Women in Transition From Post Feminism to Past Femininity - Part
II
Women witnessed the resurgence of nostalgic nationalism, neo
traditionalism and religious revival - social forces which
sought to confine them to home, hearth, spouse and children and
to "liberate" them from the "forced labour" of communism.
Negative demographic trends (declining life expectancy and birth
rate, numerous abortions, late marriage, a high divorce rate,
increasing suicide rate) conspired to provoke a "we are a dying
nation" outcry and the inevitable re-emphasis of the woman's
reproductive functions.
Fierce debates about the morality of abortion erupted in
bastions of Catholic fundamentalism (such as Poland and, to a
lesser degree, Lithuania) as well as in citadels of rational
agnosticism, such as the Czech Republic. Curiously, prostitution
and women trafficking were accepted as inevitable. Perhaps
because they catered to masculine needs.
Indeed, in feminist lore and theory, both nationalism and
capitalism are "patriarchal". Nationalism allocates distinct and
mutually exclusive roles to men and women. The latter are
supposed to act as homemakers and have babies. Capitalism
encourages the formation of impregnable male elites,
disseminates new technologies mainly to male monopolies,
eliminates menial and low skilled (women's) jobs and puts
emphasis on masculine traits such as aggression and
competitiveness. No wonder female political representation in
parliaments and governments diminished dramatically since 1989.
When powerless, under communism, CEE parliaments were stacked
with women. Now that they are more potent elected bodies, they
are almost nowhere to be seen. The few that infiltrated these
august institutions are relegated to "soft" committees (social
issues, usually) devoid of budgets and of influence. It is very
much like under communism when the decision making party
echelons were predominantly male. The only influential women
then were dissidents but they seem to have rejected the fruit of
their labour, democracy, in favour of tranquility and peace of
mind - or to have been usurped by an emerging male
establishment. Despite an education in economics, they are
under-represented among business executives, the owners of
privatized enterprises and the beneficiaries of favourable pay
regulations and tax systems.
This erosion of their economic base coupled with the drastic
decreases in child benefits, in the length of maternal leave, in
the number of public and, thus, affordable child care facilities
and in other support networks led to a swift deterioration in
the social status and leverage of women. With their only
effective contraceptive - abortion - restricted, maternal
mortality exploded. So did teenage pregnancy - a result of the
curtailing or absence of sex education. The rate of sexually
transmitted diseases went through the roof. Violence against
women - rape, spousal abuse, date rape - became epidemic. So did
skyrocketing street prostitution. Widowed women - an ever more
common phenomenon in CEE - are destitute and reduced to begging
as the pensions of the lucky ones are ground to nil by a rising
cost of living and IMF prodded stinginess. There are also more
quotidian problems (often neglected by the media hungry and
soundbite craving feminists) like pitiful divorce maintenance
payments or decrepit maternity wards in crumbling hospitals.
Yet, women's reaction to all this was notable in its absence.
After decades of forced activism and imposed altruism, the
imported Western individualism mutated in CEE to malignant
egotism. A sliver of the female population did well in local
government and as entrepreneurs. The rest (especially the old,
the rural, the less educated) stayed at home and seemed to fancy
this novel experience of dependence. A generational divide
emerged. Younger women discovered the joys of conspicuous
consumption and mind numbing pop "culture". They constituted the
masses of career opportunists, the new managerial class,
shareholders and professionals - a pale imitation of the yuppies
of America. Older women retreated - heaving a sigh of relief -
into home and family, seeking refuge from the intrusion of
tedious public matters. Economic realities still forced them to
seek a job and steady income (often in a family business or in
the informal economy, with no job security or regulated labour
conditions) but their activism vanished into newfound and
demonstrative reclusiveness.
Yet, even the young entrepreneurs often fare badly. They lack
the necessary business skills, the knowledge, the supportive
infrastructure, or the access to credit. The older women cannot
work long hours, lack skills and, when officially employed, are
expensive, due to the burden of the still effective social
benefits. Thus, women can be mostly found in services, light
industry and agriculture - the most non lucrative sectors of the
dilapidated economies of CEE. And speaking of the social
benefits not yet axed - their quality has deteriorated, access
to them has been restricted and supplies are often short. The
costs of public goods (mainly health and education) have been
transferred from state to households either officially (a result
of the commercialization of services) or surreptitiously and
insidiously (e.g., patients required to purchase their own food,
bed sheets and medication when hospitalized).
To blame it all on a botched transition is now in vogue. Yet,
many of the problems facing the wretched women of CEE were
evident as early as 30 years ago. The feminization of poverty is
not a new phenomenon, nor is the feminization of certain
professions and the attendant decline in both their status and
their pay. Under communism, women felt as exhausted and as
guilt-ridden as they feel today. They were considered unreliable
workers (which they were, what with a lifetime average of 10
abortions and 2 children). Their offspring endured an alienated
childhood in the brutal and faceless gulag of day care centres
maintained by indifferent bureaucrats.
Juvenile delinquency, a high divorce rate, single motherhood and
parasitic fathers were all swept under the ideological carpet by
communism. Even communism's only achievement - the inclusionary
workforce - was an elaborately crafted illusion for consumption
by wide-eyed Western intellectuals. In the agrarian societies
which preceded communism, women worked no less. And women were
not allowed to work night time or shifts or in certain jobs, nor
were they paid as much as men in equal functions. Job
advertising is sex-specific and sexist to this very day (in
stark violation of dead letter Constitutions).
Discarding the baby with the leaking bathtub has been a hallmark
of transition. Communism has done a lot for women (one of its
very rare achievements). Some of these foundations were sound
and durable and should have been preserved to build upon. Yet
the apathy of women and the zeal of power hungry men converged
to yield an old new world: patriarchal, discriminatory and
iniquitous. The day of CEE feminism will come. But first, CEE
has to become more Westernized.