stitution. At that time the initiative Pro Choice arose very spontaneously as

the reaction of many women to the politics of the Christian Democrats.

The Pro Choice organisation began operating as the umbrella for all orga-

nisations interested in reproductive rights of women. Their activities were

more aimed at politics; their reactions were very concrete. Women who

reacted to the politics of the Christian Democratic Party were exposed to

many public attacks. In that period several events were organised, e.g. an

international conference, seminars, etc. ASPEKT published the book Pro

Choice. Aspects of Rights and Responsibilities. 38

Oľga Pietruchová, nowadays the head of the Pro Choice organisa-

tion entered politics in the late ‘1990s as a member of the liberal party ANO

(The Alliance of New Citizens). Also in politics her agenda was reproductive

rights. She was active in public discussions. The umbrella NGO Pro Choice was

38 J. Cviková, J. Juráňová (ed.), Možnosť voľby. Aspekty práv a zodpovednosti, ASPEKT 2001.

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founded in ASPEKT in late 2001. Olga Pietruchová later took over the manage-

ment of the organisation. She was also active in the coalition The Fifth Woman

dealing with the problem of violence against women.

5. conclusions

The four big themes through which we, in this publication, evoke the shifts in

gender thinking in the past two decades emerged in public discourse through

various channels. While the theme of sexual minorities and women’s reproduc-

tive rights entered it through reactions to violations of rights or to the efforts to

introduce repressive laws, especially on the part of conservative and traditional-

ly oriented politicians (and it was not only NGOs who reacted to these efforts,

but also various emerging civic initiatives), the path of the theme of violence

against women to public discourse was solely from the bottom – through the

work of NGOs and the national campaigns they organised. The theme of wo-

men’s political participation would come both from the bottom (through initiati-

ves of some women’s NGOs) and from the top (through political circles mainly

after the Beijing Conference in 1995). While the NGO actors who raised the

issues around violence, sexual minorities and reproductive rights were clear in

formulating their views and claims, and did not fear to engage in conflicts with

official power structures, the actors around the issue of political participation of

women strove to avoid any conflicts.

At present, the circle of organisations and individuals who deal with con-

crete gender issues is growing. Some of them base their work on gendersen-

sitivity and realise its feminist and human rights context. However, there is an

increasing number of those who understand gender studies in a purely “acade-

mic” fashion – they refuse and ignore its history and social context. At present,

there also is a tendency to understand gender studies as a chance to embark

on an international career a hence to separate them from activities of NGOs or

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from the public discussion about gender issues. This is probably also a result of

the nonexistence of feminism as a largescale social movement in Slovakia.

Despite al problems and limitations, the shifts in gender discourse over the past

two decades are more than visible. Nevertheless, the question remains to what degree

this shift has been taking place just within the existing gender stereotypes and to what

degree it takes into account the historical context and, hence, also its feminist founda-

tions. Although the shift in the extent and frequency of thematisation of gender issues is

significant, the cultivation of gender sensitivity (to al issues) is stil mostly the domain of

cooperation of feminist NGOs (ASPEKT, Aliancia žien Slovenska, EsFem, Fenestra, Mo-

žnosť voľby, Pro Familia and others), the Gender Studies Centre at Comenius University

and individual university teachers in Prešov, Banská Bystrica and other places.

At first sight it today may seem that the gender agenda comes to Slo-

vakia mostly from the European Union as a result of its pressure, and hence

it focuses on questions of employment and the labour market. Therefore, we

decided to start at the beginning and record and document the story of the

origins of gender themes stemming from the feminist foundations. We follow

their road to the public and the modes of their articulations. In this publication

we look mostly at the work of women’s rights NGOs and personalities from

the academia and other spheres as we consider these to be more relevant

(especially in the first phase) for the creation of the gendersensitive perspective

in Slovakia than official institutions of public administration.

Translated by Eva Riečanská

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96

Five Years after the

orange Revolution:

a Gender Analysis

Oksana Kisselyova,

Natalia Moussienko

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1. Introduction

The rigged 2004 presidential election in Ukraine sparked massive peaceful pro-

tests, which have become known to the world under the name of the Orange

Revolution. According to the Freedom House ranking, In 2006 Ukraine was

considered the only democratic state in the post-Soviet world (except the Baltic

states). The Orange Revolution has had impact not only on Ukraine, but also

on all states of the former Soviet Union.

After the Orange Revolution, Ukraine took course towards strengthe-

ning the stability and effectiveness of institutions which guarantee democracy,

the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as the basis for

strengthening the overall rule of law in Ukraine.

Having decided to opt for European integration, Ukraine adopted the

EU-Ukraine Action Plan for 2005-2007 as well as the EU’s Strategy for Ukraine

for 20072013.

After the Orange Revolution, Ukraine started to enjoy greater interest

of international partners, especially the European Union (EU). The new Asso-

ciation Agreement should be signed between the European Union and Ukra-

ine in 2009. The EUUkraine policy is aimed at introducing good governance,

strengthening democracy, respect for human rights, reducing poverty etc.

Establishing gender equality is one of the main factors for ensuring good gover-

nance, strengthening democracy, establishing the rule of law and respect for human ri-

ghts. Integrating gender priorities into policies is crucial for reducing poverty and improving

social services and healthcare. Moreover, ensuring gender equality is one of the six Millen-

nium Development Goals for Ukraine, according to which the gender ratio of at least 30

to 70 should be ensured in representative ruling bodies and higher ranks of executive po-

wer, and the pay gap between women’s and men’s salaries should be reduced by half.

The aim of the present report is to conduct an analysis of changes that

have influenced the introduction of gender equality in Ukraine before and after

the Orange Revolution. The report analyses the changes which occurred in the

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political and economic life, in the protection of reproductive and sexual rights

of women and men, as well as in the sphere of preventing violence against wo-

men; it includes a content analysis of state programmes, statements of known

politicians and media publications; it investigates how gender issues gained po-

litical significance and entered public discourse. The report includes excerpts

from interviews with known experts on gender issues.

2. Ensuring gender equality in ukraine

after the World conference on

Women in Beijing

In Ukraine, as in the other countries of the former Soviet Union, the problem

of reaching gender equality was brought onto the agenda only after the World

Conference on Women in Beijing (1995). Due to the fact that in the Soviet

times women had equal constitutional rights to men, there was a common mi-

sconception that there was no genderbased discrimination. Even the very no-

tion of gender entered the public discourse only after the Beijing conference.

From 1996 on, the national government of Ukraine, with the support

of international organisations and with the participation of civil society, has

made some steps towards integrating gender priorities into policies. Several

laws ensuring gender equality were adopted, as well as state programmes on

strengthening the opportunities for women. We also saw the creation of state

institutions to draw up and implement gender policies. In 1996 the Ministry of

Family and Youth was created, later transformed into the State Committee for

Family and Youth (in 2000), then in 2004 into the Ministry of Family, Children

and Youth and finally into the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport in 2005. This

institution, known under several constantly changing names, obtained the man-

date to develop and implement gender policy. However, a separate institution

at the level of national government has not been created.

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The principal international legal document for the protection of wo-

men’s rights in Ukraine is the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms

of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Ukraine in 1980. The main pro-

visions of the Convention have been enshrined in a series of legislative docu-

ments, presidential decrees, government’s resolutions aimed at solving gender-

related problems. Thus, in 2000 the “Family Code” was adopted in Ukraine,

together with the Law “On Preventing Family Violence”. In 2001, the President

of Ukraine issued a decree “On Strengthening the Social Status of Women in

Ukraine”. These legislative documents tend to present women as objects in

need of consideration and protective measures on the part of the state; they do

not present women as equal social partners.

Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine provides that “Equality of the

rights of women and men is ensured: by providing women with opportunities

equal to those of men, in public and political, and cultural activity, in obtaining

education and in professional training, in work and its remuneration; by special

measures for the protection of work and health of women; by establishing pen-

sion privileges, by creating conditions that allow women to combine work and

motherhood; by legal protection, material and moral support of motherhood

and childhood, including the provision of paid leaves and other privileges to

pregnant women and mothers”.

After the Beijing conference two National Action Plans on improving

the status of women were developed and adopted – for 1997-2000 and for

20012005. In addition to conducting mass cultural events, they provided for:

reducing the unemployment rate among women, creating centres and services

which provide medical, psychological and social assistance to women – victims

of violence; organising trainings for those who work with women – victims of

violence, conducting social information campaigns on preventing trafficking in

women etc.

On 1 January 2006 the Law “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportu-

nities for Women and Men” entered into force and opened up new opportu-

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nities for the development of institutional mechanisms. All normative legal acts

of Ukraine have to be verified or amended for conformity with this Law; acts

which fail to conform to the provisions of this Law have to be abolished.

Currently, the implementation of gender policy is in the competence

of the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport. But gender policy is only one of the

many other tasks of the Ministry – developing and implementing the state policy

on family, children, youth, physical education and sport, demographic proces-

ses, supporting the development of different kinds of sports in Ukraine, etc.

In order to coordinate the work of the state on gender equality, the

Interdepartmental Coordinating Council on Family and Gender Policy, Demo-

graphic Development and Preventing Human Trafficking was created in Sep-

tember 2007 at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The Council has to hold

its sittings at least once every three months.

The Subcommittee on International and Legal Issues and Gender Policy

was created within the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and

International Relations of Verkhovna Rada – the Ukrainian government.

Working groups on introducing gender approaches were created in the

central and local bodies of executive power with the participation of scientists

and representatives of nongovernmental organisations. The creation of such

working groups is supposed to help implement the goals described in the Law

“On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men” as well as

in the UN Millennium Declaration.

If we analyse the process of creating institutional mechanisms and their

functioning over the past 12 years, we can see both positive achievements

and negative phenomena. The first positive achievement is the vast legislative

framework in Ukraine, which guarantees the lack of gender-based discrimi-

natory attitudes. Undoubtedly, this is a direct result of the functioning of in-

stitutional mechanisms currently in force in Ukraine. Developing two Action

Plans concerning the improvement of women’s situation as wel as the State

Programme on strengthening gender equality in the Ukrainian society for the

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period until 2010, gender-sensitive review of legislation, setting out gender

mil ennium goals and indicators according to which the gender process is to

be evaluated in Ukraine, the cooperation with non-governmental women’s

and youth organisations – al this shows some progress in the implementation

of the idea of gender equality.

In other words, the institutional mechanisms in force today have, more

or less, been successful in adopting anti-discrimination laws and legislation which

ensure equal opportunities; they have also been successful in conducting edu-

cational activity, implementing programmes and projects on improving the sta-

tus of women. An important shortcoming is that these institutional mechanisms

have failed in monitoring how the existent laws are implemented. This is why,

despite the existent anti-discrimination legislative framework, women have to

face discrimination in economic, political and social spheres.

One of the biggest obstacles to achieving true equality is the fact that the

status, mandate and activity of the abovementioned institutional mechanisms conti-

nue to depend on the changes in the Ukrainian government. Secondly, these me-

chanisms tend to focus mainly on work-related and social problems, concentrating

their efforts on protecting mothers and children as well as protecting women’s em-

ployment. Thirdly, “improving the status of women” remains the main catchphrase

under which the policy of gender equality is carried out. As a consequence, the task

which should be performed by institutional mechanisms in the contemporary world

– playing a political role – is put off into some unspecified future.

If we analyse the obstacles which prevent the institutional mechanisms

from performing a political role – being a catalyst for integrating gender issues

in the administrative system as a whole – we can point out, first of all, that de-

spite numerous legal documents, the problem of gender equality has not been

politically recognised as one of the basic tasks of the Ukrainian government.

Male predominance in the leadership of Ukrainian society makes it even more

complicated for the idea of gender equality to pervade into the decision-making

sphere. The political responsibility of the Ukrainian government for the imple-

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mentation of gender equality is usually limited to ensuring equality in the face of

law, whereas social and cultural changes in this area remain beyond the scope

of this responsibility.

Among the obstacles to the activity of institutional mechanisms we can

also point out the lack of evaluation mechanisms and indicators of success in

the sphere of gender equality. Another impediment is also the lack of a clear

mandate, the shortage of both financial resources and qualified specialists in the

activity of institutional mechanisms.

To sum up, we can draw a conclusion that the main reason why the

problem of gender equality has not yet gained political significance is that it has

not gained recognition as a component of the process of democratisation and

realisation of human rights.

3. changes in gender equality and

public discourse on gender issues

after the orange Revolution

3.1. Participation of women in the political sphere

After the 2004 Orange Revolution, the President Victor Yushchenko issued a

decree “On Improving Central and Local Governments’ Performance in Pro-

moting Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men” (decree No.

1135, issued on 26 July 2005). The decree made the deputy heads of central

and local bodies of executive power responsible for performing the duty of

ensuring equal rights and opportunities of women and men.

On 8 September 2005 the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada adopted a Law

“On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men”, which has

become the main normative legal framework for achieving parity of women

and men in all spheres of social activity as well as eliminating gender-based

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discrimination. It sets out the main objectives for the state policy on ensuring

equal rights and opportunities of women and men, and it is the first to include

the definitions of such terms as gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment,

gender equality etc. 1

As for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, in July 2006 it approved

“The Concept of the State Programme on Strengthening Gender Equality in

the Ukrainian Society for 2006-20102”, and then in December 2006, the re-

solution was adopted. 3

3.2. Gender assessment of the national legislation

The adoption of the Law “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities

for Women and Men” put new responsibilities on executive bodies. Article 4 of

this Law provides for conducting gender and legal analysis of the legislation in

force as well as of draft normative legal acts. On 12 April 2006, the government

adopted Resolution No. 504 “On Conducting GenderLegal Analysis”. Under

this act, such an analysis in all spheres of legislation concerning human rights and

freedoms should be carried out by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Such an analysis has been carried out since 1 July 2006. 4 First of all, it

has provided conclusions about the Law “On the Election of National Deputies

of Ukraine”. The Law needs to be amended to include a gender dimension,

since the provisions of the Law “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities

for Women and Men” (second part of Article 15), according to which political

1 Act No. 2866 of 8 September 2005. Government Courier. 2005, 19 October, p.8.

2 Directive No.384р of 5 July 2006. Official Journal of Ukraine. 2006, No. 27, p.1972.

3 On adopting the State Programme on Strengthening Gender Equality in the Ukrainian

Society for the period until 2010: Resolution No. 1834 of 27 December 2006. Official

Journal of Ukraine. 2007, No. 1, p. 91.

4 Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Resolution No. 504 of 12 April 2006. Official Journal of Ukraine. 2006, No. 15, p. 1113.

