Gender, Globalization, and Postsocialism: The Czech Republic After Communism / Edition 1

by Jacqui True

Overview

How are changing gender relations shaping and being shaped by post-socialist marketization and liberalization? Do new forms of economic and cultural globalization open spaces for women's empowerment and feminist politics? The rapid social transformations experienced by the people of the Czech Republic in the wake of the collapse of communism in 1989 afford political scientist Jacqui True with an opportunity to answer these questions by examining political and gendered identities in flux. She argues that the privatization of a formerly state economy and the adoption of consumer-oriented market practices were shaped by ideas and attitudes about gender roles.

Though finely tuned to the particular, local traditions that have defined the boundaries of globalization for Czech men and women, Gender, Globalization, and Postsocialism also offers a provocative general thesis about the inextricable linkages between political and economic changes and gender identities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231127158
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/02/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	0.58(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jacqui True is assistant professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has been a visiting assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University.

Table of Contents

Globalization, Gender and Post-Socialism
Gendering State Socialism
Refashioning the Family
Establishing Labour Markets
Expanding Consumer Markets
Importing Civil Society
Engendering Global Political Economy

What People are Saying About This

Robert W. Cox

This is a brilliant study of the Czech transition from 'real socialism' to capitalism but also of the complex phenomenon of globalization. It successfully integrates gender into an analysis of international political economy, and in so doing merges a feminist standpoint into a broader critical analysis of social change.

— Robert W. Cox, professor emeritus, York University

Jane S. Jaquette

A sophisticated and stimulating analysis of how globalization, democratization and marketization are shaping -- and are shaped by -- gender relations in the postsocialist Czech Republic. Her study deserves a wide audience, among comparativists, students of democratization, IR theorists, and those interested in the politics of gender.

— Jane S. Jaquette, Occidental College

J. Ann Tickner

This well researched study of the Czech Republic challenges conventional wisdom about the fate of women in post-socialist transitions in Eastern and Central Europe and shows how women, although they have lost ground in terms of formal political representation and employment opportunities, are finding ways to participate informally in building democracy from below. Linking her study to the broader international context, Jacqui True convincingly demonstrates how global forces shape and are shaped by gender relations in the family, the workplace, and in politics. True convinces us that we cannot understand the processes of globalization without paying attention to gender. This is not only an important contribution to a growing body of empirical feminist IR; it should also be of great interest to those concerned with post-socialist transitions as well as with the political, economic and cultural aspects of globalization.

— J. Ann Tickner, University of Southern California

Editorial Reviews

This book contains... extremely important information and clearly formulated arguments... I will be happy to add this to my syllabus.

Slavic Review - Eva Fodor

This book contains... extremely important information and clearly formulated arguments... I will be happy to add this to my syllabus.

— Eva Fodor

Slavic Review