Croatian International Relations Review (CIRR) (Web)

Proposals not later than 15 April 2015

Croatia, the newest EU member state, recently elected its first female president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic from the conservative HDZ. German chancellor Angela Merkel – is widely considered as the central and most influential political personality in the Union. Altogether, there are 6 female heads of state or government in the EU – 4 of them are from the new member states and only one does not belong to the People’s Party bloc. This fact opens many intriguing questions: can we say that Europe’s East progressed further on the emancipatory path than the West of the continent – and is this a result of revolutionary emancipationist policies conducted by the former communist authorities?

Further on, can we speak of a gradual return to the long-lost matriarchate in which the leading role in society was assigned to a powerful mother figure? Do we see different politics in relation to a different gender? Is the election of female candidates just a statistical necessity because of the growing number of women in politics or does it reflect a deeper shift in preference of electorates to allow for changes in politics, be it the election of female candidates or political newcomers? Read more and source … (Web)