Czech and Slovak women and political leadership

Women have played an important role in social movements and public life throughout the history of the Czech and Slovak nations. However, they have seldom been well represented among those who exercise power. This article reviews the historical record of women's role in public life, including women's movements, in the nineteenth century, in the republic of Czechoslovakia, and in the Communist period. Political, economic and cultural contrasts between the Czech Lands and Slovakia are longstanding, and continue in the present, when the two areas have become separated political entities. Factors common to both the Czech Lands and Slovakia limit women's interest in political leadership and their acceptance as serious candidates for high political office.