Essays On Gender And Governance - United Nations Development ...

Gender and Governance : Concepts and Contexts
democratic transition. The first has to do with the very different
roles of civil society based organizations in the two regions. State
elites initiated opposition to the communist regimes of the Soviet
bloc. Foreshadowing an economic and social crisis, Gorbachev
launched perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union and put
pressure on the Eastern bloc as a whole to liberalize. The state hoped
that addressing “the woman question” would help solve social
problems like rising rates of alcoholism, divorce, and abortion. The
state’s hegemonic role most likely discouraged women’s groups
from organizing independently. By contrast, civil society
organizations initiated opposition to Latin American dictatorships.
State’s ban on political parties, trade unions and other such
organizations encouraged women to organize informal networks
which could defy state surveillance and repression. The fact that
movements in which women were active played a significant role
in the destruction of the old regimes in Latin America but not in
Eastern Europe had important implications for the place of women’s
groups in the post transition period.
In Latin America, feminism became linked to human rights
and was seen as a home grown product whereas in Eastern Europe
it was seen as alien. Secondly, whereas feminism was associated
with a discredited old order in Eastern Europe, it was considered
integral to democratisation in Latin America. Relatedly, feminism
was understood in very different ways in these two contexts.
Writing on Eastern Europe, Maxine Molyneux argues:
“Ironically it seemed that socialist state policy on women, which
had not achieved their emancipation, succeeded instead in
alienating the population from any serious commitment to a
feminist programme.”(Molyneux, 1996: 232). The language of
feminism was tainted by its association with the old order. The
search for new values to replace those associated with the
discredited communist system led to a resurgence of “old values”
of family, God and nationalism. The Roman Catholic church
experienced a remarkable resurgence and abortion rights have
come under attack, particularly in Poland, Hungary and Germany.
The small group of active Russian feminists must find new language
not tainted by the old order. This association of feminism with the
old order, combined with state control over civil society, inhibited
the growth of significant feminist movements and large-scale
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