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And if the Shoe Doesn't Fit? (Wear it Anyway): Economic Transformation and Western Paradigms of Women in Development Programs in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe

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And if the Shoe Doesn't Fit? (Wear it Anyway): Economic Transformation and Western
Paradigms of Women in Development Programs in Post-Communist Central and Eastern
Europe
Author(s): Kristen Ghodsee
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3/4, Women and Development: Rethinking
Policy and Reconceptualizing Practice (Fall - Winter, 2003), pp. 19-37
Published by: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York
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And If the Shoe Doesn't Fit?
(WearIt Anyway)
Economic Transformation and Western
Paradigms of Women in Development Programs
in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe
Kristen Ghodsee
Introduction1
Fromits inception in 1973, the Womenin Development(WID)paradigm of incorporatinggender into projectsfor economic growthhas
dominatedthe developmentestablishment.Althoughthis model has
been critiquedand modified over time,WIDscholars,advocates,and
practitionerscontinue to dominate the field and to set the agenda in
mostmultilateraland bilateralaid agencies,as well as in international
nongovernmentalorganizations(NGOs)workingin the developing
world.2Since 1989, with the fall of the BerlinWall,aid organizations
haveattemptedto implementWIDtheoryand practicewithinthe former communistcountriesof Centraland EasternEurope.Despite the
millionsof dollarsof aid dedicatedto gender programsand the hundreds of projectsthroughout the region, these efforts have met with
limitedsuccess.
Thisarticlewill brieflyexaminejust one of the possiblereasonswhy
WID projects have failed to reach women in Central and Eastern
Europe:the long-suppressedhistoryof WID-fundedprojects,which
beyondliberalnotions of development,havealso servedas coverttools
to stem the spread of Marxist ideology in the developing world.
Traditionalaccounts of the integrationof women into Americanforeign assistanceprogramshave ignored the ColdWarcontext and the
U.S. government'sfears that communistinsurgentswere successfully
mobilizingThirdWorldwomenfor revolutionarycauses.In some part,
the rootsof the WIDmodel are intricatelylinkedwiththe fight against
global communism.
Exploringthese roots will provideimportantclues as to why WID
and its heir, Gender and Development (GAD), have been largely
unsuccessfulin the formerEasternbloc countries.Centraland Eastern
Europeansocialism and its legacies have not yet been totallyerased
fromthe collectivesocialand culturalmemoryof the region'swomen,
19
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solutionsto
manyof whom maypreferpoliticalratherthan "self-help"
their economic plight. This important,yet forgotten historymust be
reclaimedand integratedinto the wayscholarsand developmentprofessionalsstudyand theorize the WIDmodel.
WID Aid to Eastern Europe
The fall of the BerlinWallexponentiallyexpanded opportunitiesfor
gender-relateddevelopmentworkin Eurasia.The sudden implosion
of communismwasunexpected by scholars,politicians,and activists
in both the Eastand the West.Feministsaroundthe worldwereequally
surprisedby the momentouseventsthat came to markthe end of the
greatestsocialexperimentof the twentiethcentury.Soon after,armies
of democracyconsultantsand privatizationadvisersinvaded the former Easternbloc, riding a tidal waveof Westernaid (Wedel 2001).
Gender experts and Women in Development advocatesand practitionerswere not far behind
In the earlyyearsof the transition,Westernfeministscholars(both
liberaland Marxist)began researchingand publishingabout the negativeeffectsthat economic transitionwashavingon women in the former communist countries (Corrin 1992;Einhorn 1993; Moghadam
1993;Funkand Mueller1993;Rueschemeyer1994;Alsanbeiguiet al.
1994). Some scholars also felt it was necessary to "bringthe Third
Worldin"so that parallelsbetween the transitioningand developing
countries could be drawn (Moghadam1993;Jaquette and Wolchik
1998;Kotzeva1999;Verdery1996). This researchsparkedthe active
interestof the WIDdepartmentsof multilateraland bilateralaid agencies. These agencies, in turn, began offering grantstargetedto local
women'sgroups as part of "civilsociety"building initiativesthroughout the region.
After the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on
Womenin Beijing, cooperation among internationalwomen's agencies reached a zenith, and WIDexpertsin the nonprofitsector began
to "discover"Eastern Europe. International women's nongovernmental organizationsbased in the Westrecognized the plethora of
opportunities availablefor gender-relatedwork in the Central and
EasternEuropeanregion and began applyingfor grantsto do projects
and carryout studies."Feminist"
networks,women'salliances,gender
studiesprograms,and local women'sNGOshavemultipliedthroughout the former communistworld, and manymillions of dollars have
been spent on consciousness-raisingactivities,conferences, and gender assessments(Greenberg2001).