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parties and electoral blocs appointing candidates for the general elections in a

multi-candidate nationwide constituency should ensure that both women and

men are represented in respective electoral lists, turn out to be insufficiently

effective in ensuring equal representation of women and men in the only body

of legislative power in Ukraine.

As a result of the 2006 general elections (carried out using the propor-

tional voting system ), the number of women in Verkhovna Rada increased to

8.5%. However, the list of national deputies of Ukraine elected in the preterm

election of 30 September 2007 shows that the proportion of women dropped

again to 7.6%. Such statistics demonstrate a lack of balance in ensuring equal

rights and opportunities of both sexes in the political sphere. In general, the

current composition of Verkhovna Rada is characterised by a lack of gender ba-

lance, which reveals that positive measures need to be taken in order to reach

a balanced representation of women and men in the only body of legislative

power in Ukraine.

In its report “On the Elections of National Deputies of Ukraine”, the

Ministry of Justice of Ukraine draws a conclusion that there is a need to improve

the situation of gender imbalance in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The issue

of ensuring equal representation of women in the authorities is currently one of

the most crucial ones for the development of Ukrainian democracy.

3.3. Parliamentary hearing “Equal rights and equal

opportunities in Ukraine: reality and prospects”

In November 2006, Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Human Rights, National

Minorities and International Relations, with the support of the UN Equal Op-

portunities Programme and in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Family,

Youth and Sport, conducted a parliamentary hearing under the title “Equal rights

and equal opportunities in Ukraine: reality and prospects”. The aim of the hearing

was to develop strategies, plans and mechanisms to ensure gender equality.

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The participants of the hearing – both men and women – reached the

conclusion that the essential problem lies in the fact that gender equality and

women’s rights are supported only formally. The actual situation is strikingly

different from what the legal norms advocate. The majority of the population

still holds stereotypes which picture women as weaker than men, and as se-

condrate persons in social, political and economic life. But the stereotypes are

evolving, especially under the influence of information campaigns on gender

issues carried out by nongovernmental organisations.

Men dominate in the Ukrainian parliament, accounting for 91.3%

of deputies, with women constituting 53% of the population. One of

the most critical gender problems which remain unsolved in Ukraine is

the lack of equal participation of women in decision-making processes at

the level of higher bodies of executive and legislative power. Introducing

quota for women can be a temporary measure not so much for reaching

gender equality, but at least for increasing the level of female represen-

tation in the structures of power.

While in 2005-2006 we could witness a consistent movement lob-

bying for the introduction of gender parity in the bodies of power, in 2007

the process stalled. On 12 January 2007, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada

did not adopt the Law “On Ensuring Equal Rights of Women and Men in

the Electoral Process”.

3.4. Content analysis of media publications

The need for women’s presence in political life as well as for their active involve-

ment in public life is widely discussed in the media. Dif erent publications stress that

the role of women in socio-political life is stil underappreciated, while old gender

stereotypes about the role of women persist in social consciousness. According to

opinion pol s, one Ukrainian in two acknowledges the existence of gender inequality

in the society, while 62% of respondents believe that women’s rights are being

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restricted. Ukraine ranks 110th among almost 180 countries with reference to the

rate of women in the legislative body (8% of deputies are women, compared to

the world average of 17%). Moreover, the higher the level of management, the

lower the rate of women represented (women account for only 14% of higher

level managers). At the same time, almost 50% of men and 65% of women believe

that women’s participation in legislative bodies could have a substantial positive in-

fluence. Thus, 62% of Ukrainian voters first vote for men and then complain about

women not being represented in the authorities.

However, the Ukrainian society has grown ready for qualitative chan-

ges. Thus, according to a 2006 survey, 85% of Ukrainians consider women

suitable to become MPs, 45% would even be able to see a woman as the Spe-

aker of Verkhovna Rada. 64% of men think that women’s potential is not used

effectively enough in the structures of power. Among women, this percerntage

amounts to 73%.

The following reasons for the lack of gender balance are quoted

in public discourse:



Social stereotypes of male priority in socio-political life and the secondary

role of women;



Time constraints on the participation of women in the socio-political life due to

the fact that they have to deal with most household duties and bear children;



Women’s worse access to economic resources, which are an indispensable

condition for participating in political life.

According to public opinion, these factors are historically motivated and

fairly resistant to political measures meant to change them.

3.5. Conclusions

After the 2004 Orange Revolution the following steps were taken to address

the issue of gender parity in the legislative bodies in Ukraine:

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• On 26 July 2005, the President of Ukraine passed a Decree “On Improving

Central and Local Governments’ Performance in Promoting Equal Rights

and Opportunities for Women and Men”.

• On 8 September 2005, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law

“On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men”, signed

by President Victor Yushchenko.

• The Ukrainian government adopted the State Programme on Strengthening

Gender Equality in the Ukrainian Society for 20062010 (2006).

• The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada held a parliamentary hearing “Equal rights and

opportunities in Ukraine: reality and prospects” (November 2006) and adopted

the Recommendations of this hearing through the Resolution of 27 June 2007.

• The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine approved the Concept of GenderLegal

Analysis and conducted it with respect to a series of laws and resolutions

(20062009).

• For the first time a woman became Prime Minister– Yulia Tymoshenko in

2005 and again in 2007.

• For the first time a woman became Secretary of National Security and De-

fence Council – Raisa Bogatyrova in 2007.

• For the first time a woman became head of the office of the President of

Ukraine – Vera Uliachenko in 2009.

• For the first time a woman became the President of Kyiv Oblast State Admi-

nistration – Vera Uliachenko in 2006.

• The President’s spouse – Kateryna Yushchenko takes active part in political

life (20052009).

• Since 2005 the issue of introducing quotas for women’s represen-

tation in the authorities and society’s attitude towards it has been

analysed.

• Ukraine continues to infringe upon the UN-recommended principle of

gender parity. Women account for as little as 5% of deputies in the Ukra-

inian parliament.

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4. Participation of women in the

economic sphere

After the 2004 Orange Revolution, the problem of reaching gender equality

between men and women in the domain of economic relations remains vital

and unsolved.

The Gender Gap Report was first presented at the World Economic Fo-

rum in 2005. Since the first Report, the economic gender gap in Ukraine has

grown. According to the Gender Gap Index, calculated by the World Economic

Forum, Ukraine’s rank keeps falling:

2.06:.47th place

2.07:.57th place

2.08:.62nd place

In 2008 Ukraine dropped to 62nd place in this world gender equality

rating. It was overtaken by its closest neighbours, such as Moldova (20th place),

Belarus (33rd place), Russia (42nd place) and Poland (49th place).

The economic component is the one which plays the primary role in

estimating the gender gap. Gender inequality in the workplace can be limited

thanks to clear and purposeful measures of national policies, aimed at: increasing

the prestige and pay level in the traditionally “female” spheres; fighting gender

stereotypes which limit the scope of professional choice both for women and

for men, first of all due to the education obtained; broadening the opportunities

for lifelong learning.

The obvious inequality in women’s and men’s position on the job market has led

to the feminisation of poverty in Ukraine. Currently one woman out of three obtains a sa-

lary at the level of minimum subsistence. Women constitute the majority in the most so-

cially unprotected categories such as pensioners, the unemployed and employees of the

public sector. The complex material situation often forces women to work abroad – they

decide to move, usually illegally, to Western Europe, leaving their underage children with

relatives, which quite often leads to child neglect, and sometimes even homelessness.

