Emerging gender interest groups in the new member states: The case of the Czech Republic

Abstract

Despite a growing number of approaches and sub-disciplines interested in analysing lobbying and interest representation with a broad set of paradigms, the formation of gender interest groups has remained a marginal area of investigation. Very little has been written about women's lobbies' action in national politics, and scholars' attention has mainly addressed gender interest representation at the supranational level, and its potential consequences for the domestic scene. Regarding the new EU Member States, women's NGOs have received considerable scholarly attention as part of ‘renewed civil societies’ after 1989. However, these approaches have been quite confusing for analysing women's relation to politics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since ‘civil society’ does not always mean the same thing and women's groups differ highly from each other regarding the social goals they pursue. Based on a long-term qualitative research project on Czech female political elites, this paper describes the emergence of gender interest groups in CEE countries, mainly through a case study. By identifying the emergence of a multi-level system of gender interests' representation, this paper raises two broad-based questions on which the fate of gender interest groups in East Central Europe depends.