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Women in Power in Post-Communist Parliaments

A new book published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press explores women's legislative roles in six post-Communist countries.

WASHINGTON—Woodrow Wilson Center Press has published a new book, Women in Power in Post-Communist Parliaments, edited by Marilyn Rueschemeyer and Sharon L. Wolchik. It is copublished with Indiana University Press.

Women in Power in Post-Communist Parliaments examines the life and work of women who have reached positions of political power after the end of communism in Europe. It explores the roles they have adopted, the relationships they have cultivated, and the agendas they have pursued. Much of the literature on women in post-Communist states has focused on one or two countries. This volume treats the issues comparatively, in six countries—the Czech Republic, Germany (with a focus on parliamentarians from the former GDR), Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland, and Russia.

The collection also includes a set of never-before-published interviews with and written statements by the very "women in power" discussed in the first half of the book, giving voice to their common and divergent experiences as political actors within an environment of stormy economies and new foreign engagements, particularly with the European Union.

"Women in Power gives us a more personal lens to understand the ways in which the parliaments, as well as the women who have made it into the houses, have adjusted to the new cultures and mandates of the post-Communist world."—Jean Robinson, Indiana University

"This is a highly generative and coherent piece of scholarship…the most important cross-national comparative book to date on the role of women in post-Communist politics."—Mitchell A. Orenstein, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

Marilyn Rueschemeyer is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the Rhode Island School of Design and currently chairs the European Politics Series at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. Sharon L. Wolchik is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at The George Washington University; former Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar in 1995 and 1999; and former Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. This project developed out of a 2004 conference sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Women in Power in Post-Communist Parliaments is distributed by Indiana University Press, accessible online at www.iupress.indiana.edu or by telephone at 1-800-842-6796. The list price is $65.00 for hardcover and $24.95 for paperback.

Woodrow Wilson Center Press publishes books by fellows, resident scholars, and staff written in substantial part at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Titles range from popular accounts of historical topics to fundamental reviews of scholarly fields to authoritative background on important policy issues. For more information about the Press, or to search its backlist of titles, please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/press.