Gender politics and everyday life in state socialist East and Central Europe

Did socialism liberate women? Twenty years after the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe a new collection of essays from European and North American scholars examines socialist politics and women's everyday lives to demonstrate that this question can no longer be considered rhetorical. This collection offers a complex and multi-disciplinary exploration to reveal that women experienced socialism in diverse, contradictory, and in some cases positive ways. Focusing on a range of issues such as worker and sexual identity, marital and family relations, socialist modernity and consumer culture, the welfare state and reproductive politics, and women's activism and resistance, these compelling and timely investigations, coedited by Jill Massino and Shana Penn, provide new depth to the study of state gender policy and women's and men's lives in socialist East and Central Europe.--Provided by publisher.