REPRESENTING GENDER IN COMMUNIST AND POSTCOMMUNIST ROMANIA

Abstract

This article examines various representations of gender in communist and postcommunist Romania, with a focus on how women and men were both led towards and sometimes forced into gender roles better suited to the state policies of the respective contexts rather than to their own interests. Over the years, the state and/or party(ies) public agenda, from women’s liberation through gender equality to equal opportunities, has met real Romanian women’s and men’s needs to different extents and with variable success.

Keywords

• Gender roles
• representation
• power discourse
• private and public spheres
• equal opportunities