Transnational feminism has become a significant global actor in recent decades, but it is not unanimous. Imperial tendencies of western feminists to influence women in other cultures have already appeared in the history of the feminist movement. Criticism of white Euro-American feminism, especially in the form of global sisterhood, has reached a peak in the past three decades, especially in international fora. Anti-colonial feminists have complained about the racist and orientalist practices of American feminists. Black and latino women, Eastern European post-communist women, and Islamic feminists have voiced protest against the universalisation of feminism and western forms of emancipation. This article presents these challenges to the feminist movement and the recent shift to the concept of transnational feminism that includes intersectional analysis and transversal politics. The author argues that in the 1990s post-socialist feminists were critical of the West in the same way that third-world feminists have been. Today this problem is beginning to twist as the post-socialist feminists became the part of the dominant subject and they need to take into account the criticisms of marginalised women from developing countries., Marta Kolářová., Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé
Simone de Beauvoir’s Th e Second Sex was translated into Czech in 1966, the fi rst translation of the book to be published in a socialist state. It was, like many other translations during this period, a compilation of selections and was edited by the phenomenologist Jan Patočka who, in his postscript, presented the work primarily within its philosophical context. Th e book, which was published in three editions within two years and reached a combined print run of almost one hundred thousand copies, reaped substantial acclaim both among the lay and the academic public. Th e main debate about the book unfolded in the magazines Literární noviny and Vlasta, in which the contributors aired their views on the book from various positions – as advocates of phenomenology, Marxism, and the women’s press. In order to make the main arguments of the Czech debate on Th e Second Sex accessible to our readers, we are publishing here Ashley Davies’s English translation of the contributions by Jan Patočka, Ivan Sviták, and Irena Dubská.
The article aims to give a concise overview of the development and background of gender studies programs as they can be found at European universities today. As the final institutionalized forms of such programs differ according to the specific goals, strategies and conditions at the given university, the article finishes with the presentation of two different gender studies programmes. Namely, the gender studies bachelor's program, running since the academic year 2004/2005 at Masaryk University in Brno and the master's program at the University of Vienna, starting in the academic year 2006/2007. The framework of my considerations is based on the assumption that the roots of gender studies go back to the second wave women's movement, which developed within a - political and societal - non-communistic context of the 1960s and 1970s. For this reason, the article first adresses the origins and developments of gender studies within this non-communist context, then takes a short look at the communist context and finally deals with the reception and criticism of gender studies within a post-communist context.
This article identifies connections between the current critical condition of nature and women’s position in society. The author describes ecofeminism and situates it within the context of the feminist and environmental movements. The purpose of this article is to introduce the fundamental ideas of ecofeminism, whose underlying principle is a critique of dualistic thinking, and a critique of the application of the logic of dominance and hierarchy. The author argues how this critique is derived from feministic epistemology and goes on to explain the ecofeminist critique of dualistic thinking and hierarchy historically connected to the scientific revolution, which had a big impact on the position of women in society and the current global ecological crisis., Zora Javorská., Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé
This paper explores how women’s roles and participation in resistance to Czechoslovak communism from 1968 to the Velvet Revolution serve as a base for Czech feminist thought. By examining three generations of participants through a gendered, Beauvoirian lens, the emergence of feminism can be easily charted through changing perceived gender roles and increased attention to gender issues. After the events of the Prague Spring, women from different groups of the Czechoslovak underground risked their own safety to exercise free speech and expression. Women’s struggles for greater liberties were framed by traditional gender barriers, supposed communist equality, and Western influence. To understand the experiences of female dissidents as a base for Czech feminist thought, one must examine the nature and progression of various underground communities and women’s roles within them. Since 1968, an increased emphasis on women’s freedoms and liberties has helped create a unique, local sense of femininity and feminism., Megan R. Martin., and Obsahuje bibliografii