ABSTRACT
When old institutions are replaced by new ones, it is useful to draw attention to issues that have been, in the ancien régime, taken for granted—especially the many problems concerning women’s lives and women’s rights. Speaking of women’s rights in the context of socialism may seem curious enough, but during socialism, full-time (eight hours per day) employment and social benefits (health care, legal and social protection of motherhood, liberal legislation governing abortion and family planning, and a network of public kindergartens) were considered rights that, once achieved, could never have been lost. Unfortunately, this belief proved to be wrong: many rights granted by the state were endangered by the new circumstances.