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For the most part, however,these activitieshave been unsuccessful in creating a broad-basedwomen's movement in any of the former communist countries, even as women's statushas continued to
decline (Einhorn 1993; Holmgren 1995; Gal and Kligman 2000a,
2000b). In the few areaswhere EasternEuropeanwomen have seen
their status improve in the wake of the privatization of their
economies, this has had less to do with Westernaid effortsand more
to do with the historicallegacies of women'sposition under the previous regimes (Fodor 1997; Szalai 2000; Ghodsee 2003).
Furthermore,women's NGOs and feminism in general have been
met with great skepticism not only by the Eastern European societies as a whole, but specificallyby the women in these societies (Kay
2000; Sperling 1999; Gal and Kligman 2000a; Grunberg 2000;
Richter 2002;Jalusic and Antic 2000). Citizens in these countries
were also warybecause they felt that local NGOswere controlled by
foreign donors and therefore had little legitimacy (Snavely and
Desai 1994; Ottoway and Carothers 2000; Mendelson and Glenn
2000, 2002). ManyEastern European women feel that feminism is
an alien ideology that does not addressthe real needs of women in
post-communistcountries.
These same frustrationsand misunderstandingsbetween Eastand
Westhave been cited by many other feminist scholars and activists
throughout the region (Funk 1993;Drakulic1993).This essay,however,will focus on trying to untangle whyWIDand GADparadigms
designed to incorporate women into capitalist development have
had such a hard time taking root in Central and Eastern Europe.
Manymisunderstandingsmight stem from incomplete accounts of
the history of WID and GADin the United States and the developing world.Without a nuanced explorationof how the threatof communism in the "ThirdWorld"propelled the incorporation of WID
into the development efforts of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), an understanding of the
underlying tensions that hamper successful cooperation between
women born and raised on either side of the capitalist-socialistideological divide will be obscured.
Historyof WID
Workfor the Revolution is moreimportant than my marriage. Will thefamily
disappearas a result?Fidel says, "Onlylove will hold thefamily of thefuture
"
(House of Representatives 1971)
together.
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Women'sStudiesQuarterly2003: 3&4
Manyscholarsof WIDmarkthe beginning of the field with the publiRolein
cation in 1970 of Ester Boserup's landmarkbook, Women's
Economic
Mosse
1993;
1983,
1984,
1990;
(Tinker
Parpart
Development
1995). They also cite the general influence of the United States
women's movement on the United Nations and the international
developmentcommunity.Then there wasthe growingrecognitionof
the failure of traditional development models in the Third World,
which created industrial"growth"at the expense of social harmony
and increasedpoverty.Takentogether,these factorsled to the inclusion of Section 113 in the 1973 amendment to the 1961 Foreign
AssistanceAct; this Percyamendmentofficiallyincorporatedwomen
into U.S. aid programsfor the firsttime.
Other scholars (Kabeer1994) recognized that the general atmosphere of social unrest and protest, both domestically and internationally,that markedthe late 1960s and early1970smayhave shaped
the ideas and opinions of the development community.Radicalcritiques, such as dependency theory coming out of Latin America,
forced development practitionersto rethink their goals and priorities, and ultimatelyto considerthe plight of those left out of more traditional development models that were focused exclusively on
economic growth.
Yetin addition to the factors mentioned above, it is important to
rememberthat the field of WID,like the projectof ThirdWorlddevelopmentitself,wascreatedpartiallyin responseto fearsof the spreadof
worldcommunism.3In the context of the ColdWar,the United States'
recognition of women as an importantconstituencyin development
mayhavehad less to do withgenuine concernaboutthe unequalhardships that modernization produced, than with the perceived threat
posedby communistswhoweresuccessfullymobilizingdisenfranchised
women (and ruralpeasants)for revolutionarycausesthroughoutthe
developingworld.This is not to saythat the WIDscholarsand activists
themselveswere promotingWIDas a wayto fight Marxistideologies,
but thatthe U.S. government'sfearof communismmayhavebeen one
importantreasonwhythe PercyAmendmentwasacceptedby the overwhelminglymale congressin 1973. Moreover,funds to supportWID
programmingshould be seen as partof a largershiftfrom direct militaryaid to more sociallyorientedtypesof aid thatthe 1973amendment
to the 1961 ForeignAssistanceAct accomplished.