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Sociological and economic research shows that economical y women are

worse of than men: there are more women among the unemployed; women

more often than men are forced to go on an unwanted leave; most part-time wor-

kers are women; performing maternal duties tends to be an obstacle for women’s

professional careers and further social protection; women face discrimination in the

hiring process; there are fewer women than men in the management positions.

The average life expectancy for women is longer than for men. This influen-

ces the amount of pension received by women and men with equal pension contri-

butions. Statistics show that salaries obtained by women are lower than salaries paid

to men. Also, in most cases, women’s insurance period tends to be shorter than

men’s and the amount of premiums lower, because of motherhood.

In addition, there is the problem of protecting men, whose life expec-

tancy is 1012 years shorter than women’s. Pension schemes are usually direc-

tly related to the labour law. In order to receive social security benefits (such as

a pension), one has to work first.

In Ukraine women control only 510% of economic resources. They

account for 38% of entrepreneurs who conduct individual business activity,

they are in charge of 26% of small enterprises, 15% of medium ones and 12%

of big ones. Only 2% of industrial companies are run by women. Salaries paid

to women constitute, on average, 68.6% of men’s salaries.

Women account for 30% of al entrepreneurs. They tend to work in

small and medium enterprises. In big enterprises women are an exception. Set-

ting up of women’s companies in most cases occurs thanks to women’s initiatives,

not as a result of the activity of special state programmes. Companies owned by

women usually focus on retail trading, medicine, culture and science.

Salaries are also an indicator of discrimination among employees and

women usually earn 2/3 of men’s earnings. Gender inequality in remuneration

directly infringes on the principle of equal pay for equal work. Women occupy

lowpaid positions in practically all spheres of the national economy. Over all

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these years, there was another noticeable tendency on the job market: women

being squeezed out by men from wellpaid positions.

Gender problems in the Ukrainian job market are demonstrated by the

imbalance between the access of men and women to decent work. Women

with high education and qualifications are often forced to realise their professio-

nal ambitions in lowerprestige positions, which require lower qualifications, are

less wellpaid and offer only limited opportunities for career and promotion.

Although currently women constitute 75% of the total number of civil

servants, among the civil servants of the 1st category (the highest one) they

account for only 7.8%, although 80% of adult women in Ukraine have higher

education. There is also the common practice of discriminating single or recen-

tly-married women – the employers make them sign contracts according to

which they can be dismissed in case of pregnancy.

In April 2009, the International Labour Office and the European Union

launched a new project “Gender Equality in the World of Work” in Ukraine.

Its main objective is to strengthen the capacity of key state bodies and social

partners to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the world

of work by developing, implementing and monitoring gender-sensitive employ-

ment policies and programmes. Ukraine receives constant support from inter-

national institutions for achieving gender parity.

4.1. Conclusions

• Genderbased discrimination is common in the Ukrainian job market.

• Since 2006 the gender gap in Ukraine has increased.

• Ukraine faces the problem of the feminisation of poverty.

• Public opinion acknowledges the need to increase social awareness and sen-

sitivity concerning gender issues through informing the society and develo-

ping gender-sensitive programmes and supporting the creation of the State

Gender Office.

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5. Reproductive and sexual rights

of women and men

5.1. State programmes on reproductive health

On 26 March 2001, the State programme “Reproductive Health 20012005” was

adopted by a decree of the President of Ukraine. The contentanalysis of the Program-

me demonstrates that human beings, their lives and health are considered the greatest

social values of the State, as enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. The Programme

draws on the analysis of the qualitative features of society and points out that Ukraine

is currently undergoing a period of serious demographic crisis, characterised by de-

population, aging of the population and lowering of the average life expectancy. This

has a negative influence on the development of productive forces, on the level of the

population’s prosperity and the overall economic situation in the country.

After the Orange Revolution, the State Programme “Reproductive He-

alth of the Nation for 2006-2015” was adopted and approved by the resolution

of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 27 December 2006. The Programme

states that “the sustainable development of any country’s society depends to

a great extent on demographic prospects, set by the ability of the society to

simply renew or replace the population figure of the older generation by the

generation of their children. The lasting trend of reducing the population figure

due to the lower birth rate and increasing mortality rate threatens the future

of the nation. In Ukraine over the past decade the average life expectancy has

considerably fallen because of the deteriorating state of health, including re-

productive health. The low birth rate and high mortality rate of the population

place the problem of reproductive health and life expectancy among key natio-

nal problems, and protecting reproductive health ceases to be a solely medical

issue and becomes a national, crosssectoral problem.” 5

5 The State Programme “Reproductive Heath of the Nation for 20062015”.

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The gender gap in life expectancy has grown in Ukraine: it constitutes almost

13 years compared to 56 in the EU member states. According to the latest data of the

Gerontology Institute, the average life expectancy in Ukraine is 74 years for women and

61 for men. Compared to the European average, Ukrainian women live 89 years less

and men 1213 years less than women and men in the European Union.

The state of reproductive health raises particular concerns as it constitu-

tes an integral part of the nation’s health in general. The main issues of concern

for reproductive health are: mortality among mothers and small children, a high

abortion rate, miscarriages, high level of pregnancy and childbirth complications,

widespread infertility among women and men, sexually transmitted diseases in

the population, including HIV/AIDS, tumours of the reproductive system.

The content-analysis of two state programmes on reproductive health

shows that they indicate the problem of demographic crisis currently in place in

Ukraine and quote the medical and statistical data on average life expectancy,

the mortality structure of the Ukrainian population, the problems of repro-

ductive health of women and the health of children, the growing problem of

abortions. The programmes also define the measures designed to improve the

reproductive health of the society. However, these programmes do not even

mention the reproductive and sexual rights of women and men, including the

rights of sexual minorities. The very notions are absent from the texts.

5.2. Parliamentary hearing “Ways to reform healthcare

and medical insurance in Ukraine”

The parliamentary hearing “Ways to reform healthcare and medical in-

surance in Ukraine” took place on 20 May 2009. 6 One of the opinions

6 The parliamentary hearing “Ways to reform healthcare and medical insurance in

Ukraine”. http://portal.rada.gov.ua/rada/control/uk/publish/article/news_left?art_

id=156725&cat_id=46666

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voiced during the hearing stated that the problem discussed should be-

come a subject for a nationwide Ukrainian debate and that the problem

of the protection of the Ukrainian nation – from physical y dying out and

from moral degradation – has to become a national objective. Especial y

in view of the fact that the main provision of the Constitution, stating that

human beings, their life and health are the highest social value of the state,

is completely neglected.

The participants of the hearing stressed that the main objective of social

development in any country should be protecting people’s health, preventing

the development of diseases and disabilities, because health takes a special pla-

ce in the system of human values: when it is lost or when it deteriorates signifi-

cantly, everything else loses sense.

The majority of participants of the hearing stated that the state of health

of the Ukrainian population remains unsatisfactory. According to them, the re-

ason for such a negative state of affairs can be seen in the state of the healthcare

system, which remains neglected despite numerous plans to reform it. The

system is considered unsatisfactory by the Ministry of Health, the population

in general and by patients. The healthcare system is out of balance and needs

reorganisation and a rational use of the available resources.

An important component of the parliamentary hearing was the issue of

medical insurance, which was discussed as a promising, indispensable element

of a complete programme of healthcare reform. In the parliaments of the fourth

(20022006) and fifth (20062007) convocations there were eight draft laws

presented concerning this subject. However, each and every one of them was

severely criticised, also by the government. The government, however, did not

present its own draft law.

