ABSTRACT
Under centrally planned systems, women enjoyed a greater degree of gender equality in the workplace, compared with their counterparts in market economies. The transition to a market economy has caused profound changes in the mechanisms for allocating and compensating labour and raises the question of how these changes will affect the position of women relative to men in the labour market. Recent literature on the process of economic transition in Eastern and Central European countries indicates that women often bear a disproportionate share of the costs of adjustment when state enterprises are restructuring and massive privatization programs are undertaken (Hopkins 1995; Jackman 1994; Paukert 1991). Women are more likely to be laid off than men and have more difficulty finding re-employment in the private sector. In consequence, women often face higher unemployment rates than men and their spells of unemployment are longer. Many women have become so discouraged that they have left the labour force altogether. The degree to which women are affected as a group, however, varies from country to country, depending upon the pre-reform employment structure, the magnitude of changes in the composition of demand for goods and services, economic situation and reform strategies (Orazem and Vodopivec 2000; Paukert 1991).
