The practice of legal "equal rights" entails more dissembled and sophisticated forms of women’s discrimination, and therefore gender has remained under the control of public discourse. The article is mainly devoted to the women in science in Lithuania. Analysis of the situation is based on recent statistical and qualitative research data. Here is an attempt to find the similarities and differences in status and identity between Lithuanian, Western and Eastern European academic women. Academic women indicates women who are teaching and/or pursuing scientific research in universities and/or scientific research institutions.

 

 

 

Actually, European intellectual thought has never been directed so much against women’s education as against equal education between women and men. Reasoning towards limiting women’s education was developed striving for the maintenance and strengthening of a hierarchical man-woman structure, where a role of creator- lord is ascribed to man and a role of consumer- subordinate is ascribed to woman. Nowadays, when the principle of equality between women and men has gained a formal recognition and is implemented in the legislation of most states of the world, justification of women’s subordination to men has remained in public discourse that causes the informal practice of women’s discrimination. Thus, culture still challenges the law at the dawn of the 21^st century.

 

According to V.Kavolis (1992), culture may be defined as a symbolical structure, as a relatively stable form of norms and behavior, as a whole complex of indications and prohibitions. Symbolical structures have a potential of eternity and therefore their reproduction predetermines the coexistence of modernity and traditionalism at both society and individual levels.

 

It is known that Christianity always adapts “local” traditional cultures and influences the development of all European culture. Considering theology as a part of culture allows affirming that every theology constructs “a tradition” as well. Therefore, the Christian conception of a woman has to be perceived and considered as the main grounds of the European intellectual tradition and modern public discourse concerning woman.

 

Probably, the main Christian principles towards women’s subordination and education are formulated in “The First Epistle of Paul The Apostle to Timothy”, Chapter 2. Thus, “11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13. For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”

 

The principle of alternative (option) could be considered among the main contributions of Christianity to European culture. Accordingly, there always were women who broke free from the generally accepted cultural norms of women’s behavior or used available options. Thus, in the Early Middle Ages women could achieve an education equal to men‘s and continue scientific work in convents.

 

In the Middle Ages, universities were founded across Europe, and the role of monasteries and convents in the development of science declined. Science as cognition and creation of the new knowledge was perceived by humanists, fathers (founders) of the modern European intellectuals and scholars, as an exclusively male activity. Moreover, contrary to the early Christian thought in which virginity was glorified, humanist thought glorified the nuclear family in which the wife was assigned the role of serving her husband and his children. Accordingly, professional activity that demands a special education turns a woman away from the family and therefore it is unnecessary for her. At the same time, a woman needs a home education sufficient to manage a household.

 

A small number of educated women always sprang up. These self-educated women were the creators of another model of woman and, undoubtedly, had their detractors and admirers. The admirers were usually men and women with a high status in society, and stimulated their interest in self-education and creative works. Thus, the quasi-academic community of high-society or bourgeois salons replaced conventual cells.

 

Industrialization needed an educated labor force and stimulated the development of science. Science industry needed more researchers and more of their educated assistants. Women, usually from the academic families by birth, have already proven that they can assist a scientific research and, with a corresponding academic knowledge, can conduct it independently. Moreover, education gave the possibility to obtain a profession and, correspondingly, to ensure an independent or at least an additional source of livelihood.  

 

The history of the modern academic woman began at the end of the 19^th century when universities opened their doors to women, spreading the ideas of emancipation and the needs of industrialization. The progressive-minded public opinion and scientific circles promoted and welcomed the arrival of women at the universities. Correspondingly, a conservative public opinion was ill disposed towards women aspiring to academic education and scientific career. Usually these women were considered unfeminine because it was believed that intellect and femininity did not agree with each other. Public morality’s watchmen argued that educated women are a threat to public order because a woman with an education equivalent to a man‘s cannot remain obedient to her father or husband. Medical approach argued that the peculiarities of woman’s health could not endure study because menstruation hinders training, and a woman who had dissipated her energies for studies could not give birth to a healthy child. Therefore, academic studies are needless and even ruinous for woman’s health and marital career. A good match, namely a husband, ensuring social status and material conditions in society, was considered the main task of unmarried girls (Utrio 1998).

 

Hence, the gender-structured life of society was finally divided between public and private spheres by the oncoming industrialization. Man was associated with a public life and woman was associated with a family life. Accordingly, an ideal of the family was ultimately shaped as well. Man received the role of the breadwinner and the role of housewife was received by woman. A woman was stimulated to limit her activity to a family. Professional activity out of the home was acceptable only for unmarried women.   

 

Accordingly, a young intelligent girl had to choose between the negative meaning of emansipee or bluestocking, which originally meant just an erudite, intelligent person, and the positive “ happy mother of the family”. The number of women devoted to academic studies was in minority; the number of women combining both an academic and family career was somewhat smaller. This tradition is actually preserved to this day. 

 

Overall, the history of Lithuanian woman differs slightly from the history of any European woman, despite the distinctive set of traditions and practices and a distinctive intellectual and aesthetic history that developed under different political and economical principles of society‘s organization. Today, between West and "the rest of Europe" there is an incompatibility of linear history or cursive time but a compatibility of another history or monumental time, which in gender studies can be considered the history of patriarchy. It is possible to speak about relative "time delay" with reference to ideas of public education and about "time outstrip" with reference to ideas of gender equality in Lithuania in comparison with the West.