The speakers stressed that only a clear definition of the model of natio-

nal healthcare system in Ukraine as well as developing an appropriate material

base can truly help in solving the system’s problems and carrying out effective,

not fictional reforms.

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5.3. Content-analysis of media publications

In Ukrainian press there is a vivid debate concerning the issue of health and

reproductive health of the Ukrainian nation, as well as the healthcare system

and ways to reform it. The media feature national statistical data, which inexo-

rably show a negative demographic situation, spreading of serious diseases and

mortality, unsatisfactory state of health of women, men and children, shortening

of the average life expectancy, aging of the population and other unoptimistic

indicators. Such data is no longer indicative of an illness of a single person or

population group – it points to the illness of the whole society. 7

The debate also touches upon the factors which indicate the negative

state of health of women and the whole family. The following factors are indica-

ted: low level of awareness of matters concerning health, growing incidence of

sexually transmitted diseases, growing number of endocrinological disorders in

women of reproductive age, early age of sexual initiation, which increases the

likelihood of cancer at a young age, termination of pregnancy (especially in the

case of first pregnancy, and at a young age).

The press also discusses the state of health of the rural population and

the healthcare system in rural areas. It quotes data according to which in small

villages (up to 50 inhabitants), we can see an extraordinary demographic si-

tuation: the ratio of births to deaths is 1:23, while in bigger villages (over 500

inhabitants) it is 1:5. The rapidly deteriorating state of reproductive health of

women and men is a cause for concern.

The problem of cancer, especially of breast cancer is also the subject of

many publications. “One in seven Ukrainian women is at considerable risk of

developing cancer”, Ukrainian oncologists say. According to the data provided by

the Ministry of Health, almost 16 thousand cases of cancer are diagnosed every

7 Y. Sokolova, “Changing the medicine as a means to change the society”, Dzherkalo tyzhnia, No. 41 (720) 1, 1 November 2008. http://www.dt.ua/3000/3450/64526/

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year. 40% of women contact a doctor when the disease has already progressed

to the 3rd or 4th stage, when treatment is very difficult or virtually impossible.” 8

Another problem that has sprung up during the past decades is the problem of late

motherhood. The number of women who give birth to their first child past the age of 35 is

rapidly growing. Only during the last decade the level of late pregnancies has grown by 50%.

Men’s health is not neglected in Ukrainian press. It is pointed out that “if the current

state of health of the population, especially of men, remains as it is today, in 10-20 years Ukra-

ine will become a country of widows. According to statistics, 3040% of men reach retire-

ment age. And the decreasing number of men is another cause of the demographic crisis.” 9

Recently, the issue of in vitro fertilisation or other assisted reproduc-

tive technologies (ART) which enable women to become pregnant, is more

and more widely discussed in the press. In 2005 almost one thousand babies

were born in Ukraine thanks to these modern technologies, despite the fact

that until 2005 artificial insemination (or in vitro fertilisation) was carried out

only in private clinics. However, according to the state programme introdu-

ced in 2004, one attempt at in vitro fertilisation an be covered by the state.

6. Reproductive and sexual rights

of sexual minorities10

The research carried out in March 2007 by the sociological company “TNS

Ukraine”, commissioned by the “Our World” Centre, showed that only 1/3

8 Olga Skrypnyk, “A cause for anxiety, not a verdict”, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, N 41 (670), 3, 10

November 2007. http://www.zn.ua/3000/3450/60955/

9 “Lack of reproductive health”. Lvivska Hazeta, 6 July 2006, No.119 (926). http://www.

gazeta.lviv.ua/articles/2006/07/06/16492/

10 The charter is based on the analysis “Ukrainian homosexuals and society: mutual per-

vasion. An overview of the situation: society, the state and politicians, mass media, legal

situation, gay community.” ’Our world’ centre, K: Atopol, 2007, p. 88.

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of Ukrainians believe that homosexuals should have equal rights with other

citizens of the country, while 2/3 are against equal rights for homosexuals or

refrain from presenting any opinion on the subject.

Since the middle of 2006 Ukrainian media started to feature a great

number of statements by politicians concerning the rights of sexual minorities.

Most of these statements showed that the Ukrainian political elite is characte-

rised by overt or covert homophobia. Answering a question about samesex

marriages, Oleksandr Turchynov from The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc said: “We

are definitely against! It’s a great sin”. 11

Yulia Tymoshenko herself used to pronounce politicallycorrect views

on the matter. In 2004 she said: “I would prefer men to love women and women

to love men. But if it happens otherwise, I think everyone should have the right to

choose their own fate”. 12

During an internet conference on 14 December 2006, the President

of Ukraine was also asked the question “What is your attitude towards lega-

lising samesex marriages in Ukraine?”. Victor Yushchenko answered: “Can I

give a one-word answer? Complicated.” And he added: “Although with such an

answer, I would not like to give any other judgment than expressed by the society

and by the law”. 13

Answering a journalist’s question about the possibility of adding

the words “sexual orientation” to the antidiscrimination article of the

draft Labour Code of Ukraine, Vasyl Khara (Party of Regions), MP and

member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Work,

said: “Personally, I think that gays and lesbians violate all moral norms.

It’s a physical condition that has to be hidden, not advertised al around.

On the other hand, their demands are a European standard, so it seems

11 Interview given to the Internet newspaper Ukrainska prava, 22 August 2007.

12 Chatconference, 5 April 2004.

13 Internet conference, 14 December 2006.

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that such a provision wil remain in the draft code, although privately I’m

against that.” 14

The most aggressive attitude towards homosexuals was recently pre-

sented by the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights,

National Minorities and International Relations, Leonid Hrach, a communist. In

November 2006 he stated that “homosexuality is an anomaly caused by immo-

rality and depravity of humans”. 15 In the opinion of the deputy, “the state should protect the society against evil and violence, including such evil as homosexuality,

lesbianism, etc.” 16

The number of negative statements of politicians towards homosexuals

has increased in the runup to the 2007 preterm general election.

6.1. Content analysis of media publications concerning

sexual minorities

In 2005-2006 there was a sharp rise in the number of homosexual and anti-ho-

mosexual initiatives, which drew the attention of the press. Several newspapers

featured articles covering the conference on homosexual issues which took

place in Kiev in the autumn of 2005. There were several new articles about

same-sex couples living as a family – including descriptions of the life of such

actual couples, presentations of legal regulations of same-sex partnerships and

marriages existing in other countries and the analysis of the possibility of intro-

ducing similar solutions in Ukraine – for example the articles in two issues of

“Ekspres” journal (“Lesbian family”, 1017.02.2005 and “Samesex marriages”,

23.08.2005).

14 Interview given to Kommersant-Ukraina, 16 February 2007.

15 Interview given to Kommersant-Ukraine, 17 November 2006.

16 Statement of the pressservice of L. Hrach given to the information agency “REGNUM”,

9 February 2007.

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In 2006 most articles on homosexual issues in the Ukrainian media

were sparked by the debate between homosexual organisations and the All-

Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations, which on the

initiative of the cardinal Huzar, issued an address to the state authorities appe-

aling not to allow any form of official recognition of samesex families in Ukra-

ine. The attention of the press was drawn not only by the Council’s appeal,

but also by the open letter of lesbian and gay organisations appealing to the

state to pay attention to the problem of ensuring equal rights for homosexu-

als, as well as the official answers of the state authorities to the letter.