The historyof howandwhywomenbecameintegratedinto the internationaldevelopmentestablishmentin the contextof the ColdWarhas
been largelylost. Reclaimingit will,in some smallway,assistboth scholars and practitionersin understandingwhy so many problems arise
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23
when WIDprojectsare transplantedfrom the ThirdWorldto Eastern
Europeansoil. After all, if WIDas a developmentparadigmwasproducedin responseto the perceivedsuccessesof socialistand communist
countriesin grantingwomen greaterpoliticaland economic rights,it
might provedifficultto applythe samemodel to the verywomenwho
werebeneficiariesof the socialistsystemthatthe WIDmodelwastrying
to displace.
The Birthof Developmentand "BasicNeeds"
The goalsof foreign aid to the ThirdWorldwerebound up intimately
with the Cold Warand the need to suppresscommunistuprisingsin
the newlyindependent statesemerging from colonialism acrossthe
of the Soviet
globe (Leebaert2002). Indeed,the rapidindustrialization
Union and other Easternbloc countriesthatemployedthe communist
model served as a powerfulexample to new nations hoping to modernizeand catchup withboth the Firstand SecondWorlds.One of the
foundationaltexts of developmenteconomicswasWalterW.Rostow's
StagesofEconomicGrowth:A Non-Communist
Manifesto(1960) . This book
outlineda progressive,linearpathto economicdevelopmentthatrelied
upon and celebrated individualism,entrepreneurship,and private
propertyin contrastto the communal,centrallyplanned,state-owned
economiesof socialistand communistmodels.
The allureof communistideologiesin the developingworldbecame
especiallyrelevantduringthe VietnamWarand the United States'failure to "save"
the SouthVietnamesefromsocialism.No one understood
the consequencesof communismin the developingworldbetter than
one of Rostow'scolleagues in the KennedyandJohnson administrations, Robert S. McNamara.Fresh from his tenure as secretary of
defense afterhavingfallen out withPresidentJohnson overAmerican
involvementin Vietnam (McNamara1995), McNamaraassumedthe
presidencyof the WorldBankin 1968. He had spoken and published
widelyon the idea that povertybred communism,and that the only
wayto fightsocialismaroundthe worldwasto raisethe livingstandards
of the poor and to soften the worstinequalitiescreatedand perpetuated by capitalism(McNamara1968). He writes,
Giventhe certainconnectionbetweeneconomic stagnationand the
incidence of violence, the yearsthatlie aheadfor the nationsof the
southern half of the globe look ominous. This would be true if no
threat of Communist subversionexisted, as it clearly does. Both
Moscow and Peking, however harsh their internal differences,
regardthe modernizationprocessas an ideal environmentfor the
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Women
'sStudiesQuarterly
growth of Communism. ... It is clearly understood that certain
Communistnations are capable of subverting,manipulatingand
finallydirectingfor their own ends the whollylegitimategrievances
of a developingsociety.(1968, 147-148)
McNamara'sthirteen-yearpresidencyof the WorldBankusheredin
an era of lending for projectsbased on a new paradigm- one called
"redistribution
with growth"by the WorldBankand "basicneeds"by
the United Nations.This new paradigmfocused on improvingthe living standardsof the poor. WorldBanklending would increase from
$883 million per year in 1968 to $12 billion per year in 1981 when
McNamaraleft the bank (Leebaert2002). This new focus on human
development saturatedthe development establishmentand fundamentallyaltered developmenttheory and practice.4Insteadof focusing effortson buildingroads,dams,factories,and airports,the World
Bankand USAIDbegan funding such things as waterwells, primary
schools, and hospitals.
Special attention was given to those who had been previouslyleft
out of development'smodernizationefforts:poor, ruralpopulations
and women. These twogroupswere particularlyimportantbecauseof
their vulnerabilityto communistco-optation.On February16, 1962,
a classifiedtelegramfrom the Americanembassyin Thailandwarned
that the communist National Front for the Liberation of South
Vietnamhad begun to infiltratethe south through the formation of
"variousaffilists[sic]bodies,"includingthe LiberationFarmer'sFront
and the LiberationWomen'sFront (Departmentof State1962).While
a September 1966 intelligence memorandum, "TheOrganization,
Activities,and Objectivesof the CommunistFrontin SouthVietnam,"
includeda list of the leadersof Hoi Phu Nu GiaiPhong, the liberation
women'sorganization,withdetailedbiographies(CentralIntelligence
Agency [CIA] 1966). This list demonstratesthat the CIArecognized
women as importantleadersof the communistmovementand marked
them as potential enemies.5Another CIAreport spoke of the "usual
array of"mass organizations (women's, youth, peasant and labor
groups) (1972, 47) that the Vietnamese communistsmobilized for
their own ends. The dedication and mobilization of Vietnamese
women as soldiersfor the communistcause (Turley1972) must have
also concerned the U.S. government.
