This collection highlights elements of the decade of changes in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 from the perspectives of gender and identity. Resistance to the negative consequences of certain changes for various groups in society demonstrate that women's activities have played a large part in securing democratic developments in various countries. From participation in politics in Slovenia to an exploration of the shifting boundaries of gender and sexuality in youth cultural discourse in Russia, focus is on the importance of considerations of gender analysis in thinking through the ways in which change is engendered. The authors share a common feminist definition of what is "political", so that political participation is not viewed in a narrow vein concerned only with functional aspects of the external, public world. Relations of power in society is the viewpoint on politics that is highlighted, for the use and abuse of power in issues of violence against women, to the power of ideas concerning motherhood, and sexuality as a lever of power.
Throughout, key sites of struggle are being analysed with recognition that various identities are constructed at particular times and under certain conditions.