The undisputable leaders in the number of publications on issues related

to homosexuality during the period in question were Korrespondent, with its

internetedition Korrespondent.net, as well as the Segodnya newspaper. While

Korrespondent usually limits itself to short scraps of news, Segodnya publishes

lengthy feature articles presenting the issues in a more comprehensive and tho-

rough way. Both newspapers have the ambition to present an unprejudiced

attitude towards the subject.

6.2. Reproductive rights of sexual minorities

Homosexuals seeking medical assistance in clinics cite examples of their rights being

violated. For example, 13.5% of them state that information on their state of health

or sexual orientation was revealed by the medical personnel to third parties.

According to the data of the Ministry of Health, 12 sex reassignment

surgeries were carried out in Ukraine in 2005, and 2006 – 16. 17 In Ukraine, sex

reassignment is subject to Article 51 of the Law “On Healthcare” (sex reassign-

ment in the case of intersexuality and transsexualism) and to decree No. 57 of

15 March 1996 of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine

– “Treatment of People in Need of Sex Reassignment”.

17 Letter of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, No. 3, 5158/640 of 25 May 2007.

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6.3. Conclusions

• Although Ukraine adopted two state programmes on reproductive health

(2001-2005 and 2006-2015), the state of health of the population is steadily

deteriorating.

• The measures described in the State programme on reproductive health

for 2001-2005: introducing medical insurance, introducing the institution of

family doctors, systemic reorganisation of healthcare etc – have not been

implemented.

• The state programmes lack such notions as “reproductive and sexual rights

of women and men”, also with reference to sexual minorities.

• The media feature national statistical data, which inexorably confirm the

negative demographic situation, spreading of serious diseases and morta-

lity, unsatisfactory state of health of women, men and children, shortening

of the average life expectancy, aging of the population and other unoptimi-

stic indicators.

• There is a public debate about the factors which cause the negative state

of reproductive health of the population, various forms of cancer, especially

breast cancer, abortions, the problems of late motherhood, male infertility,

artificial insemination and assisted reproductive technology (ART).

• Current Ukrainian legislation does not protect the rights of sexual minorities,

such as reproductive and sexual rights.

• In Ukraine, the level of tolerance towards people of homosexual orientation

remains on a dramatically low level.

• There is no political force with a consistent attitude towards sexual minori-

ties. The statements of different politicians usually have a private character

and represent their own views.

• The problem of improving legislation protecting the rights of sexual minori-

ties is considered to be imposed by “EU requirements” and not in line with

the needs of the Ukrainian society.

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7. violence against women

For a long time, the problems of domestic violence were not actively discussed

in the Ukrainian society. It was human rights organisations, especially women’s

organisations, who not only initiated the protection of victims of violence, but

also lobbied the state authorities to create the indispensable legislative frame-

work to strengthen the national system of protecting victims of violence.

In 2001, the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law “On Preventing Do-

mestic Violence” and the Law “On Amending the Code of Administrative

Offences of Ukraine” on the responsibility for perpetrating domestic vio-

lence or failing to adhere to a restraining order. Adopting a legislative fra-

mework for preventing domestic violence moves this problem from the

sphere of private problems to a state level.

We have to notice that enforcing the Law “On Preventing Domestic

Violence” is quite complex, despite the existence of appropriate subordinate

acts and a network of centres providing necessary assistance. In the opinion of

human rights activists, the main reason for this situation is the lack of appropriate

goaloriented programmes at national and regional levels.

7.1. Parliamentary hearing “Status and Challenges

in Prevention of Gender-Based Violence”

The parliamentary hearing “Status and Challenges in Prevention of GenderBased

Violence” took place on 21 November 2006. The participants of the hearing

(both men and women) stated that violence is a significant obstacle to ensuring

human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is women who tend to suf er most

from violence. Violence makes women vulnerable to other kinds of abuse and is

an obstacle to overcoming the inequality of men and women in society.

The participants believe that adopting the Law “On Preventing Dome-

stic Violence” in 2001 was a landmark event. This was the first specialised law

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devoted to combating violence against women in Central and Eastern Europe

and in CIS countries. The adoption of this law confirmed that preventing gen-

der violence was integrated into the state policies.

The participants of the hearing also stressed that the activity of the bodies of

executive power in the sphere of preventing domestic violence needs to be significantly

improved. In most regions there are no centres for victims of domestic violence, crisis

centres or centres of medical and social rehabilitation for victims of domestic violence.

The quality of social campaigns on preventing domestic violence is not

very high. Informational and educational activitiesneed to be significantly impro-

ved. Interdepartamental cooperation in preventing domestic violence is not very

developed. There are no statistical reports in this domain. There have even been

cases of the police refusing to record incidents of domestic violence.

The practical application of the Law “On Preventing Domestic Violence” needs

to be improved. There is a problem with isolating perpetrators of domestic violence

from their victims. The use of sanctions for committing domestic violence and failing to

adhere to a restraining order needs to be adjusted to include an individual approach.

7.2. The national campaign “Stop Violence!”

In 2008 within the UN Secretary-General’s Campaign to End Violence Against

Women and the Council of Europe’s Campaign to Combat Violence Against

Women, including Domestic Violence, a group of non-governmental and in-

ternational organisations, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Family,

Youth and Sport, launched the national campaign “Stop Violence!” on comba-

ting violence against women, children and domestic violence in Ukraine.

Among the organisations which supported the Campaign were: the

UN Development Programme, the Delegation of the European Commission

to Ukraine, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the

International Women’s Rights Centre “La Strada – Ukraine”, the International

NonGovernmental Organisation “School of Equal Opportunities”, the Inter-

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national Humanitarian Centre “ROZRADA”, the International Jewish Women’s

Organisation “Project Kesher”, the AllUkrainian Public Centre “Volunteer”, the

Information and Consultation Women’s Centre and other.

The National Forum “Stop Violence!” was held in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine,

on 1617 October 2008. More than 300 representatives of central and local bodies

of executive power, non-governmental and international organisations, researchers

and experts from al regions of Ukraine took part in the forum. Participants noticed that

overcoming gender-based violence is a prerequisite for sustainable development of the

Ukrainian society based on democracy and respect for human rights. To carry out inter-

national commitments, Ukraine uses legislative, administrative, informational and other

measures, aimed at preventing genderbased violence and ensuring gender equality.

Participants of the Forum adopted the National Action Platform as well

as a detailed plan of its implementation. They also discussed the development,

adoption and introduction of the minimal standards of assistance that should

be provided to victims of violence. The Action Platform embraces the most

important issues, strategic goals and measures, financial and organisational me-

chanisms that can be used both by state institutions and by non-governmental

organisations in order to prevent and eradicate domestic violence.

The strategic goals and measures include: preventive programmes, era-

dicating violence, working with victims of violence as well as with perpetrators

of violence, developing mechanisms of cooperation between different bodies

and institutions in the sphere of preventing violence against women, children

and domestic violence. A special chapter is devoted to the organisational and

financial mechanisms to pursue the goals set out in the document.

25 November 2008 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence

Against Women) marked the beginning of the nationwide campaign “16 Days

Against GenderBased Violence”. The campaign coincided with the 16days of

the UN Human Rights Campaign carried out within the “Human Dignity and

Justice for Al of Us” programme. The events also coincided with a whole series of

important UN dates and continued till 10 December – the Human Rights Day.

