ABSTRACT
The intellectual movement of Western European and North American feminists between the 1960s and the 1980s bypassed the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia the feminist movement was developing—just like everything else—under the trusteeship of the Communist Party, as part of the national ideology. Prior to the elections of 1990, forty-two political parties were registered in the Czech and Slovak Republics, but not one of them had a program specially aimed at solving women's problems. Until the overthrow of communism in 1989, there was only one women's organization, the Women's League, whereas at present there are twenty-seven new women's organizations registered in the Czech Republic. Western feminists must not regard the verbal rejection of feminism that they might encounter in contemporary Eastern Europe as a reaction to their views. It is primarily a reaction to our recent communist past. As an example, the author mentions the organization Prague Mothers.
