Gender Democracy

As part of the herstoric celebrations of the centenary of Polish independence aiming primarily to restore the remembrance of native suffragettes who fought in the Polish independence movement at the turn of the 20th century for the establishment of full legal and social equality between men and women, hundreds of cultural, educational and political events are currently taking place across the country. One of them is HERSTORIADA, a series of Congress Meetings with Herstory in the form of a touring herstoric academy by the Women's Congress. 

This year is exceptional for Poland when it comes to celebrating historical memory. Multiple anniversaries awaiting us in 2018 provide ample opportunity to reflect on the contemporary meanings of all those diverse, laudable and difficult events from the modern history of Poland, that is, the centenary of end of World War I and the regaining of the Polish state’s independence in 1918, the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and fiftieth anniversary of the communist regime’s antisemitic campaign against the student revolt of 1968.

In order to reflect on the regional implications of the presumably global trend of “backlash” in gender relations the offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Belgrade, Berlin, Kyiv, Moscow, Prague and Warsaw invited scholars and activists from Armenia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine to attend the Third International Gender Workshop in Berlin (27-29.09.2014).

How has accession influenced gender equality in Slovakia? How has legislation changed and what has happened to the lives of women and men in the country? How has accession influenced the situation of feminist and women’s NGOs? These and other questions are raised in this analysis, which tries to summarise some basic aspects of the assessment of the Slovakia’s membership of the EU. The analysis is part of the international project “10 Years in the EU from a Gender Perspective.

Although the Czech electorate approved the country's accession to the European Union in a national referendum, the Czech public and media are not interested in the EU agenda. The public is divided in their perception of the EU membership and the impact from having joined the EU is rarely discussed. Moreover, the public's euroscepticism accelerated during the time Václav Klaus was  the president and has now entered  the mainstream. It still remains a challenge for the media, women’s NGOs and political think-tanks and watchdogs to make (female) Czech MEPs and their work more visible to the general public. There, our office asked Czech experts to evaluate work and contributions of the Czeck female MEPs since 2004.