Ambiguous Transitions : Gender, the State, and Everyday Life in Socialist and Postsocialist Romania

Drawing on evidence that ranges from government records to historical media and oral history interviews, Ambiguous Transitions provides an accessible, intimate exploration of gender and citizenship in socialist Romania. By connecting women’s everyday lives to larger political, economic, and social processes, author Jill M. Massino challenges conventional understandings of life in socialist Romania as uniformly oppressive. Organized around four key aspects of everyday life—education, work, marriage and family, and leisure—these portraits of life in the Eastern bloc shed light on the Cold War, modernity, and the salience of socialist beliefs and practices in people’s understanding of post-socialism.