road to autonomy (is bumpy)

a better summary than my own of the thoroughly twisted nature of "what happened to the communist ideal of equality between the sexes in the context of real-life communism in Romania" and the whole "post-feminism" notion:

The result of the complex interplay between traditional Romanian patriarchy, both culturally and politically,<3> and the ideal of equality promoted by the communist ideology was state patriarchy. Economically speaking, instead of the promised equality, women under communism had to put up with the double workday (although one must also mention that equal pay for similar jobs and almost equal access to all types of occupation were realities during communism in Romania). From a political point of view, women’s power was the same as men’s: purely nominal. Under the conditions of a single political party and systematically falsified elections, the political dimension of citizenship was meaningless. The greatest misfortune of women during communism, though, was the unlimited intrusion of the state into their private lives, most strikingly expressed by draconic anti-abortion policies that did a lot of harm, both physically and psychologically, to huge numbers of women. Power itself was structured according to a thoroughly patriarchal model of one-man-ruling-over-the-entire-people (especially during the 70’s and 80’s) and the Romanian public culture was defined by age-old patriarchal traditions. Against a background of hostility to any ideal of personal autonomy, the initial communist ideology of women’s emancipation unavoidably lapsed into radically anti-feminist practice. The resulting ideology, being both nationalist and morally conservative, portrayed women as the property of the nation (identified with the party), thus precluding any move towards individual freedom.

The political ethos inherited from communism has evolved, after its downfall, into new kinds of patriarchy, framed by the new ideology of democratization and the free market. Miroiu’s work goes on to uncover the patriarchal faces of post-communist transition: an absence of women from high-ranking politics and the newly-formed economical elite, a cultural environment hostile to any feminist self-identification, unacknowledged domestic violence and an expectation that women perform all the housework.

- from this review of mihaela miroiu's book The Road to Autonomy. Feminist Political Theories published in hypathia, a journal of feminist philosophy

ADDED LATER: more on the similar situation with Bulgaria, pre- and post-"communist" feminism and also on trafficking: "Violence Against Women a Western Problem?" by Susan Phillips

Nobody knows exactly how many women in Eastern Europe have been trafficked against their will into prostitution, but the estimates for Bulgaria range in the thousands. When Maria Minkova began volunteering in 1998 for Animus, the first women’s crisis center to open in Bulgaria, reactions from friends ranged from sarcastic to critical to surprise. “Oh really,” they would ask, “is that a problem?” Seven years later, every person you meet in Bulgaria knows about trafficking. Maria Tchomarova, co-founder of Animus, says that the problem is pervasive. “Everyone knows of someone [affected by trafficking in women].”

Trafficking in women, however, remains just one issue tackled by the staff and volunteers of Animus. Tchomarova says the former communist government of Bulgaria did not acknowledge violence against women, including rape and domestic violence. Instead, she says the government viewed violence against women as strictly a western problem. “Under communism, you had a ‘perfect person’,” she said. “Family violence was not [thought to be] a feature of communist society.” Maria Minkova, now working as Animus’s hot-line director, agrees. “During socialism the government wanted to pretend there was no violence against women,” says Minkova.

As a result, awareness and discussion of these issues is relatively new. Regina Indshewa, director of the Women’s Alliance for Development in Bulgaria, says that the “state feminism” of Eastern Europe differed from the grassroots feminist movement in the West since it was top down and focused on getting women into the workforce. “The economy was based on a cheap labor force,” says Indshewa, “and women have always been a cheap labor force.” Indshewa acknowledges, however, that the government did provide support for working mothers in the form of childcare and prepared meals. It also helped change attitudes toward women in the work place. “One of the biggest achievements of 50 years of state feminism,” she says, “is the general attitude that it doesn’t matter if the worker is a woman or a man, there is an equal salary for a certain type of work.”

But what state feminism didn’t do was create an active force for women’s empowerment. “Women don’t produce trouble in the public space,” Indshewa said. “They are well-mannered and behaved.” Perhaps the most ironic example of this occurred recently with the defeat of the Special Equality Act in the National Assembly due to opposition by women legislators. “They said we cannot admit there is discrimination against women in our country,” said Indshewa, “or else what will the international community say?”

...

Under communism, everyone who wanted a job had one, whether or not it was useful or productive. With the transition to a “free-market” economy, the state no longer guarantees a job for everyone. Indshewa has been tracking the impact this economic transition has had on women. “The Bulgarian economy has undergone a difficult development in terms of women’s participation in the labor market,” says Indshewa. “We had a system which promoted women in employment before the changes,” she says. “All women of working age participated in paid labor. More than 10 percent of women have disappeared from this economically active population.” Indshewa also points to a slight but growing wage gap between men and women and a higher unemployment rate for young women. “Among young women just graduated, unemployment is three times higher than men with degrees.” ...