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“Woman” in Cultural Reconstruction Since 1989

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Cultural Change in East-Central European and Eurasian Spaces

Abstract

This chapter interrogates the cultural construction of “woman” across all 30 countries of the region as present in current legal codes. Through a content analysis of the national constitutions across this region, Pearce and Saville compare the verbiage of laws that mention women and gender, as a window into women’s subject position(s) in current political cultures. The results represent a mix of nation-based legal cultures, international “rights” norms, and feminist ideals. The chapter highlights similarities and differences between countries and concludes with observations on the place of these changing constitutions within the culture wars over gender.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Personal communication, Network of East-West Women leaders.

  2. 2.

    Participant observation as an expert witness for a Georgian national seeking asylum in the United States.

  3. 3.

    See, for example, the work of the European Parliament committee, FEMM, at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/femm/home.html.

  4. 4.

    Although an argument can be made that the 1936 “Stalin constitution” of the USSR added civil rights protections and anti-discrimination language that were not present in the 1918 Russian constitution, such rights were not actualized in practice (Getty, 1991, p. 18).

  5. 5.

    “Armenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  6. 6.

    “Azerbaijan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  7. 7.

    Note that one must be cautious about the gender pronouns in English translations, as pronouns in some of the region’s languages are inferred from a noun’s gender, which may or may not refer to a male or female identity. The Czech constitution in this database, for instance, frequently uses “she” and “her,” but these are absent in the original Czech-language texts.

  8. 8.

    “Germany.” www.constituteproject.org.

  9. 9.

    Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, and North Macedonia.

  10. 10.

    “Kazakhstan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  11. 11.

    “Kosovo.” www.constituteproject.org.

  12. 12.

    “Bosnia and Herzegovina.” www.constituteproject.org.

  13. 13.

    “Bosnia and Herzegovina.” www.constituteproject.org.

  14. 14.

    “Czechia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  15. 15.

    “Bulgaria.” www.constituteproject.org.

  16. 16.

    We are not implying that the generic framing dictates that judges would necessarily interpret the wording as protecting people’s rights regardless of gender. However, this is verbiage that is indicative of the present era and democratic constitutions that no longer codify stratified rights.

  17. 17.

    “Kazakhstan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  18. 18.

    “Germany.” www.constituteproject.org.

  19. 19.

    “Turkmenistan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  20. 20.

    Library of Congress, “Constitutional Provisions on Women’s Equality.” Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/law/help/const-provisions-womens-equal/index.php#_ftn20.

  21. 21.

    “Kosovo.” www.constituteproject.org.

  22. 22.

    “Armenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  23. 23.

    “Moldova.” www.constituteproject.org.

  24. 24.

    Uzbekistan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  25. 25.

    “Tajikistan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  26. 26.

    “Serbia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  27. 27.

    “Macedonia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  28. 28.

    “Slovenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  29. 29.

    “Serbia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  30. 30.

    “Albania.” www.constituteproject.org.

  31. 31.

    “Hungary.” www.constituteproject.org.

  32. 32.

    “Hungary.” www.constituteproject.org.

  33. 33.

    “Armenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  34. 34.

    “Belarus.“www.constituteproject.org.

  35. 35.

    “Ukraine.” www.constituteproject.org.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    “Lithuania.” www.constituteproject.org.

  38. 38.

    “Czechia” and “Ukraine.” www.constituteproject.org.

  39. 39.

    “Serbia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  40. 40.

    “Slovenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  41. 41.

    “Lithuania.” www.constituteproject.org.

  42. 42.

    “Poland.” www.constituteproject.org.

  43. 43.

    “Armenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  44. 44.

    “Armenia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  45. 45.

    “Latvia.” www.constituteproject.org.

  46. 46.

    “Hungary.” www.constituteproject.org.

  47. 47.

    “Kyrgyzstan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  48. 48.

    “Hungary.” www.constituteproject.org.

  49. 49.

    “Turkmenistan.” www.constituteproject.org.

  50. 50.

    “Bosnia and Herzegovina.” www.constituteproject.org.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Susan C. Pearce

  2. Department of Behavioral Sciences, Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL, USA

    Anne Saville

Authors
  1. Susan C. Pearce
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  2. Anne Saville
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Correspondence to Anne Saville .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Susan C. Pearce

  2. Institute of Literary Studies, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland

    Eugenia Sojka

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Pearce, S.C., Saville, A. (2021). “Woman” in Cultural Reconstruction Since 1989. In: Pearce, S.C., Sojka, E. (eds) Cultural Change in East-Central European and Eurasian Spaces. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63197-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63197-0_13

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