Presentations by Streams

The end of the socialism and the soviet era in Central Europe led to liberalization in economic terms, but not in in the choice of life models. Major progressive developments have taken place in the sphere of modernization i.e. infrastructure and economics. However, in the sphere of modernity, the development was opposite: interferences between church and politics, homophobia, misogyny and aggression against minorities led to a paradoxical social situation, which Przemyslaw Czaplinski describes with the concept of belated modernity (Czaplinski 2018).
The panel scrutinizes the gender-specific aspects of this phenomenon that public narratives have been trying to shape positively: The emphasis has been put on the advantages of a classic role model that reduces the female sphere of power to the private whereas public discourses (politics, economy, culture) were to a large extent taken over by men. Slawomira Walczewska (1999) coined and problematized the term domestic matriarchy (i.e. the unnoticeable female way to exercise power over the whole family at home). Walczewska argues that this conception is misleading since women de facto disappeared from public life and the ascribed domestic influence was only a comforting narration for the loss of significance.
This questionable power division is however a universal phenomenon and becomes obvious especially when states regain independence: We observe pro-natalist and profamily policies in post socialist countries that rely to a large extent on traditional role models. In Hungary, a “care fare” (Fodor 2022) regime ascribes women a “natural responsibility” for care work, in Poland restrictive family policies and conservative sex education approaches in school foster traditional role models. In Ukraine, ambivalent cohesion of traditional gender roles occurred first through increased migration and now through war.
Our goal is to make aware of problems for society resulting from a binary role model but also to shed light on counter movements and strategies of female self-empowerment.
This interdisciplinary panel brings together both early career and established researchers from different disciplines (history, sociology, literature and cultural studies), focusing on the countries of Poland, Hungary and Ukraine, as well as Czech Republic and Slovakia.