Between 1970 and 1974, the Committeeof InternalSecurityof the
House of Representativesof the United StatesCongressheld a series
of hearings,the Theory and Practiceof Communism.These hearings
were held because the U.S. governmentfelt that
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there existsa world-wideCommunistmovementwhosepurposeit is
by espionage, sabotage,and other means to establisha totalitarian
dictatorshipin countries throughout the world . . . and that the
Communistorganizationin the United States,togetherwith other
circumstancesof the internationalCommunistmovement,presents
a clear and present dangerto the securityof the United Statesand
the existence of Americaninstitutions.(House of Representatives
[HR] 1970, 4631)
The U.S. government had to acknowledge that women were an integral part of this clear and present danger. Testimony presented at the
hearings supports the idea that women's organizations such as the
Third World Women's Alliance and the Women's International
Democratic Federation were considered "communistfronts," "founded
and supported at all times by the international communist movement"
(HR 1974, 2693). Moreover, the devotion of women in Cuba to Fidel's
communism (Smith and Padula 1996) was yet another example of how
leftist parties were successfully able to integrate women into revolutionary causes. A pamphlet prepared by two American women active
in the U.S. women's movement and included in exhibits for the hearings demonstrates that communist governments had already included
women in development - well before the capitalist world:
In everyCubanneighborhoodwomenget togetherto discusstopics
ranging from Jose Marti to day care, and from the struggles in
Vietnam to problems of picking citrus fruits. Largerunits of the
Federation[of CubanWomen]organizewomen'sworkbrigadesto
combat on one front or another Cuba's number one problem:
underdevelopment.(HR 1971,5569)
As the 1970s progressed, there were growing references to the role
of women in the developing world. In later testimonies given in support of further incorporating women into USAID's projects and for
soliciting funds from Congress to support the Voluntary Fund for the
United Nations Decade for Women, advocates argued that women
were essential for carrying out a basic needs paradigm of development
(HR1978).
In fact, the Percy amendment was part of a foreign policy trend away
from direct military intervention toward indirect economic interventions in developing countries. This new strategy coincided neatly with
McNamara's call for poverty alleviation as a way to fight communism.
Thus, if women were essential to basic needs, and meeting basic needs
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was essential to fighting communism, then women were essential to
fighting communism.6
The imperativeto integratewomen into the developmentprocess
turns out to be not a productof Americanfeminism,as some have
implied, but growsorganicallyout of the situationof poor women
and the needs of development.The everydayactivitiesof the world's
poor women intersect with a basic human needs approach. (Elsa
Chaney,testimony,cited in HR 1978,9)
A good illustration of the possibilities of a new women's focus on
development (and one rarely mentioned with reference to the birth
of the WID paradigm) was the very important role played by Chilean
women in opposing Salvador Allende's socialist government in Chile
between 1970 and 1973. After the Popular Unity's rise to power and
its wholesale nationalization of the economy, Allende's three-year stint
in power was punctuated by parades of women banging spoons on pots
and pans to protest severe food shortages. This ultimately lent support
to the U.S.-backed coup that brought Ugarte Pinochet to power (de
los Angeles Crummett 1977; Townsend 1993). In the March 7, 1974,
testimony of Hermogenes Perez de Acre before the Committee on
Internal Security, the Chilean professor is asked directly about women
in Chile, "Youmentioned that the women had a demonstration with
regard to pots and pans. Did the women play an important role with
regard to the downfall of Allende's government?" Perez de Acre then
explained in detail how women's "resistance to Marxism was much
more than the one from men" (HR 1974, 2556). In an exhibit attached
to this testimony, there is a newspaper article entitled "Women and
Their Fight for Chile," which states:
Undoubtedlythe role playedby Chileanwomenwasone of the most
decisivefactorsin the fightagainstMarxistoppression.. . . There can
be no doubt that the women of Chile, of all ages and conditions,
were the first to realize the crisiswhich afflictedour country. (HR
1974, 2639)
The political actions of El Poder Feminino in Chile proved definitively that women, if incorporated into a capitalist development paradigm, could be very valuable allies in the fight against socialism.
