188 Book Reviews

exception of Albania. The articles are very diverse in theme, approach, and length. Some attempt a comprehen- sive description of the current situation, referring to the communist and precommunist past for explanation. Others are more selective and polemical. Some are quite theoreti- cal. Most of the contributors are East European scholars, and the diversity of the volume is enhanced by the fact that they represent a range of disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology, enthnography, history, and cultural studies. The publishers suggest that the book be classified as women's studies/philosophy/political science. It should certainly be of interest to those whose primary interest is in women's studies or feminism and to specialists in Eastern Europe (particularly in view of the fact that so much of the writing on the transition period is narrowly economic in focus, rather than exploring social developments),

The essays are written deliberately for a Western audi- ence. The authors are consciously in dialogue with West- ern feminists, responding to ideas and misconceptions which they have encountered, and trying to explain the sources of confusion. It is not just concepts like "emanci- pation" which may be understood differently: One author even points out that, in Romania, "when one speaks of restaurants, dining out, fast food, or even pizza or a sand- wich, we enter the realm of linguistics" (p. 43). The editors hope that as well as being useful to Western readers, the "essays may also help alleviate the difficulty women in postcommunist countries experience in creating a public discourse about women, one shaped by women themselves and committed to helping women become subjects on their own behalf" (p. 1).

It is difficult, in view of its variety and richness, to sum- marise the content of Gender Politics and Post-Communism at all comprehensively in a review of this length. The reader is referred to Nanette Funk's excellent introduction. This review will conclude, then, by selecting just a few of the issues raised. The authors on the whole agree that women have benefitted less than have men from the collapse of communism. Economically, they stand to lose more and more as unemployment grows because such unemployment is generally affecting women disproportionately. In the political sphere, newfound rights and freedoms have more meaning for men than women. Women's access to power has not increased. Quota systems which created a facade of equality have been abolished, but not replaced by any gen- uine efforts to ensure greater participation by women in government and representative institutions. Moreover, con- servative governments have displayed a tendency to restrict women's rights, notably with regard to access to abortion. (The exception is Romania, where the restitution of legal abortions was one of the fh-st acts of the National Salvation Front, p. 49).

The combined effect of all the tendencies mentioned above is to create the impression of a patriarchal approach to women's issues on the part of both governments and substantial sections of society. However, the contributors also suggest the need for a more nuanced view. Conservative attitudes had roots before 1989 and cannot only be attrib- uted to the special needs and characteristics of the transi- tion period. This point indicates that 1989 was not a water- shed. Rather, the uprisings of that year accelerated process- es already occurring in many areas, marking the gradual decay of the neo-Stalinist system. Moreover, one should not exaggera te the s t rength of conse rva t i sm in East European societies. A number of the authors recognise that in the field of women's rights it is important not to jettison

the achievements of the communist period, particularly in countries such as the former German Democtatic Republic where these had some existence in practice as well as in ideology. Since Gender Politics was written, electoral sue- cesses by ex-communist parties in Poland and Hungary suggest that nostalgia for former social and economic rights, however imperfectly realised these were in practice, has a strong hold on East Europeans in general and that the success of the Right in 1989-1990 was to some extent a temporary phenomenon.

What are the prospects, then, for feminism in Eastern Europe? It is often suggested - - even by some of the con- tributors to this volume - - that East European women are not receptive to Western feminism because they equate it with campaigning for access to paid employment, whereas Eastern Europeans are more oriented toward home and family and would prefer not to go out to work. Several contributors, however, present survey evidence to suggest that most East European women actually prefer to have paid employment . Moreover, with reference to those women who would prefer to stay at home, Funk argues convincingly that their rationale for doing so does not nec- essarily suggest "an essentialist belief that it is women's nature to be in the home" (p. 324). Rather, like Western women, they had conducted a cost-benefit analysis of what "home" and "work" had to offer and came to the opposite conclusion. The home, for example, did not have the same significance on both sides of Europe as Havelkov~i and Lissyutkina point out. Funk writes,

It was here that one could more safely discuss social, cultural, and political issues. Rather than being the antithe- sis of the public sphere, the family became an ersatz public sphere. Eastern women also used their commitments to the family as a strategy to sidestep participation in the discred- ited political system. (p. 323)

Taking this and other factors into consideration, and recognising the existence of important cultural differences both within Eastern Europe and between East and West, Funk concludes that the prospects are good for dialogue between feminists on both sides of the former Iron Curtain (p. 328).

ANNE WHITE UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND

IrClmtNATIONAL STUDIES BATH, UK

VIVA: WOMEN AND POPULAR PROTEST IN LATIN AMERICA, edited by Sarah A. Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood, 269 pages. Routledge, London, 1993.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: WOMEN, RESISTANCE AND Po t .mcs IN Sotrrlt AMERICA, by Jo Fisher, 228 pages. Latin America Bureau, London, 1993.

