Gender Equality in Law: Uncovering the Legacies of Czech State Socialism

The book explores the factors that have contributed to the resistance to adopting and fully implementing gender equality law in Central and Eastern Europe, observable especially in the process of harmonisation with EU acquis. Using the example of the Czech Republic, the book analyses how gender has been regulated by law and understood by the legal community in the previously unexplored context of Central Europe during the periods of State Socialism (1948-1989) and Transition (1989-today). It explores the continuities and discontinuities that exist between these periods, with regard to both the legal regulation of women and gender, as well as the way that law-makers, judges and legal scholars have thought about gender equality. In the foreground, it examines legal developments in gender-relevant areas, most importantly in equality and anti-discrimination law. But the book goes beyond a doctrinal legal analysis - it excavates the underlying, sometimes hidden, but crucial understandings of key concepts such as 'women', 'gender', 'equality', 'discrimination' and 'rights'. It is argued that these understandings significantly determine whether the legal provisions adopted by the legislature or the executive, and the interpretation given them by the courts, are gender-progressive, ie counteracting patriarchy, or not.