Therefore, although the women's movement in the United States and
Boserup's book were certainly influential voices, these brief examples
demonstrate that the Cold War context must be considered when
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unravelingthe creationmythssurroundingWID.I will, however,reiterate here that the women who were advocatingfor WIDhad no visible interestin using women as a tool againstcommunism.The focus
needs to be shifted to the U.S. government. Wasthe government's
receptivityto WIDinspiredby altruisticconcernsregardingthe moral
imperativesfor grantingwomen equal rightsand resources,or wasit
motivatedby the perceived threat of communistinfiltration?WID's
underlyingallianceto capitalismand its incorporationinto mainstream
developmentwouldeventuallyopen it up to sometimesharshcriticism.
Women and Development, Gender and Development
Two other models of incorporatingwomen into economic development, both of which censured WIDfor its liberal feminist and First
Worldbiases,subsequentlycritiquedthe WIDparadigm.The firstcritiquewasa neo-MarxistperspectivethatattackedWIDbasedon its ideological adherence to capitalism. The Women and Development
(WAD)school believed that only with radical,systemicreform could
women benefit from development.7 WAD theorists (Rubin 1975;
Maguire1984) would frequentlypoint to the advancesof women in
communistcountrieswhere the statehad abolishedprivateproperty.
In termsof the traditionaldevelopmentestablishment,however,WAD
wasfar too radicalof a critiqueto be taken seriouslyin development
practice. It fundamentallyattackedthe capitalistsuperstructureof
developingsocieties,the verycapitalismsthatdevelopmentwastrying
to preserve.
Proponentsof the GADparadigmleveleda second line of criticism.
Muchas women of color mountedan attackagainstthe white,middle
classfeminists of the "SecondWave"8in the United States,so Third
Worldwomen claimed that the WIDparadigmexported FirstWorld
feministvaluesthatwerenot applicableto theirlivesand experiences.9
ThirdWorldwomen in conversationwith FirstWorldwomen created
the GADparadigmin order to modifyand makeWIDmore relevant
to their lives (Mosse 1993;Visvanathanet al. 1997). GADprojectsare
supposedto be more participatoryand sustainablethanWIDprojects,
often working to mobilize women at the proverbial grass roots.
Furthermore,GADrecognizesthatwomenin differentcountries,even
in different regions within countries, mayhave very different goals.
GADstrategiesfor development,therefore,are more variedand flexible. Despite these modifications, GADtheory and practice is compatible with WID in that it neither fundamentally challenges the
capitalist model nor seriously considers a class-based analysis of
women'soppression.
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into developmentprojects
Today,gender has been "mainstreamed"
at most multilateraland bilateralaid agencies,and grant-fundingfor
gender-relatedprojects has increased exponentially.10What is relevant to our discussion is that although WIDhas been critiqued and
modified over time, one of its centralgoals has essentiallyremained
unchanged: the incorporation of women into capitalist models of
development. Indeed, the WIDmodel mayhave been accepted precisely to contain the spread of communist ideologies. Because of
this, the design of WIDprojectsin former socialistcountries cannot
understand,in fundamentalways,the needs and concerns of women
there. They fail to provide useful strategiesfor women's "development" because they are unable to identify underlying social and
political tensions.
WID/GAD Projects in Central and Eastern Europe
aid projects
Althoughthere are manyexamplesof less-than-successful
in Centraland EasternEurope (Wedel2001), in the interestof brevity
and space,I willonlyfocuson twospecifictypesof WIDprograms.One
exampleinvolvesthe ubiquitousWID/GADpromotionof microcredit
schemesfor women and/or their supportof women's entrepreneurship. Microcreditbanksextend smallamountsof capitalto groups of
poor women. These women either use the money to meet immediate
basicneeds or to investin some small,income-generatingprojectthat
willallowthem, afterhavingmade a profit,to repaythe money.Profits
are then used to payfor basicneeds or savedand then put to use productivelyin some furtherincome-generatingscheme.A typicalexample of a WID-typemicrocreditscheme is the SocialEntrepreneurship
Centerin Plovdiv,Bulgaria,funded by the EuropeanUnion's PHARE
AccessProgram:"Thegoal of the projectis providingopportunityto
unemployedwomen to integratein new economicconditionsthrough
trainingon startingtheir own businessas an activestrategyfor living
standardincrease [sic]"(NGOResourceCenter2002).
