Gender in Mainstream Politics Scaling the Structures

Abstract

The transformation process in Central and Eastern Europe has been simultaneously economic, involving marketization and privatization, and political, involving democratization. Yet it is significant that both processes have been constructed within the parameters of neo-liberal understandings that privilege the economic over the political, and hence the individual economic actor over the citizen as political subject. This goes some way to explaining the relative scholarly and activist neglect until recently of political representation in state legislatures in the region as a key gender equality measure.¹

Young lady, you seem to think with your glands. Yes, we have primarily men, from the local mayors to representatives up to the parliamentarians, from business owners — who hire only uneducated but good-looking young girls — to taxi drivers. … Particularly after 1989, most of the men that I have had the opportunity to discuss the problem with endorse the emancipation of women … within given parameters in social, civil, and political life — except when it comes to their own wives and daughters.

(Prominent male representative of the Romanian National Liberal Party, cited by Grunberg, 2000: 319)

The mission of building gender-inclusive democracies is far from being fulfilled. … As part of the funding community, we must continue to advocate for increasing resources for women’s empowerment. As a part of the global women’s movement, we must ensure that women’s voices are a vital part of global politics. Simply put, if women are excluded from democracy, democracy fails.

(Posadskaya-Vanderbeck, 2002: 7)