ABSTRACT
Clearly, the transformation currently under way in East Central Europe (ECE) is offering very different opportunities to different groups of people. Some individuals have quickly and easily become fantastically rich, while others find themselves struggling to find any employment sufficient to pay for heating and bread. Patterns in the distribution of these opportunities continue to be an underanalysed aspect of the economic transformation. The emergence of classes has been little examined. A literature on the impact of the transformation on women has begun to emerge, although data limitations have made early conclusions somewhat tentative. Furthermore, the differential impact of restructuring across ethnic groups has only just begun to be examined.
