Women’s Political Representation in the Czech Republic in the context of the transition from Communism to Democracy

Jitka Gelnarová,Marie V Fousková

doi:10.14746/pp.2016.21.4.10

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of women’s political representation in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic after the fall of the iron curtain, framed in the context of the transition from Communism to democracy. It is concerned with both continuity and discontinuity between the old and the new regime regarding the political engagement of women – the persistence of traditional family model and gender stereotypes on one hand, and the radically changed roles of the private and the public sphere on the other. It focuses on the mechanisms disadvantaging women in their access to political power and on public attitudes to the measures which could level the playing field, namely gender quotas for political party candidate lists.

Highlights

This paper gives an overview of women’s political representation in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic after the fall of the iron curtain, framed in the context of the transition from Communism to democracy
The overall low representation of women has been constantly criticized by NGOs working for gender equality,2 and the reasons for the low number of women in politics have been the subject of numerous studies by political scientists and sociologists (e.g. Saxonberg, 2003; Havelková H., 2002; Rakušanová, 2006; Rakušanová, Helšusová Václavíková, 2006; Vohlídalová et al, 2016)
This paper aims to give an overview of the existing research, framing the issue of women’s political representation in the context of the transition from Communism to democracy

Summary

Introduction

This paper gives an overview of women’s political representation in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic after the fall of the iron curtain, framed in the context of the transition from Communism to democracy It is concerned with both continuity and discontinuity between the old and the new regime regarding the political engagement of women – the persistence of traditional family model and gender stereotypes on one hand, and the radically changed roles of the private and the public sphere on the other. (Zastoupení) Whereas the number of women representatives grows continuously on the local level, it fluctuates irregularly on the governmental, parliamentary and European levels These low percentages contrast sharply with the high rates of Czech women’s education and employment (Postavení; Zaostřeno). In contrast to the early 1950s, the Communist regime of 1970s and 1980s mostly did not attempt to politicise the family, which was left as an avenue of tolerated escape

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Conclusion