ABSTRACT
Scholars of gender in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia (CEE&E) have tended to periodize gender around the experience of communism, postcommunism, and, in the case of some countries, European Union (EU) accession. There is, however, no consensus as to the gender formations in each period. This chapter—holding that gender is constructed in intermeshed, interspersed, intermingled, non-linear, and also non-chronological processes—argues that none of these critical junctures represents a clean break. The chapter presents a framework for considering the complex interactions between and across a wide range of forces, processes, and structures, and their role in shaping gender dynamics in CEE&E. It highlights some key actors, such as states, the Soviet Union, the EU, political parties, and feminist and antifeminist civil society, women’s gender studies programs, the various religious institutions, mainstream business, media, popular culture, and the family. This framework lays bare the interactions among these various actors who may well have competing goals when it comes to the matter of gender. Understanding this complexity helps us to comprehend the fluidity of genders, even within CEE&E, which is often seen as having a particularly complex and turbulent history.
