ABSTRACT
Studies from both liberal democratic to state-socialist contexts have demonstrated the debilitating effects of gendered social inequalities on women’s ability to engage in the public sphere (among others, Benhabib 1992; Fraser 1995; Friedman 2005; Hegedűs 1971, 90; Heitlinger 1979; Kruks et al. 1989; Lapidus 1978; Lengyel, 1982; Lister 1990; MacKinnon 1989; Molyneux 1984; Mouffe 1992; Pateman 1990; Ryan 1995; Sas 1988; Wolchick and Meyer 1985; Young 1989). Feminist scholars have exposed the masculinist basis of conventional citizenship theory and practice, which is grounded on false dichotomies such as political (legal) and economic realms, public and private spheres, or formal (official) and informal (unofficial) domains (Ciechocinska 1993; Corrin 1994; Ferge 1996; Fodor 2004; Funk and Mueller 1993; Jalušič 2002; Jung 1994; Moghadam 1993; Shola Orloff 1993; Pascall and Lewis 2004; Phillips 1993; Regulska 1994; Szalai 1991). They have thereby challenged the (neo)liberal triumphalism pervading research on the systemic change of the late 1980s in Central and Eastern Europe [CEE].
