As the first and only book in any language on contemporary women's movements in Hungary, this groundbreaking study focuses on the role of women's activism in a society where women are not yet adequately represented by established parties and political institutions. Drawing on eyewitness accounts of meetings and protests, as well as firstperson interviews with leading female activists, Katalin Fábián examines the interactions between women's groups in Hungary and studies the unique brand of democracy they have forged in postcommunist Eastern Europe. Through her analysis, she demonstrates how democratization and globalization -- with their attendant range of challenges and opportunities -- have led women to redefine publicprivate divides.
"The core of this wellconceived book presents an important argument about not only how women's concerns were marginalized after 1989, but also about how the rhetoric on globalization, democratization, freedom, and economic growth, as well as women's desire to act, implicated their activism in Hungary." -- Joanna Regulska, Rutgers University
"The scholarship is superior. I do not think there is any other book which combines all the different aspects of gender and postcommunism in such a comprehensive way." -- Nanette Funk, Brooklyn College
Katalin Fábián is an associate professor of government and law at Lafayette College. She was an East European Studies Title VIII scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2005.