Viva: Women and Popular Protest in Latin America is an important and fresh look at the growth of women's partici- pation in Latin American political life, particularly over the last decade. A thought-provoking introduction raises a wealth of questions about the construction of the category of latina woman, exploring the racial as well as gendered roots of this construction. At the same time, the authors put forward critical reflections on their own role as White, Western w o m e n and make clear that their a im is to

Book Reviews 189

deconstruct the homogenizing, universalizing account of Latin America which contributes to the exoticization and "Otherization" of the peoples of Latin America, and instead, to give full attention to diversity and the specific ways in which racisms, gender and class rela- tions are articulated in the different states of the Americas. (p. 5)

The promise of the introduction is not entirely met by the chapters in the book, and a concluding chapter might have helped to draw together the arguments presented in disparate case studies and point the way forward for further research and theoretical development. Although each chap- ter illustrates an arena in which women have made a sub- stantial contribution to political life, nearly all conclude that women remain on the margins in some sense, "the backbone of the movement rather than the head" suggests Nikki Craske in her chapter, "Women's Political Participation in Colonias Populares in Guadalajara, Mexico" (p. 133). While justifiably celebrating the advances, a more critical look at the obstacles would strengthen the book. Nevertheless, each chapter has considerable merit and adds to our knowl- edge and understanding of the variety of ways in which diverse groups of women have become visible protagonists in Latin American political life. The chapters are particu- larly strong in seeking explanations for how and in what circumstances a gendered consciousness emerges. This is explored through the case of the widows' movement in Guatemala (Conavigua); the mothers of the prisoners, dis- appeared and pol i t ical ly a s sas ina ted in El Sa lvador (Comadres); the Environment movement in Venezuela; the Health movement in San Paulo, Brazil and Brazilian com- munity-based movements; the women of the poor urban communi t ies of Mexico; the Colonias Populares; and through the struggles of Andean peasant women. A particu- larly interesting chapter on Chile explores the cultural expression of women's political experience in that country through the manipulation of different images of women during the Allende and Pinochet periods, and the efforts of some women to claim their right to define their own identi- ties and set their own agendas. In this chapter, Catherine Boyle makes the important statement that at the centre of all this is the need to "rename the problem, eliminating the notion of the 'woman q u e s t i o n ' . . , and posing the real problem of the gender question, which goes deep to the roots of society." Greater emphasis on the "gender ques- tion" in each chapter might have illuminated more the deeply-rooted social relationships which still prevent the full e m p o w e r m e n t o f the m a n y c o u r a g e o u s w o m e n activists described in this book.

In Out of the Shadows, Jo Fisher chronicles the role of women in the resistance to dictatorship and military rule in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. The book is based on extensive interviews with grass roots activists in all the countries and the book is written in a lively, readable way, bringing to life the real struggles of the women concerned. The book offers useful empirical information and data on the movements of women in the individual countries and is an important addition to the growing historiography of w o m e n ' s ac t iv i t ies dur ing the d ic ta to r sh ip in Lat in America's Southern Cone. Once again, the book states (but fails to analyse) the failure of many of these movements to sustain themselves through the transition to civilian rule and to guarantee a voice for women in the democratised polities that have emerged. Recording women's contribu- tion in the years covered is an extremely valuable task, par-

ticularly given so many examples of the elimination of women from the history books. But critical analysis of that contribution and the gendered political structures which prevail in la t in America is arguably just as important today.

JENNY PEARCE D ~ T M ~ S T OF PEACE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD

BRADFORD, UK

MAGYAR WOMEN: HUNGARIAN WOMEN'S LIVES, 1960S--1990S, by Chris Corrin, 312 pages. St. Martin 's Press, New York, 1994. US $49.95 hardcover.

WOMEN IN THE POLITICS OF POSTCOMMUNIST EAST~nN EtatOl~g, edited by Marilyn Rueschemeyer, 253 pages. M. E. Sharpe, Inc., New York, 1994. US $49.95 hardcover, $19.95 paperback.

In 1990, when I first went to Eastern Europe to look at the situation of women in the former communist "East Bloc" countries, very few English language publications focusing on women were available. In the past 2 or 3 years, the num- ber of publications has increased. The books reviewed here are welcome additions because they give us specific infor- mation about events in women's lives in the various coun- tries. But, amazingly, although the actors and plots differ in detail, the general outlines of all the stories are the same.

The scholars being reviewed here agree on the follow- ing descriptions. Under communism, women were "liberat- ed" after World War II to participate in the paid work force, but two major problems made that experience less than lib- erating. Most women's work became sex-segregated and sex-stratified so that women received lower wages, held more low-skill jobs, and frequently performed manual labor. In addition, socialist governments did not take seri- ously enough the necessity of socializing domestic work or of changing social attitudes about familial work roles. Consequent ly , women in Eastern Europe f requent ly worked at unsatisfying jobs in the public workplace and bore most of the responsibility for work in the home - - the much-discussed double burden.

For many reasons, Eastern European societies remained patriarchal in ideology and structure, despite Marxist proclamations that men and women were equal citizens in a socialist state. Men were the major political players and public policymakers. In an era of declining populations, governments considered the control of women's fertility a state imperative. And despite their experiences of being overworked and undervalued, most Eastern European women did not band together to protest on their own behalf. Among the reasons for this lack of protest have been: deeply embedded patriarchal traditions; the lack of solidari- ty among and between women; the discrediting of the ideas of Western feminism; the tokenism of women and women's issues as the state coopted women parliamentarians and the state sponsored the only officially permitted women's orga- nizations; and, because the hardships of the transition affect women more than men, women are left with less energy to participate in public decision making. As a consequence, in all Eastern European countries, when the quotas of the socialist regimes were lifted in the first "free" elections, the number of women in posi t ions of political inf luence decreased dramatically.

Chris Corrin's book, Magyar Women is unusual in that it focuses on only one country. This is the book's greatest