Gender Perspectives of Everyday Life during the late Soviet period

For years, women combined multiple roles in everyday life — mothers, breadwinners, workers, etc. Though the roles were always considered as part of daily life, they have rarely gained particular attention in the public discourse.

On December 15th, at 17:00 (Tbilisi time), the Heinrich Boell Foundation (hbs) offices in Tbilisi and Kyiv, invite you to an online presentation of a publication and discussion on Gender Perspectives of Everyday Life during the Late Soviet Period (1970s and 1980s).

We will discuss following questions:

• What were women’s social and economic conditions under state socialism during the 1970s-1980s (e.g., policies of paid maternity leave, directives for women’s equal participation in the labor market, material and institutional support for raising children, etc.)?
• What were the preconditions for women’s economic empowerment and integration into the labor market?
• What were the discourses of sexuality during the Brezhnev era and how were these discourses changing when they were cross-cutting local cultural and nationalist aspects? How did the discourses of sexuality affect women and how did women internalize some of the disciplinary practices?

To find out answers to these questions and more, join for the discussion with our speakers from Ukraine and Georgia:

• Olga Gnydiuk, Postdoctoral researcher, Central European University (CEU), Austria;

• Tamar Qeburia, Ph.D. Student, Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt International Doctoral Program, Faculty of Arts and Science, Ilia State University and Faculty of Humanities, Georg-August-University of Göttingen;

• Olena Styazhkina, Doctor of History, Professor, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Ukrainian History in the second half of the XX. century at the Institute of History of Ukraine at the National Academy of Science of Ukraine;
• Alla Parunova, Project Manager, Equality Movement.

Moderators: Sofia Oliynyk, Program Coordinator, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Kyiv Office –Ukraine, and Lilia Chikhladze, Program Coordinator, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Tbilisi office – South Caucasus Region.

Opening Remarks: Dr. Sonja Schiffers, Director, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Tbilisi office – South Caucasus Region, and Johannes Voswinkel, Director Heinrich Boell Foundation, Kyiv Office - Ukraine.

To join the event, please click the link and register

We will provide Ukrainian, Georgian and English simultaneous translation.  You can also listen discussion in Georgian language on our facebook page.

Images used on the facebook event cover were prepared by Tatia Nadareishvili and Alevtina Kakhidze.