“I think that those were times of hope, and I thought to myself that it was very important that culture is saved to help the people survive. And I saw that I had the ability – though obviously not the qualifications – to act like a spy and undertake covert organizational activities.”

“This gave me great satisfaction, to see how many books and manuscripts were smuggled abroad and how so many articles were published abroad. And I think that this evoked a new ability in these authors to write. I think it was twenty years in which I survived very well.” - Jiřina Šiklová

Jiřina Šiklová was once a leader in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but everything changed after the Soviet invasion of August 1968.

Born in Prague in 1935, Šiklová’s father was a doctor and Social Democrat who influenced her opinions on politics and humanism. Her mother was a teacher, which strengthened Šiklová’s love for education. Šiklová graduated from grammar school and then studied history and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague until 1958. After graduation, she became an academic assistant and developed a deeper interest in sociology, a subject rejected by Stalinists.

Politics

In 1956, following Khrushchev’s speech criticizing Stalin, Šiklová joined the Communist Party and even convinced her colleagues to remain in the party and support the nascent reform. Her work in the Communist Party was a catalyst for the Prague Spring, a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Her desire was to improve the nation, but she soon realized the Communist Party was not the answer.

As a professor, she supported her students’ demonstrations after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. Shortly after, Šiklová left the Communist Party and began work as a janitor, continued to self-study, and give consultations to students after she was barred from intellectual pursuits until 1989. Because of her rejection of the Communist Party and support of the student strike of November 1969, she was among the “first wave” of academics thrown out of their jobs for political reasons.

During the 1970s, Šiklová was responsible for smuggling banned literature, which she co-organized with Jan Kavan’s London-based independent press agency Palach Press Agency. Because of her work, representatives of a broad spectrum of the Czechoslovak opposition – including Petr Uhl, Rudolf Slánský, Rudolf Battěk, Ivan Havel, Otka Bednářová, Milan Šimečka from Bratislava, Evangelical cleric Jaroslav Šimsa, members of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted and many others – were able to transport their texts across the border. However, the operation was revealed in 1981 and Šiklová served a year-long prison sentence for subversion of the Republic. This sentence did not deter her from smuggling literature after her release.

“It involved encoded letters, messages, sometimes essays, manuscripts on carbon paper. They weren’t books, but things you could stick inconspicuously in your pocket. I had a coat made for that purpose with special pockets, in case somebody searched me. When the police search you they go over you from top to bottom, then the legs, and unobtrusively at the crotch. But there are places – for instance at the knee, or the bottom – where they didn’t search. And that’s where I had a pocket cleverly sewn so they wouldn’t find it,” - Jiřina Šiklová

"Is any idea worth getting locked up for? Yes, I think it's worth it, even though many people say it's not worth it.” - Jiřina Šiklová

Sociology and Gender Studies

While in the Communist Party during the 1960s, Šiklová co-founded the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. After her separation from the party, she was not able to publish research under her own name, but she still participated in it. She also managed to secure a job as a social worker at the geriatric department of Thomayer Hospital in Prague before the Velvet Revolution.

After the Velvet Revolutions of 1989, Šiklová established the first department of Gender Studies in the Czech Republic. She began lecturing again and initiated the establishment of the Department of Social Work at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, which she led until 2000.

“I remember that even before the revolution, I got my hands on texts from the West about post-feminism. I thought how interesting it was. I don't even know what feminism is, and there is already post-feminism. That's when the cops came and took it. And because everything that was foreign language was burned, I didn't even read it." - Jiřina Šiklová

Frustrated by the lack of feminist texts and the availability of gender studies materials, Jiřina Šiklová started a library with texts from her colleges in the West.

“Since 1989, there has been a tremendous change for the better for most women. You hear women saying that things are worse, but it isn't true. There is a habit of complaint, though relations between male and female employees were probably better in those days because everyone worked for the omnipotent Communism. Legally though, women are in a much better condition.” - Jiřina Šiklová

Written by Jaime Johnston

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Fraňková, Ruth. “In Memoriam: Sociologist, Gender Studies Pioneer Jiřina Šiklová.” Radio Prague International, 24 May 2021, english.radio.cz/memoriam-sociologist-gender-studies-pioneer-jirina-siklova-8718378.

Harris, Francis. “The Dissidents: Jirina Siklova/Czech Republic; Victorious but Not Necessarily Content.” The New York Times, 7 Nov. 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/11/07/magazine/the-dissidents-jirina-siklovaczech-republic-victorious-but-not.html.

“Jiřina Šiklová (1935 - 2021).” Jiřina Šiklová (1935 - 2021), www.pametnaroda.cz/cs/siklova-jirina-1935. Accessed 10 Aug. 2023.

“Jiřina Šiklová.” Wikipedia, 11 Mar. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99ina_%C5%A0iklov%C3%A1.