The objective of this article is to challenge and destabilise existing approaches to state socialism as a historical period during which women remained passive observers of social and political realities. Beginning with the afterthought about the possibility of utilising some of the concepts and categories of feminist methodologies within the post-socialist context, I present results of the research conducted, between 2010-2014, with women active in communist parties and women’s organisations before 1989, in Poland and in Georgia. Drawing from in-depth interviews and archival documents, including the United Polish Workers Party and Women International Democratic Federation archives, I then examine three aspects of the experience of women active socially and politically under state socialism. First, I present diverse motives behind the decision to become a party member. Second, I explore the amount of autonomy that, in their own words, women active in the communist party and women’s organisations had at their disposal. And third, I look at the ways in which socialist activists can be positioned within existing narratives on feminism and women’s movements in post-socialism.
The paper presents a comparison of the character and development of the discussion on the use of animals for scientific purposes in England and the Czech Lands, with the emphasis on the connection between the anti-vivisection and women’s movements. Against the background of the development of medical science, the first part describes the circumstances of the rise of the controversy and the path that led to the adoption of the first law regulating animal experiments. The second part presents the attitude of F. P. Cobbe, who was the most influential female figure in the debate. The third part maps the situation in the Czech Lands and suggests reasons as to why an organized anti-vivisection movement had not formed there. The author claims that the key role was played by the favorable perception of scientists due to their involvement in the process of National Revival. The last part presents the views on vivisection of two figures of Czech women’s movement at the beginning of 20th century - P. Moudrá and E. Vozábová. The author shows that the arguments that depicted the experiment in medical science as an unnecessary and useless method of research could no longer be convincing at the time.
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Článek se věnuje srovnání podoby a vývoje sporu o vivisekce v Anglii a českých zemích, s důrazem na propojení protivivisekčního a ženského hnutí. První část textu na pozadí rozvoje medicíny popisuje okolnosti vzniku sporu a cestu, která vedla k přijetí první legislativy regulující experimenty se zvířaty. Druhá část představuje postoj F. P. Cobbeové, která je nejvýraznější ženskou postavu v tomto sporu. Třetí část mapuje situaci v českých zemích a nabízí důvody, které vysvětlují, proč se u nás v dané době organizované protivivisekční hnutí nezformovalo. Autorka tvrdí, že klíčovou roli sehrálo pozitivní vnímání vědců, které pramenilo z jejich zapojení do procesu národního obrození. V poslední části textu jsou pak představeny názory na vivisekci dvou postav českého ženského hnutí na počátku 20. století, P. Moudré a E. Vozábové. Autorka ukazuje, že v dané době argumenty, které líčily experiment v medicíně jako nepotřebnou a neužitečnou metodu bádání, již nemohly být přesvědčivé.
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