The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition: Nation-Building, Economic Survival, and Civic Activism
Kathleen Kuehnast and Carol Nechemias
Women in the former Soviet Union, despite a legacy of high levels of education and labor force participation, face a host of new problems, according to editors Kathleen Kuehnast and Carol Nechemias. Neo-familialist ideologies have arisen, with a longing for the return of traditional families. A gendered division of labor in the market economy has pushed women to the bottom of the pyramid of small businesses as bazaar merchants. And in the political arena, men dominate formal government structures and political parties, while women dominate the realm of non-governmental organizations.
Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition studies these problems through a series of essays by social scientists from the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union, going beyond coverage of Russia and ethnic Russians to treat Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the Tatar and Sakha Republics of Russia.
Through anthropology, political science, and other disciplines, the contributors examine women's role in nation-building, rural household economies, and democratization and civic activism. A final set of essays studies the interaction of post-Soviet women with Western aid organizations, which often pursue strategies not consonant with the situations and expressed desires of the women they are trying to help.
Contributors: David Abramson, Andrea Berg, Susan Crate, Elena Gapova, Katherine Graney, Julie Hemment, Armine Ishkanian, Janet Johnson, Rebecca Kay, Ludmila Popkova, Michele Rivkin-Fish, Nayereh Tohidi, Cynthia Werner, and Tatiana Zhurzhenko.
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Chapter List
Foreword, Blair A. Ruble and Nancy E. Popson Introduction: Women Navigating Change in Post-Soviet Currents, Kathleen Kuehnast and Carol Nechemias Part I. Gender and Nation Building 1. Strong Women, Weak State: Family Politics and Nation Building in Post-Soviet Ukraine 2. The Gender of Sovereignty: Constructing Statehood, Nation, and Gender Regimes in Post-Soviet Tatarstan, Katherine E. Graney 3. Engendering Citizenship in Postcommunist Uzbekistan, David Abramson 4. Conceptualizing Gender, Nation, and Class in Post-Soviet Belarus, Elena Gapova Part II. Women and Rural Household Economics 5. Feminizing the New Silk Road: Women Traders in Rural Kazakhstan, Cynthia Werner 6. The Gendered Nature of Viliui Sakha Post-Soviet Adaptation, Susan A. Crate Part III. Democratization in Post-Soviet Azarbaijan, Nayereh Tohidi 8. Women's Political Activism in Russia: The Case of Samara, Ludmila Popkova 9. Two Worlds Apart: The Lack of Integration between Women's Informal Networks and Nongovernmetal Organizations in Uzbekistan, Andrea Berg 10. Sisterhood versus the "Moral" Russian State: The Postcommunist Politics of Rape, Janet Elise Johnson Part IV. Assistance Encounters 11. Meeting the Challenge Together? Russian Grassroots Women's Organizations and the Shortcomings of Western Aid, Rebecca Kay 12. Working at the Local-Global Intersection: The Challenges Facing Women in Armenia's Nongovernmental Organization Sector, Armine Ishkanian 13. Gender and Democracy: Strategies of Engagement and Dialogue on Women's Issues after Socialism, Michele Rivkin-Fish 14. Strategizing Gender and Development: Action Reserach and Ethnographic Responsibility in the Russian Provinces, Julie Hemment Contributors Index