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During the World Campaign, several non-governmental organisations

contacted the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sport with the initiative of

conducting in Ukraine the National Campaign Against Violence against Women

and Children “Stop Violence!”. The Ministry supported conducting the campaign,

which started on 15 May and will continue until 25 November 2009.

Towards the end of July 2009, the National Campaign “Stop Violence!”

featured billboards and citylight ads with a social campaign against domestic

violence, which appeared in cities all across Ukraine. The campaign called on

women not to remain silent in the face of violence, but to seek aid by calling a

hotline phone number.

On 4 March 2009 within the National Campaign “Stop Violence!” a

national network of men opposing violence was created in Ukraine. The ne-

twork was created in order to draw the society’s attention and to overcome

the infamous phenomenon of violence. The network was joined by renowned

Ukrainian politicians, athletes, artists and activists who actively engage in the

public life of the country.

7.3. Content analysis of media publications

Recently, there have been more and more publications on the subject of violen-

ce. The publications tend to have provocative titles: “Hitting means loving?”, 18

“A women not hit is like a house not kept tidy”, 19 “My mum beat me… with a

metal bar”, 20 reflecting certain patriarchal stereotypes existing in the society.

18 M. Naboka, N. Sherstyuk, “Hitting means loving?”.

www.radiosvoboda.org/content/Article/1352936.html

19 http://h.ua/story/123364/

20 M. Tkachuk, “My mum beat me… with a metal bar.” (The title draws on a popular folk

song).

http://www.umoloda.kiev.ua/number/1271/188/44990/

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The publications quoted several statistics: in 2007 in Ukraine law enforcement

officers carried out preventive registration of almost 88,000 perpetrators of domestic

violence, that is either people who hit their spouses or abused them psychologically or

economically. Ten thousand of the perpetrators were women, but the overwhelming

majority – almost 78,000 – were representatives of the stronger sex. According to the

data of the Kyiv City Centre for working with women, each year there are over sixty wo-

men and twenty five children in the shelter for persons experiencing domestic violence.

During the first 10 months of 2006, 83,000 people were brought to administrative re-

sponsibility for perpetrating domestic violence, 7,000 more than in the previous year. 21

According to the statement of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kateryna Le-

vchenko, only during the first 9 months of 2008, law enforcement officers carried out

84,000 interventions in response to reports of domestic violence, 62,000 official war-

nings were issued, and over 83,000 people were registered for perpetrating domestic

violence, with 50,000 recorded in the register for the first time in 2008. The number

of cases of domestic violence is visibly increasing – each year by 10% on average. 22

Causes of violence include lack of awareness and indifference of society and autho-

rities to the problem of violence, social and economic factors, sociocultural stereotypes.

The traditional way of life, poor socio-economic conditions and alcoho-

lism are the main causes of domestic violence, says Yaryna Trokhym, expert on

monitoring from the West Ukrainian Centre “Women’s Prospects”. 23

The publications address the problem of psychological violence and the

inability of Ukrainian women to protect themselves against it, because they do

not realise that moral pressure also constitutes violence. Ukrainian women seek

help only in the case of physical violence. 24

21 M. Naboka, N. Sherstyuk, ibidem.

22 M. Tkachuk, ibidem.

23 M. Naboka, N. Sherstyuk, ibioden.

24 L. Merlyan, “Ukrainian women do not realize that psychological abuse also constitutes

violence.” humanrights.unian.net/ukr/detail/186646

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The media also inform that in practically all regions of Ukraine special institutions

providing assistance to victims of domestic violence have started to function, such as crisis

centres, centres of social and medical assistance, which provide comprehensive psychologi-

cal, legal, social and medical assistance, information, counselling and also, if needed, ensure

a temporary shelter (up to three months), especially to women and children suffering from

domestic violence or women in crisis situations. At the end of 2007 in Ukraine there were

22 social and psychological assistance centres, 16 centres for medical and social rehabilitation

of victims of domestic violence, 2 shelters for women, 11 shelters for children. Civil society

organisations also provide active assistance to people experiencing domestic violence. 25

However, experts point out that despite certain positive shifts concerning

the problem of violence, the mechanism of legal and social protection of victims of

violence remains unsatisfactory: there are not enough specialised institutions provi-

ding assistance to victims or specially qualified experts in the prevention of violence;

the system of early warning about cases of domestic violence is inef ective, just like

the system of using sanctions against the perpetrators of domestic violence.

7.4. Conclusions

• For a long time the issue of domestic violence was not actively discussed in

Ukrainian society.

• Human rights organisations, especially women’s organisations not only initia-

ted the protection of victims of violence, but also lobbied the state authori-

ties to create indispensable legislative framework to strengthen the national

system of protecting victims of violence.

• Ukraine has ratified a number of international documents, ensuring the indi-

spensable normative and legal framework, based on the standards of inter-

national human rights protection law.

25 N. Romanova , T. Semyhina “Providing assistance to victims of domestic violence: legal aspects”, Social policy and social work, No. 2, 2008, p. 5870. http://www.dipsm.org.ua/all/797

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• Ukraine adopted a legislative framework for preventing domestic violence, which

moves this problem from the sphere of private problems to a state level.

• Despite the existing legislative framework and some positive shifts in the

society concerning awareness of the problem of violence, there was no

significant fall in the number of cases of violence over the past years.

• Enforcing the Law “On Preventing Domestic Violence” is quite complex,

despite the existence of appropriate subordinate acts and of a network of

centres providing necessary assistance. In the opinion of law enforcement of-

ficers, the main cause of this situation is the lack of appropriate goaloriented

programmes at national and regional levels.

• After the Orange Revolution, civil society organisations launched a large-

scale national campaign “Stop Violence!”, supported by the key Ministries.

8. Recommendations

8.1. In order to overcome the lack of gender balance in

the political sphere, it is necessary to:

• Analyse and publicise gender-sensitive statistical data on the representation

of women in all structures of power.

• Use legal measures to introduce gender quota ensuring gender balance in

the decisionmaking sphere.

• Develop and provide financial support to state programmes promoting the

participation of women at all levels of decisionmaking.

• Support the initiatives of women putting forward their candidacies for mana-

gerial posts.

• Organise special training seminars and conferences for women-politicians

on integrating gender priorities into policies.

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8.2. In order to overcome the lack of gender balance in

the economic sphere, it is necessary to:

• Use international standards and indicators to investigate the economic status of women.

• Investigate the influence of the global economic crisis on the economic sta-

tus of women in Ukraine.

• Introduce special programmes on training and providing micro-credits to

women in business.

• Balance the level of pay in the public and private sectors.

• Develop and ensure the mechanisms of transparency in the budget process.

8.3. In order to ensure reproductive and sexual rights

of women and men, including the rights of

sexual minorities, it is necessary to:

• Ensure the implementation of the State Programme “Reproductive Health

of the Nation for 20062015”.

• Introduce the system of compulsory medical insurance in Ukraine.

• Introduce the institution of family doctors.

• Increase state allocations for healthcare to the amount of at least 5% of GDP.

• Launch a largescale campaign promoting a healthy lifestyle.

• Legally ensure the protection of reproductive and sexual rights of sexual minorities.

• Promote a tolerant attitude of the society towards sexual minorities.

8.4. In order to fight violence against women, it is

necessary to:

• Develop the state programme on preventing domestic violence with appro-

priate financial support.

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• Develop a package of subordinate acts necessary to implement the Law “On

Preventing Family Violence”; develop appropriate definitions and terms and

develop a mechanism of isolating the abuser from the family.

