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Paths and Barriers to the Labour Market: A Comparative View of Working and Homemaking Young Adult Women in Hungary and Romania

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Rethinking Gender, Work and Care in a New Europe
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Abstract

It has been widely acknowledged in the sociological literature that the post-1989 social, economic and political transformations have had different effects upon women and men. However, except for a few cases, there has been no systematic overview of the mechanisms through which structural changes impacted on women’s economic opportunities or their lives in general. The aim of this study was to offer a macro-level comparative account of two of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) post-socialist countries in terms of women’s changing positions in the labour market. Through this analysis we aimed to provide a more nuanced account than the straightforward ‘loser-winner’ dichotomy, and we challenged the assumption that women form a single, unitary and homogeneous social group. So, one of the objectives of our study was to highlight the heterogeneous social and economic positions of women created during the past two decades.

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© 2016 Réka Geambaşu

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Geambaşu, R. (2016). Paths and Barriers to the Labour Market: A Comparative View of Working and Homemaking Young Adult Women in Hungary and Romania. In: Roosalu, T., Hofäcker, D. (eds) Rethinking Gender, Work and Care in a New Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137371096_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137371096_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57128-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-37109-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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