Women’s role and their participation in public life of the Visegrad Countries

Women’s participation in public life has been determined by history and culture. For centuries, women had a limited access to education, they did not have electoral rights or the right to speak in public. Their activities focused around private lives and performing the tasks of wives, mothers and running households. The 20th century marked a breakthrough in the emancipation of women, liberating them from cultural oppression. It was primarily thanks to the first wave of women’s liberation movements that the governments of individual states decided to grant electoral rights to women and abandon restrictions on their access to education. The activities of women’s movements within the second wave of feminism (in the 1960s and 1970s) contributed to their permanently entering labour market and decision-making processes. Women were not granted a full range of civil rights in every country right away. This long-term process is still ongoing in many states, and symptoms of discrimination against women can still be found, especially in the broadly understood public space. Opis stanowi fragment Wstępu Publikacja w języku angielskim.