In the wake of communism's decline, women's concerns had become increasingly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet most discussions of post-communism changes had neglected women's experiences. Originally published in 1993, this title was the first collection of its kind, presenting original essays by women scholars, politicians, activists, and former dissidents from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, along with essays by Western feminists and scholars. They discuss gender politics during the often turbulent transition and crises of post-communism, offering vivid accounts and analyses of the conditions facing women in each country.

In the wake of communism's decline, women's concerns had become increasingly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet most discussions of post-communism changes had neglected women's experiences. Originally published in 1993, this title was the first collection of its kind, presenting original essays by women scholars, politicians, activists, and former dissidents from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, along with essays by Western feminists and scholars. They discuss gender politics during the often turbulent transition and crises of post-communism, offering vivid accounts and analyses of the conditions facing women in each country.

"This fascinating and informative collection of twenty-two mostly original essays showcases feminist German Studies at its finest ... Decentering Germany in our own scholarly work will help us to further challenge the settled definitions of gender and Germanness which this volume so splendidly details." . Women in German

Cultural Studies have been preoccupied with questions of national identity and cultural representations. At the same time, feminist studies have insisted upon the entanglement of gender with issues of nation, class, and ethnicity. Developments in the wake of German unification demand a reassessment of the nexus of gender, Germanness and nationhood. The contributors to this volume pursue these strands of the cultural debate in German history, literature, visual arts, and language over a period of three hundred years in sections devoted to History and the Canon, Visual Culture, Germany and Her "Others," and Language and Power.

Cultural Studies have been preoccupied with questions of national identity and cultural representations. At the same time, feminist studies have insisted upon the entanglement of gender with issues of nation, class, and ethnicity. Developments in the wake of German unification demand a reassessment of the nexus of gender, Germanness and nationhood. The contributors to this volume pursue these strands of the cultural debate in German history, literature, visual arts, and language over a period of three hundred years in sections devoted to History and the Canon, Visual Culture, Germany and Her "Others," and Language and Power. Contributors: L. Adelson, A. Taylor Allen, K. Bauer, R. Berman, B. Byg, M. Denman, E. Frederiksen, S. Friedrichsmeyer, E. Kaufmann, L. Koepnick, B. Kosta, S. Lefko, A. M.O'Sickey, B. Mennel, H. M. Muller, B. Peterson, L. Pusch, D. Sweet, H. Watt, S. Zantop.

This collection is organized in five parts: Education for Girls and Women, Women and Work, Women and Politics, Issues of Gender, and Women in Art and Literature. It includes more than ninety excerpts by some fifty women writers. Among the authors are: Annette von Droste-Hulshoff (1797-1848), Fanny Lewald (1811-89), Louise Otto-Peters (1819-95), Marie Freirfrau von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916), Hedwig Dohm (1833-1919), Helene Lang (1848-1930), Lily Braun (1865-1916), Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919), Alice Schwarzer, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, and many more.