Women’s emancipation means something different based on when, where, why, and who someone is talking about. Under Communist leadership, Czechoslovakia held that women’s emancipation was equal access to the workforce and increased educational and social reforms, but they failed to address the issues of housework, gender roles, and women’s political presence.

Education

Because educational opportunities were increased for the entire population, more women were able to receive an education. The proportion of women in higher education increased substantially, particularly in Slovakia. In Czechia, between 1945 and 1975, the number of women in higher education doubled; in Slovakia, it was eleven times higher than in 1945. However, there was a significant difference in the educational specializations of men and women, with women going into traditionally feminine fields, such as education or humanities, and men going into historically masculine fields, such as engineering or agriculture. This demonstrates how gender roles persisted and impacted the workforce.

Women in the Workforce and Politics

The segregation of occupations for men and women led to women rarely being present in decision-making roles in the economy and being paid less than men, with women earning 67 percent of a man’s wage. However, in order to promote gender equality and a larger workforce, the government prohibited discrimination against women in employment and instituted financial and moral incentives for women to join the workforce. This resulted in one of the highest proportions of women in the workforce in Eastern Europe, with 37.8 percent in 1948 to 48 percent in 1975. Some incentives for this increase were wage structures that required two incomes for households and preferential access to goods for employed women in the immediate postwar period. Maternity benefits and daycare for young children improved, allowing women to worry slightly less about childcare.

In politics, the trend of women not having political power continued, with women playing a minor role in effective decision-making. Their representation at the elite level was symbolic in nature, and they played similar roles to political elites in the West.

Abortion Access

Even though reform attempts were made in the First Czechoslovak Republic, during the 1920s and 1930s, abortion remained illegal until 1950. Until the Abortion Act of 1957 included reasons of “special consideration,” abortion was only legal for health reasons if requested by the woman and performed by a doctor. The act allowed abortions based on a woman’s social and economic living conditions, her family situation, her age, the number of living children, the death or disability of her husband, or pregnancy as a result of rape. It also abolished prosecution for women self-inducing abortions or seeking them outside the medical system. A 1961 study done in the Demografie Journal found 73 percent of respondents approving of abortion and 76 percent in favor of the abortion law. The motives for legalizing abortion included allowing reproductive rights, preventing the impact of unwanted pregnancies on families and children, and reducing the health risk imposed by unsanitary illegal abortions.

However, the increase in abortion rates and decline in fertility, which was believed to be related to abortion, led to a more restrictive interpretation of the law in 1962 and the introduction of pronatalist incentives –policies intended to increase birth rates. There were a couple more turns towards liberalization and restriction of the law. Still, the final push towards liberalization came with the Act of 1986, which abolished abortion commissions, leaving the decision to the woman. These commissions were viewed as a hindrance in the process of receiving safe abortions.

Unfortunately, the use of contraceptives decreased as abortion rates rose, indicating abortion was being used as a form of birth control, sometimes called “post-contraceptive.” Other reasons for the high abortion rate included the high involvement of women in paid employment, an underdeveloped service sector, a housing shortage, overcrowded childcare facilities, and limited information about—and accessibility of—modern contraceptives. In 1968, polls done by the Public Opinion Research Institute reported improving the lives of families was the most popular solution among women to the abortion crisis. Eight years later, more women chose an “improvement in morals” or greater access to contraceptive information.

Social Policies

In Friedrich Engels’ The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State, he declares capitalism is the source of all gender-related oppression, and this is a central theme in Marxism. It was believed the equality of women would come with the abolition of capitalism and patriarchal society. A patriarchal society is one where the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line, leading to the suppression of women’s power and the dominance of men. However, even though the economic system changed, the patriarchy remained.

Instead of waiting for women’s equality to follow the demise of capitalism, the Soviets imposed reforms to increase women’s rights. While the Czech government attempted to socialize housework, it was considered “domestic slavery that crushes, strangles, stultifies, and degrades,” and thus remained assigned to women. Women were forced to manage a time-consuming work life and most family matters, a heavy burden to carry.

Transition to a Market Economy

As communism came to an end in Czechoslovakia, the lives of women changed. Higher education institutions enjoyed full autonomy in determining their curriculum and organization of studies. In the workforce, unemployment rose in the restructuring period, with women being particularly affected, but this changed after 1993. While women have gained a greater position of political power since 1993, they rank 91st in number of women in national parliaments, and their economic power is extremely low in comparison to other countries in the European Union.

While social change generally occurs slowly, abortion became a divisive political issue that was widely debated and generated massive public attention across all former Eastern Bloc countries. Furthermore, the emphasis on the cause of abortion shifted from demographic concerns to moral ones. In Czechoslovakia, this process first emerged in the early 1990s, so attitudes towards abortion were affected early on by the transition away from communism.

One of the only remaining vestiges of the old communist ideology was the negative view of Western feminism as reactionary. Women were more willing to accept traditional roles, advocating for more ways to care for their small children at home. Women’s organizations established since 1989 have not garnered much attention or participation.

Written By Jaime Johnston

Citations

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“Gender Equality Index: 2021: Power: CZ.” European Institute for Gender Equality, 2021. https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2021/domain/power/CZ.

Hubatková, B. (2019). Thirty Years in the Making: Attitudes to Abortion among Czechs and Slovaks at the End of the State Socialist Era in Czechoslovakia. Journal of Family History, 44(3), 313–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199019846178

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Zeman, Krystof. “Cohort Fertility and Educational Expansion in the Czech Republic during the 20th Century.” Demographic Research 38, no. 56 (May 24, 2018): 1699–1732. https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2018.38.56.