Birth of Democratic Citizenship: Women and Power in Modern Romania PDF
Preview Birth of Democratic Citizenship: Women and Power in Modern Romania
BIRTH OF B WOMEN’S STUDIES, RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE U C U DEMOCRATIC What is it like to be a woman living through the transition from communism to R democracy? What effect does this have on a woman’s daily life, on her concept of A N herself, her family, and her community? Birth of Democratic Citizenship presents D the stories of women in Romania as they describe their experiences on the journey M CITIZENSHIP to democratic citizenship. In candid and revealing conversations, women between I R the ages of 24 and 83 explain how they negotiated their way through radical politi- O cal transitions that had a direct impact on their everyday lives. Women who grew I up under communism explore how these ideologies influenced their ideas of mar- U WOMEN AND POWER riage, career, and a woman’s role in society. Younger generations explore how they IN MODERN ROMANIA interpret civic rights and whether they incorporate these rights into their relation- B ships with their family and community. I R Beginning with an overview of the role women have played in Romania from the T H late 18th century to today, Birth of Democratic Citizenship explores how the con- temporary experience of women in postsocialist countries developed. The women O F speak about their reliance on and negotiations with communities, ranging from D family and neighbors to local and national political parties. Birth of Democratic E Citizenship argues that that the success of democracy will largely rely on the equal M incorporation of women in the political and civic development of Romania. In do- O ing so, it encourages frank consideration of what modern democracy is and what it C will need to be to succeed in the future. R A T I C MARIA BUCUR is the John V. Hill Chair of East European History and Professor C of Gender Studies at Indiana University. Her books include Eugenics and Modern- I ization in Interwar Romania, Heroes and Victims: Remembering War in Twentieth- T I Century Romania, and Gendering Modernism: A Historical Reappraisal of the Canon. Z E MIHAELA MIROIU is Professor of Political Science at the National School for Po- N S litical Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania. Her books include H Guidelines for Promoting Equity in Higher Education, Drumul Către Autonomie (The I P road to autonomy: feminist political theories), and Nepreţuitele Femei (Priceless women). iupress.indiana.edu Cover photograph: ©iStockphoto.com/CatEyePerspective MARIA BUCUR MIHAELA MIROIU AND PRESS BIRTH of DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP BIRTH of DEMOCR ATIC CITIZENSHIP Women and Power in Modern Romania Maria Bucur and Mihaela Miroiu Indiana University Press This book is a publication of Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA iupress.indiana.edu © 2018 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-253-02564-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-253-03846-3 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-253-03847-0 (web PDF) 1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18 To our 101 coauthors from Hunedoara County Contents Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Women from Romania’s Past into the Present: A Short Historical Overview 18 2 Men: Working through Gender Norms at Home 41 3 Children: The Most Beautiful Accomplishment of My Life 63 4 Work and Personal Satisfaction 79 5 Communities: Beyond the Family 93 6 Communism as State Patriarchy 112 7 Facing Capitalism and Building Democracy 135 Conclusion 161 References 169 Index 181 Acknowledgments T his book came into being because of the kindness of the 101 women we inter- viewed in Hunedoara County. They opened their homes and hearts to us and patiently answered every question we posed. Knowing how valuable their few moments of spare time are in their busy lives, we are grateful for the generos- ity they extended to us. We are thankful especially to Emilia Bîrsan and Otilia David for all their help with the focus groups. We will treasure the memories of the whole experience far beyond the scholarly goals of our research. Our research was made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). All errors, factual and interpretive, are those of the authors. We owe a debt of gratitude to our research assistants, Diana Neaga and Cris- tina Rădoi, who interviewed many of our respondents and labored over the tran- scriptions of the interviews. For assistance with transcriptions, we express our thanks also to Valentin Niculescu Quintus. Crisia Miroiu, Andrei Miroiu, and Elena Popa were very helpful with translations. Alex Tipei provided invaluable work editing the translations and providing critical feedback. We are very grate- ful to Jeffrey Isaac for his comprehensive and critical reading of the manuscript. We wish to thank our peer reviewers and the editorial team of Indiana University Press, who contributed significantly to the improvement of the manuscript. Finally, two men sustained us through their affectionate support over the decade-long path of this project from idea to final manuscript. As with our pre- vious work, we couldn’t have done it without Dan Deckard and Adrian Miroiu. ix
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