Supportfor women'sentrepreneurshippicksup where microcredit
schemesleave off. Once women haveenough capitalto move beyond
meeting basic needs, they need to be given the trainingand encouragement to start their own businesses. The hope is that these businesses will be sustainable and will realize a continuous stream of
profits,which- in turn- will allow these women to meet their basic
needs, reinvestin their businesses,and eventuallybe able to consume
nonessential goods and luxuryitems. In other words,these kinds of
projectshelp women become good entrepreneurs(i.e., capitalists),so
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that they can support themselves, and ultimately "getahead" (i.e.,
become consumers).
A studyfor the MicrocreditSummitCampaign(Chestonand Kuhn
2002) found that women in EasternEurope "lagfar behind"women
in otherpartsof the worldin microcreditparticipation.RecentUSAID
Gender Assessmentshave also found that women are far less likely
than men are to takeadvantageof microcreditin Bulgaria(Nailsand
Arnold 2001) and Romania (Rosenberg and Arnold 2002). In
Romania,the authorsfound thatalthoughwomen ownedor managed
approximately44 percentof all businesses,women accountedfor only
2.7 percentof the totalamountof moneyloaned (loanvalue) in 1999.
The studysuggeststhatlow levelsof lending to women might indicate
"areluctanceof women to borrowmoney,"and recommendsfurther
researchon the issue. In Bulgaria,there are at least twelvedifferent
sourcesfor microlending and here too, women consistentlyborrow
less than men.11Even when programs are specifically targeted to
women, many women are reluctant to participate, even if loan
amountsare relativelysmall.Although there has been an increasein
businessesin recent years,there is little
women-owned-and-managed
evidence to demonstratethat this activityhas been a result of microcredit schemes. Overall,microcreditin the region has met with very
limited success.
The firstpart of the problem is the very definition of basic needs.
In the prototypicaldevelopingcountry(the firstMicrocreditBankwas
in Bangladesh), the women needed the moneyto meet the most basic
needs of food, water,and shelter.These were thingsthat the statehad
never provided,and the shift towarda more market-driveneconomy
had further reduced in supply (Boserup 1970; Goulet and Hudson
1971;Mende 1972). These women neverhadjobs in the formaleconomy,few of them had educations, and manywere illiterate. Despite
this,developmentpractitionersfound thatwomenwereveryresourceful withsmallloans, and thattheymostoften used the profitstheyrealized to increase the welfare of their families. As access to money
increased,women used the profitsto accessthe fruits of modernization: medicines, fertilizers,seed varieties,electricity,education, and
more. Thesewere "needs"newlycreatedby developmentthroughthe
importationof Westerntechnologies and Westernideas about universaleducationand "modern"living.Microentrepreneurship
allowed
women to have access to the benefits of a modernizing economy. In
these circumstances, microcredit was a revolutionary strategy for
empoweringwomen and incorporatingthem into the formal, developing economy.
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The problemwiththismodel in Centraland EasternEuropeis multifaceted.Whereasin the ThirdWorld,"needs"wereimportedby "successful"developmentprojectsand microcreditand entrepreneurship
helped women to meet those needs, in the socialist context these
"needs"alreadyexisted (at least rhetorically)as the basic rightsand
entitlements
of the citizen. In other words,the introduction of "modern"technologies and institutionsin most communistcountries (i.e.,
universaleducation,Westernmedicine and health care, modernized
agriculture,heating,electricity,etc.) wasintimatelybound up with the
idea that it was the state'sresponsibilityto providethem without cost
to society.The communist or socialiststate legitimatedits existence
through the provision of these goods and services to all citizens
(Verdery1993). Indeed, one of the greatestachievementsof the communistcountrieswasthe high level of human developmentthat they
achieved.This was one of the core Marxistcriticismsleveled at capitalism:that although communist and socialistcitizens may not have
been "free,"theywerecertainlynot hungry,uneducated,or unhealthy.
In the post-socialist
period,theserightsand entitlementshaveall but
The
disappeared.
collapseof the communiststateshas relegatedthese
to
the
status
of "needs"for the firsttime in the historyof many
"rights"
of these countries.This, for example,means that countriesthatwere
electrifiedunder communismnever had electricitythat was not provided by the state as a public good. In other words,electricitydid not
exist in many places before it was introduced by the communists as
proof of successfulmodernizationby the "dictatorshipof the proletariat."12
In the Firstor ThirdWorldcontext,wherefor the most part
these thingswere alwaysconstructedas needs (althougheven capitalist stateshave grantedmanysocial entitlementsat differenthistorical
periods), programs and projects to support women's "self-help"in
regardsto meeting these needs are more likelyto be successful.In the
Central and Eastern European context, however,microcredit and
women's entrepreneurshipprojectswill be less easilyimplemented.
