Birth of Democratic Citizenship

Maria Bucur is the John V. Hill Chair of East European History and Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University. Her books include Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania, Heroes and Victims: Remembering War in Twentieth-Century Romania, and Gendering Modernism: A Historical Reappraisal of the Canon.Mihaela Miroiu is Professor of Political Science at the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania. Her books include Guidelines for Promoting Equity in Higher Education, Drumul Către Autonomie (The road to autonomy: feminist political theories), and Nepreţuitele Femei (Priceless women).

• AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Women from Romania's Past into the Present: A Short Historical Overview2: Men: Working through Gender Norms at Home3. Children: The Most Beautiful Accomplishment of My Life4. Work and Personal Satisfaction.5. Communities: Beyond the Family6. Communism as State Patriarchy7. Facing Capitalism and Building DemocracyConclusionBibliographyIndex

"Maria Bucur and Mihaela Miroiu have each done seminal work on the politics of gender in Romania and the broad topic of gender and post-communism. This book represents a major collaboration between them. Combining history, ethnography, and political analysis, Birth of Democratic Citizenship: Women and Power in Modern Romania is a tour de force. Because it speaks powerfully to questions that are being currently debated in Romania, Poland, and Hungary, it is a book that all who are interested in post-communist Europe will want to read. And because it analyzes the themes of women, power, and democracy, it is a book that will be of interest to the broadest possible readership among scholars and the general reading public."—Jeffrey C. Isaac, author of Democracy in Dark Times"Historian Maria Bucur and philosopher Mihaela Miroiu beautifully capture the anxieties, ambiguities, and opportunities faced by women in contemporary Romania. The book is an excellent primer on the unique ways that the transition from state socialism to free market democracy has impacted the lives of ordinary women. It is a qualitative gem."—