The last decade following the breakdown of the former socialist system has become a period of political, social and economic reforms for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The very first years of the transitional period were marked by deep changes in the social financing system and by dynamic economic reforms. For many CEE countries that have taken efforts towards economic liberalization and opted for transformation models designed to restrict the governmental regulation of economic activities, eliminate the existing barriers for free flows of labour, goods, services and investments, and join the free trade system and the relevant international organizations, these positive changes have been associated with certain economic depressions and declines in trade and production activities. The process of transition was associated with not only drastic drops in the GDP, but radical changes in the ownership of public property and large-scale redistribution of incomes. The available data on income flows gives reasons to say that the reforms have triggered rapid transformations leading to inequality of incomes that may be considered the fastest known in history. The transformation process was further associated with growing inequality in wages and incomes as a result of business activities and redistribution of property, as well as with rapidly increasing unemployment.

The process of the CEE countries joining the global economy was accompanied by serious deviations from the fundamentals of sustainable social development. Therefore, the globalization process in these economies is usually associated with such negative category as the "loss of social capital" that implies growing poverty, unemployment and social inequality, as well as scaling down public participation in the political process and sagging social justice. Hard-line market reforms recommended by the multilateral organizations have given rise to a serious opposition in some of the regional economies. It may be pertinent to remind in this context the mass meetings of protest against the globalization and activities of multilateral financial institutions that took place in the Czech Republic in September 2001.

The instability had of particularly pronounced impact on the most vulnerable categories of residents, including women. The available data gives good grounds to conclude that the process of market transition has brutalized the gender discrimination in economy, reduce the economic opportunities for female workers and contributed to deterioration of social conditions for their careers. Many women tend to perceive globalization rather as a force resulting in inequalities in distribution of resources and economic opportunities among and within the countries, rather than a progress.

·         The female economic involvement throughout the CEE economies is now lower than it was in 1985 and the economic activity sagging trends have been steeper than for the male labour. The female labour proportion in Hungary had contracted by one third in the period of 1985 to 1997. The female labour proportions have been on decline even in those countries where the male employment statistics were stable (e.g., in Poland), or where increasing trends were registered (as was the case for the Czech Republic). Female employment rates have sagged dramatically. It was Hungary that faced the most severe recent 40% drop in the female employment rate. The magnitude of a smallest drop in the female employment rates (in the Czech Republic) was still nearly 10 times larger than the average deviation for the male employment rate.

·         The extensive lay-offs and high unemployment rates are accompanied by re-emergence of the patriarch stereotypes that women should turn back to their “predestined” place. A labour force survey performed in Poland in 1990 showed that chances for married men to find a job are twice as good as for a married women. Patriarch trends in the policies being pursued by the transitional economies simply imply that women are bound to accept poorly secured and low-paid jobs in the shadow economy.

• The existing gender gap in wages is one more form of discrimination of female employees on the labour markets of the CEE countries. Female workers in the CEE economies are paid on average 20% to 35% less than the male staff. Female-to-male wages ratios expressed on a percentage basis averaged only about 69% for Bulgaria in 1997, 78% for Hungary in 1997 and 79% for Poland in 1996. The wage gap is attributed to concentration of female jobs at the bottom level of the labour market and to what may be called discrimination in payment for work of the same quality. In view of the steep drop in real wages across the region (e.g. real wage in Bulgaria now accounts for only 40% to 50% of that for 1989), the lower wages of female staff make women a most vulnerable category as far as the risk of poverty is concerned.
  
• Female entrepreneurs have started more than 40% of the new businesses since 1990 in Hungary, and female managers currently run 38% of businesses in Poland. However, despite some success, businesswomen still have to face more barriers in their individual business activities than men. Studies show that the process of privatisation gives more assets in control of men than women. It means that women dispose of lesser start-up capitals and have more limited access to collateral needed to raise finance for business operation and expansion. Information on credit opportunities and training courses is less accessible for female managers as well.
  
• Homemaking is still regarded an area of gender discrimination. Traditionally the “double burden” borne by women in the CEE countries was notably heavier than that for women of Western Europe (by 15 hours per week on average) and totalled 70 hours per week. Under the new conditions of sagging household incomes, women have to work even harder hunting cheap products, cooking and grasping every opportunity to survive.
  
• National expenditures on the public health sector have contracted in the most of the CEE countries that made medical and health services less accessible for communities. The increasing proportion of payable medical services is factor that disproportionately affects women as one of the most economically disadvantaged categories in the process of transition. Single parent families where women dominate as breadwinners, are particularly vulnerable in the situation.
  
• Governmental support of families has diminished for the period as well. Benefits paid to families with children have devaluated with time. For example, family benefits paid in the Czech Republic totalled 0.8 % of its GDP in 1997 that is twice as little as the total benefits paid before the transition. Bulgaria spent 0.6 % of its GDP on financing social benefits in 1997 compared with 2.2 % in 1991.
  
• Female representation in the national parliaments of the CEE countries now varies from 5 % for Albania to 20.5 % for Croatia. It means that women have very weak opportunity to participate in economic decision-making process.

Market economy formation and globalization process in the CEE economies tends to diminish the state role in securing social justice and gender equality.

The following recommendations can help guide actions towards effective mobilization of domestic resources for securing social justice and gender equality:

·         National governments should recognize that a market transition does not necessarily imply a disavowal of the regulatory role of government in social sphere. Quite the reverse, it is the government that bears a prime responsibility for securing social justice by means of affordable, accessible and equitable distribution of public goods and social services among the residents.

·         National governments should control unemployment by facilitating creation of new jobs. The best international experience shows that small businesses are more flexible and potentially more profitable than the larger ones. Therefore, it is important to put in place a necessary legislative framework that would facilitate small business development, as well as to develop taxation codes encouraging national production activity.

·         To secure gender equality in economic sectors, it is important to support female entrepreneurs by special business training programs, facilitate their access to loans and develop more favourable tax policy. In view of the multiple social responsibilities of female workers, a bulk of attention must be paid to securing flexible labour conditions for them, including jobs with flexible business schedules, part-time positions and home jobs.

·         National governments need to take efforts to create gender-specific budgets at the national, regional and local levels that should enable to bridge the gap between the political declarations to empower women and the relevant budgetary assignments. The gender-specific budgets will help provide against possible losses on the national scale by giving means to account for gender impacts of the public incomes and expenditures.

·         To ensure a broader participation of women in the economic decision making process, it will be important to increase involvement of female managers in general management, planning and advisory boards so that they could make their contribution to the economic policy development and programming efforts.