• Regulate a series of other legal issues, especially providing special mandate

to social workers when it is necessary to carry out effective intervention in a

crisis family situation.

• Increase the awareness of the population that violence against women and

children constitutes a violation of human rights.

• Promote lack of indulgence for any kind of violence in all groups of the population.

Translated by Natalia Kertyrzak

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About the Authors

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Nina Bosničová – she is a graduate from Faculty of Philosophy of Masaryk

University in Brno where she studied Master’s degree programme in English lan-

guage and literature – Slovak language and literature. She made her PhD. at the

Department of English and American Studies at Faculty of Philosophy, Charles

University in Prague. She is a project manager of “About Equality with Compa-

nies” project in Gender Studies, o.p.s. Also owing to her multicultural backgro-

und, she is interested in the problem of multiculturalism – apart from the issues of

gender and race. She enjoys travel ing. When a student, she spent certain time as

a foreign exchange students on her stays in the US, Greece and Germany.

Kristýna Ciprová – she is a graduate from Gender Studies, Faculty of Humani-

ties, Charles University. The topic of her thesis, which was part of a larger project

led by Věra Sokolová, was gay fatherhood in the context of activism. Among her

interests belong queer theory and cultural studies. She cooperates with gay and

lesbian film festival Mezipatra. Currently, she coordinates the Czech Womenś

Lobby. She cooperates with Gender Studies on various projects.

Jana Cvikova – she studied German language and literature at the Comenius

University in Bratislava, she is a translator and editor. Cofounder of the first fe-

minist organization ASPEKT in Bratislava (www.aspekt.org). Since 1993 ASPEKT

has published various books, e.g. children and youth literature, violence against

women, gender sensitive education, political participation of women.

Anna Czerwińska – she is a graduate from the Philosophy Department at

the Torun University and Gender Studies at the Warsaw University. She is a

Vice-President of the Feminoteka Foundation and a member of several informal

feminist groups, including 8 March Women’s Alliance which has been organizing

street demonstrations in Warsaw to defend women’s rights on the International

Women’s Day since 2000. She is a cofounder of the Online Museum of the

History of Women.

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aBout the authors

Alexandra Jachanová Doleželová – she is a deputy director of Gender Stu-

dies, Prague, the Czech Republic and the Chair of the Czech Women’s Lobby

and board member of the European Women’s Lobby. She is a graduate of the

Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, specialization “International Econo-

mic & Political Studies” and AngloAmerican College, specialization “Politics & So-

ciety”. She has been working for Gender Studies, o.p.s. since September 2003.

She is closely interested in the topic of equal opportunities of women and men in

companies and the labour market in general and international matters of women

movement and gender equality. She cooperates on the Competition for the best

company with equal opportunities in the Czech Republic.

Jana Juráňová (1957) – she is a Slovakian writer, feminist and co-founder of

ASPEKT, the first feminist organisation in Slovakia. She is a graduate of the Co-

menius University in Bratislava, with degrees in English and Russian literature.

She has written plays, such as Salome (Salome, 1989), Misky strieborné, nádoby

výborné (1997) and novels Zverinec (Zoo, 1994), Siete (1996), Utrpenie starého kocúra (2000), and books for children Iba baba (1999), Bubliny (2002), Babeta ide do sveta (2003), Ježibaby z Novej Baby (2006). Her book Orodovnice (2007) was nominated for the most prestigous Slovakian literary award Anasoft Litera

2006. Her recent novel Žila som s Hviezdoslavom has also been nominated for

this award this year. She has translated into Slovakian books by Margaret Atwo-

od, Judith Butler and Virginia Woolf.

Oksana Kisselyova – Ph.D. in Philosophy; Senior Researcher in the Depart-

ment of Philosophy of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics of the Institute of Philosophy

named by G.S. Skorovoda of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (since

1981). She is the President of the Liberal Society Institute (since 2001). She wor-

ked as a Women’s Program Coordinator in the Environmental Non-Govern-

mental Organisation “MAMA86” (19962000). In 20022004, she was a mem-

ber of the Program Board “Women in Society” of the International Reneissance

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Foundation. She is a coauthor of the reports “Monitoring after Beijing: two years

later. Social and economic status of Ukrainian Women” (1997), “Beijing + 5: Wo-

men in transition economies” (2000) and “NGO assessment of implementation

of the Beijing Platform for Action in CEE/ CIS countries” (2004).

Kateřina Machovcová – is a graduate of the Faculty of Social Sciences Ma-

saryk university in Brno, where she continues in doctoral programme in social

psychology. She was a external lecturer for gender studies programme at the

same faculty. Equality issues and aplication of gender mainstreaming are her are-

as of interest since the year 2000, she cooperated with numerous non-govern-

mental organizations and development partnerships. Her focus is equality on

labor market, including education, research, publishing and consultancy related

activities in the area concerned.

Natalia Moussienko – a sociologist, a member of the Liberal Society Institute

Linda Sokačová – She is a graduate of sociology and social politics at Facul-

ty of Social Sciences, Charles University. She is a director of Gender Studies,

o.p.s. for development and strategic planning and, at the same time, she is

“Fiftyfifty” project leader. She also takes part in organizing the Competition for

the best company with equal opportunities for women and men in the CR and

project Family Friendly Society focusing among others on educating parents on

maternity and parental leave in the area of ICT, fundraising and business. She is

an irregular contributor to feminismus.cz and other internet as well as printed

media including specialized periodicals focused on sociology, processes gender

analysis and lectures on the topic of equal opportunities and the position of

women in the society.

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aBout the FouNdatioN

The Heinrich Böll Foundation (Heinrich Böll Stiftung), with headquarters in

Berlin, is a German political foundation linked to the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party.

The Foundation’s basic objective, both in Germany and abroad, is civil education

aimed at supporting formation of democratic attitudes, social and political activism

and understanding between nations. Its key values are: ecology, democracy,

solidarity and nonviolence.

The Foundation is particularly devoted to building a democratic society based

on respect for the rights of immigrants and the principles of gender democracy,

understood as a dominationfree relation between women and men. Both

those principles constitute a basis for cooperation inside the Foundation, as well

as in all areas of its public operation.

International operation of the Foundation involves cooperation with over 160 partner

organisations from 60 countries on 4 continents, as well as running 27 foreign branches.

For over 15 years, the Foundation has been active in Central Europe, including

Poland. In the 1990’s, the Foundation mainly supported projects of partner

organisations working towards human rights, equal opportunity for women and

men, and balanced development of the natural environment. The Polish branch

of the Foundation inaugurated its operation at the beginning of 2002, when the

negotiations before EU accession of the countries of Central Europe reached

their final stages. One of the tasks of the Polish branch was to monitor and

support actions aimed at inclusion of the equality perspective into the process

of integration of those countries with the EU. Since the accession, the branch

has faced new challenges: it initiates and supports social and political debate in

Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and

Ukraine), including the perspective of other issues close to the “Greens”.

You can find more information about Heinrich Böll Stiftung, its operation and

publications on our websites:

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The Czech Republic,

Poland, Slovakia

2009

and Ukraine

Issues

Gender

Gender Issues 2009:

Gender Equality

Discourse in Times

of Transformation,

1989-2009

Foundation

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Heinrich Böll Foundation

Regional Office Warsaw

ul. Żurawia 45, 00-680 Warsaw, Poland

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