Manywomen have not fundamentallyacceptedthat it is their responsibilityto meet these needs in the firstplace. Womenin Centraland
EasternEurope might have incentivesto workfor consumeritems or
to savemoney to travelabroad,but manymight resistthe idea of taking loans to start businesses to earn money to pay for the very same
thingstheyonce hadwithoutcost,especiallyif theyare expected to pay
interest on the money they borrow (which can be as high as 26 percent). Studieshave confirmedthatwomen are less likelyto starttheir
ownbusiness(UnitedNationsDevelopmentReport2000), and the fact
thatwomen in Centraland EasternEuropeare stillmore likelyto vote
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Women'sStudiesQuarterly2003: 3 & 4
31
for left-leaningor outrightcommunistpartiesdemonstratesan intransigentresistanceto capitalism(JalusicandAntic2000). WID/GADprojects aimed at alleviatingwomen's povertybased on microcredit or
entrepreneurshipprogramsfail to realize that Centraland Eastern
Europeanwomen maypreferto put their energiesinto finding political solutionsto their rapidlydeclining standardsof livingratherthan
participatein a systemwithwhich theyfundamentallydisagree.
Furthermore,WID/GADprojectsoftenfail to recognizethatCentral
and EasternEuropeanwomenare highlyeducated,withmanyyearsof
participationin the formaleconomy.Indeed, the formercommunist
countriescould once boastof the highestlabor-forceparticipationrates
forwomenin the world.A furtherassumptionor misconceptionis that
Centraland EasternEuropeanwomenare not concernedwithpolitics.
On the contrary,Centraland EasternEuropeanwomen are politically
savvyand incrediblydiscerningabout the politicalprocess.Manyprojects based on increasingwomen'sactivitiesin politics,therefore,are
also meet with resistanceor simplygo unnoticed.
For instance, throughout the region, there are severalgrantsfor
local NGOs to organize high-profile media campaigns to increase
women'spoliticalparticipation.13
These grants,usuallyoriginatingin
the United States and Western Europe, are given to local NGOs
(whosedirectorsdisturbinglyoften do have the "right"politicalaffiliations) to advocatefor "democracypromotion."Howeverlegitimate
the need to encourage women to take part in the political process,
many Central and EasternEuropean women believe that advocacy
campaignsto "getwomen to the polls"are partisanefforts and that
foreigngovernmentsuse localNGOsto promotepoliticalpartiesfavorable to the funders' interests. Furthermore, Central and Eastern
Europeanwomen mayview notengaging in politics as a political act.
A more useful project might explore why women are not involving
themselves in the polity, rather than simply assuming that getting
women to vote and stand for election (in a politicalsystemthat they
do not yet believe in) is somehowintrinsicallyin their own interests.
In the twobrief examplesgiven above,it should be clearthat some
WID/GADprojectseffectivelypromotewomen'sintegrationinto the
capitalistsystem,and activelydiscouragethe creationof a more socialistic, welfare state closer to the Scandinavianmodel. Neither of the
paradigmsis sensitiveto the politicalsophisticationor ideologicalhistoryof Centraland EasternEuropeanwomen, manyof whom are still
tryingto negotiate their roles in societyafter 1989.A more appropriate paradigmfor womenin Centraland EasternEuropewouldbe one
whichdoes not assume,a priori,thatfree-marketcapitalismis the only
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32
Women*sStudiesQuarterly2003: 3 &f4
possible model for successful economic growth- not necessarily
because this is not true, but because Centraland EasternEuropean
women mayhaveyet to believe it. Furthermore,WIDscholars,practitioners,and advocates(Tinker1990) need to recognizethatessentially
free education,health care, child care, electricity,centralheat, water,
public transportation,etc., were and may remain basic rightsin the
popularimagination.ManyCentraland EasternEuropeanwomenfeel
that these entitlementswere takenawayfrom them withoutadequate
compensation- "freedom"hasyet to paythe bills.Projectsto address
the needs of womenmayneed to includepolitically"dangerous"
strategies to help women decide for which "needs"they will work and for
which "rights"they will fight. Only then will internationalefforts to
raisethe livingstandardsof women in Centraland EasternEuropebe
both sensitiveto the social and politicalhistoryof the region and relevant to the daily struggles of women living through a most tumultuous (and often uninvited)period of economic transformation.
