A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms
Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th
and 20th Centuries
Editors:
Francisca de Haan is Professor of Gender Studies
at the Central European University in Budapest.
Krassimira Daskalova teaches Modern European Cultural
History at the Faculty of Philosophy, St. Kliment Ohridski
University of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Anna Loutfi is currently teaching at the Department
of Gender Studies, Central European University, Budapest.
Contains 150 expertly-researched biographical portraits
(with pictures) of women and men who were active in,
or part of, women's movements and feminisms in 22 countries
in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe in the
19th and 20th centuries. Thus it challenges the widely-held
belief that there was no feminism in this part of Europe.
The biographical portraits not only show that feminists
existed here, but also that they were widespread and
diverse, and included Romanian princesses, Serbian philosophers
and peasants, Latvian and Slovakian novelists, Albanian
teachers, Hungarian Catholic social workers, Austrian
factory workers, Bulgarian feminist scientists and socialist
feminists, Russian radicals and philanthropists, Turkish
republican leftist political activists and nationalists,
internationally recognized Greek feminist leaders, and
so on-women, and some men, from all walks of life. Their
stories together constitute a rich tapestry of feminist
activity, rejecting the notion that either there was
no feminism here, or that it was 'imported from the
West.' Women in every society and in every generation
protest gender injustice, and any suggestion to the
contrary is a denial of the intelligence and human agency
of countless women and men, including those featured
in this Biographical Dictionary. The biographies not
only provide a window onto the historical background
of contemporary feminism (thus giving present-day women's
movements the 'historical support' that they need and
are entitled to), in some cases they demonstrate explicitly
the historical continuities between feminisms past and
present.
The editors conclude that "if our biographical
subjects were able to bridge the contradictions between
feminism, nationalism, socialism, communism, philanthropy
and revolution in their own lives-then surely historians,
including women's historians, must adopt similarly open
approaches to their own research and methodologies,
rather than creating forms of closure through the use
of predefined and potentially limited categories."
This book was selected as an Outstanding Academic
Title for 2006 by Choice Magazine
"The excellent team of authors represents two
generations of post-1989 women’s historians in
CESEE, many of whom published path-breaking research
in their respective countries. The main goal of this
dictionary is to offer reliable information on the history
of women’s movements and feminism in CESEE. The
editors’ aim is to provide comparative materials
for students and researchers looking at the history
of feminism and the women’s movement from a transnational
perspective.
What unifies this project, is its political aim: to
provide a “historical support” for contemporary
feminism in the region by presenting it as a historical
continuation of once interrupted indigenous women’s
movements, rather than as simply a post-1989 Western
ideological import. Thus, the project responds to the
very real problem of the deepening and institutionalizing
of gender inequality in the countries of the region
(mostly post-communist ones)." - Ab Imperio
Contents
Acknowledgments; Often Used Abbreviations and Symbols;
Maps; Introduction; Subjects per Country; 150 Entries;
Index of Persons and Organizations
2006
698 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-39-4 cloth $69.95
/ € 58.95 / £39.95
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