ABSTRACT
Early predictions that gender bias would pervade the process of labour market transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were made in a vacuum, insofar as the move from command principles to market direction had not occurred before. Implicit in the forecasts was an assumption either that women’s position was worse previously than some market norm and would deteriorate further, or that women held a favourable position under communism and that this would be lost. However, the usual seeds of female disadvantage – relatively low educational and health status (IBRD 1995) – were largely absent in the communist world. ‘Initial conditions’ are often held to be important determinants of transformation possibilities, strategies and trajectories, and these varied much more than was commonly supposed in the Soviet realm of influence (Allen 1992). As such, it is a little surprising that identical arguments regarding the negative impacts of change on the position of women have been applied to all transition economies.
