ABSTRACT
As compared to other postsocialist countries in Central Europe, there have been since 1989 in the Czech Republic no big social issues that specifically concern women. Unlike in Poland, the Czech abortion law remained fully liberal; unlike in East Germany, there is no massive unemployment of women; unlike in Hungary, there is a different kind of ideological pressure on women to return to the home. The issue in the Czech Republic turned out to be political; it was the low number of women in top political positions that, as compared to the numbers in the other countries I’ve mentioned (and including Slovakia), is the most striking “retreat” we’ve seen. Only 9.5 percent of members of parliament and only 16 percent of members of the local boards of representatives are women; there are no women ministers, and only two out of the fifty-one deputy ministers are women. In other words, women’s political absence can be regarded as precisely the Czech problem.