NOTES
1. The author would like to thank Irene Tinker for her comments and
encouragementand Ed Leijewskiat the WIDdepartmentof USAIDfor
takingthe time to considerand commentupon my ideas.
and
2. The terminologyused to referto differentregionsof the "developed"
"developing"worldshas changedover time and displaysparticularaffiliations with specificdevelopmentparadigms.In this paper,while recognizing the politicalimplicationsof differentterminologies,I will use the
termsFirst,Secondand ThirdWorlds,core and periphery,less-developed
countries (LDCs), and the globalsouth interchangeably.
3. ArturoEscobar(1995) has done an excellentjob of discussingthe Cold
Warcontext of developmentas a whole.
4. McNamara 1973; Chenery et al. 1974; World Bank 1975; and InternationalLaborOrganization1976were all influentialpublicationswhich
legitimizedthe idea thatpovertyalleviationwasan essentialgoal of development.
5. Similarlistsof womenin left-leaningwomen'sorganizationsaffiliatedwith
the PartaiKomunis
Indonesia(PKI)wereincludingin the liststhatthe CIA
handed overto GeneralSuhartoof Indonesiain 1964.Suhartoused these
veryliststo carryout one of the most brutalmassacresof the ColdWarmurderingan estimated250,000men, women and childrenin order to
purge his countryof communism(Leebaert2002).
6. It should also be recognizedthat the developmentestablishmentwould
begin to recognize the importanceof women in the ThirdWorldexactly
as calls for women's liberation at home also began to point to the successes of the socialist model abroad (House of Representative1971;
Jennessl972).
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33
7. Informedas it wasby dependencytheory,WADthinkersarguedthatthe
FirstWorldhad underdevelopedthe ThirdWorldin its own quest for
development.The linearityof Rostowianstagesof economicgrowthwas
challenged,withglobal capitalismseen as the systemthatwouldalways
and inevitablyperpetuateinequalityand exploitation.Just as proletarian classeswere exploited by bourgeoisclasseswithinnations,so countries in the "periphery"
were exploited by those in the "core."For the
largepartthe ideologicaldividebetweenthe WIDandWADmodelsfell
along the samelines that traditionallydividedliberaland socialistfeministsfor over a century;whereasthe formerbelievedthatwomenwere
oppressedby patriarchythe latterlaid the blame at the feet of private
property.WADtheoristsbelievedthatpoor men sharedthe samestructuraldisadvantagesas poor women and that men and women needed
to worktogetherfor development.
8. Second waverefersto the U.S. women'smovementin the 1970swhen
women advocatedfor legal and economic equalityas well as reproductiverights.
9. Both women of color in the United States (for example hooks 1981;
Lorde 1985;Anzalduaand Moraga(1983) and "ThirdWorld"women
(forexampleMohantyet al.1991;Narayan1997and Bulbeck1998) have
criticizedthe white, middle classbias of culturalfeminismin the U.S.
women'smovementand the WIDparadigm.
10. Forinstance,the WorldBanknowrequires"Genderimpactassessments"
for all of its developmentprojects.
11. For instance, The NACHALACooperative, The Resource Center
The PhareProgram,CatholicRelief
Foundation,Caresback-Bulgaria,
Services,The Bulgarian-American
EnterpriseFund,NationalNetwork
for Micro-Funding,etc.
12. Of course, the provisionof these servicesin practiceby the communist
government was less than perfect. Power and water outages were
endemicin both ruraland urbanareas,and the qualityof these services
wasrarelyconsistent.
13. Two good examples are ProjectParity,funded by USAIDand implemented by the Women'sAlliancefor Developmentin Bulgaria,and a
USAIDprojectin neighboringMacedoniaby twoAmericangender consultants (Greenberg and McDonald 2000) aimed at increasing
Macedonianwomen'spoliticalparticipation.
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Kristen Ghodsee is assistant professorin the womenstudiesprogramat
Bowdoin College.Her publications include "StateSupportin the Market:
Women and Tourism Employment in Post-Socialist Bulgaria" in the
InternationalJournal of Politics,Culturaland Society,Vol.16, No. 3
(Spring2003), 465-82, and i(Feminism-by-Design:
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She is currentlyrevising her bookmanuscript,Sun, Sand and Socialism:
Gender, Class, and Tourism in Postsocialist Bulgaria. KristenGhodsee
has received both Fulbright and IKEXfellowships, and was a researchfellow
with the Eastern European Studies Program at the Woodrow Wilson
International Centerfor Scholars in 2002.
Copyright © 2003 by Kristen Ghodsee
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