 

Despite some mitologization of the high status of woman in Lithuanian culture, Lithuanian women can be proud of an equal rights tradition that was ensured by the Lithuanian Statutes (1529, 1566, and 1588) in force until 1840. However, equality of social-economic and, to some extent, political rights with men was a privilege of the noblewomen, and, especially, widows. At the same time, household affairs and public opinion did not consent to remain a widow for long. In the 20^th century, the frontier with the USSR and revolutionary public sentiments caused entering the equal rights principle in the first national Constitution (1922) by law. Soviet social order was secured by the new Constitution (1940) which, as an obedient copy of Stalin‘s constitution (1937) settled the decisive establishment of equality between men and women. The Constitution of "developed socialism" (1978) also secured equal citizens rights by law, emphasized equal women‘s and men‘s rights moreover securing them for women as equal access to education, equal opportunities in employment. The last Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (1992) also proclaims all people‘s equality by law and bans the restriction of individual rights; however, the article securing equal rights to women and men is absent. Fortunately, Lithuania is going to join the European Union, and amongst all the transition countries, it appears to have made much progress in implementing gender mainstreaming. Lithuania was the first CEEC to establish a Law on Equal Opportunities that came into effect in March 1999. Since then, it has established an Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman.

 

The first Lithuanian students were recorded at the Charles’s University, Prague, about 1380. Later, Lithuanian nobles sent their sons to universities in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland etc. Most of the Lithuanian students studied at the Cracow University. The first Lithuanian University “Almae academia et universitas Vilnensis” in Vilnius was founded in 1579.

 

The history of women’s extramural education has to be considered in the frame of women’s education in the Russian Empire into which Lithuania was incorporated since 1795. Girls could obtain a secondary education and training for high-society life in the Institutions of the Noble Girls since 1764, for example at the famous Smol’nyi Institut in St Petersburg. The history of higher education begins with the foundation of Higher Women’s Courses in St Petersburg and Moscow, which prepared teachers and doctors since 1869. From then, both primary and grammar schools for girls began to be set up across the Russian Empire.    

 

The modern Lithuanian society was born actually in the middle the 19^th century and its origin is agrarian. It has to be noted that the rapid industrialization of Lithuania began in the 50s of the 20^th century. Thus, peasant mentality added to the dominance of Catholic doctrine determines the concept of a true woman. The true woman is first of all a good caretaker, meaning diligence in household keeping and obedience to the interests of the family. Lithuanian intelligentsia mainly comprised rural petty bourgeoisie, anxious about national awakening, who enlarged this concept with political goals.

 

Thus, the ideal wife is a nation-conscious, educated Lithuanian woman able to help her husband in his struggle for the restoration of Lithuanian independence and to raise authentic Lithuanians. It is known that farmers were very unwilling to send their daughters to school. It was supposed that an educated girl would not do farming work and cause trouble for the search of an adequate groom; she could remain unmarried and money spent for studies would be wasted (Marcinkevièienë 1999).

 

There were hardly any educated women at the time in Lithuania (Dagytė, Voverienė 1995). Lithuanian males, who graduated from universities in Russia or Poland, most frequently married Russian or Polish women and the children of such families became denationalized. Educated Lithuanian males, who married true Lithuanian girls from the countryside with the intention to educate them, usually failed in their efforts. The first girls‘ pro gymnasium with Lithuanian as language of teaching was established in 1907 by initiative of Catholic fathers. At the beginning of the 20^th century, few women had attained scientific eminence. The first doctoral theses disputed by Lithuanian women were at the University of Berlin in 1910 in pediatrics, at Fribourg University in 1923 in pedagogy, at Zurich University in 1927 in pedagogy, etc. The first doctoral thesis disputed in the homeland by a woman, at the University of Vytautas the Great founded in 1922 in Kaunas, was only in 1939 in zoology. To conclude, it is possible that the academic communities of German and Swiss Universities were more favorable to women scientists than the Lithuanian one.

 

It has to be noted that for a Lithuanian woman, as for any woman subject of the Russian Empire, the road to academic education was accessible through her father, guardian or husband‘s permission, and, accordingly, in case of travel abroad, with a personal passport, which she could also obtain only with her family‘s permission. A woman wishing for an academic education and independent life usually made a sham marriage with a man who shared her interests. Once married, a woman was legally liberated from the power of her father or guardian, did not commit an offence against public opinion and legislation, and received a legal permission for professional or academic career. Hence, educated women in Lithuania, as in all the Russian Empire, were usually married.

 

Looking through the surnames of the famous Lithuanian academic, artist, and professional women, apparently this tradition was not interrupted in the pre-World War II Lithuania. Usually they had double surnames; namely, the husband‘s surname was added to the maiden name. It has to be noted that a form of Lithuanian surname indicates gender and marital status of a woman. At present, a Lithuanian woman getting married prefers to take on her husband’s name as well, and quite often keeps it after a divorce.

 

In pre-World War II Lithuania, gender relations are defined as an unfinished emancipation (Kavolis 1992). Intellectuals discussed about woman of those days from different perspectives; however, a conservative point of view about the woman’s being and her role in society was dominant. It is known that pre-World War II academic women had to demonstrate the traits of a national bourgeois woman’s model. As a patriotman‘s partner, she had to promote Lithuanianism, attend to philanthropy, and could have a scientific career. Simultaneously, she had to devote herself to the family (Raèiûnaitë 2000).

 

A socialist solution of the “woman’s question”, i.e. emancipation of women and establishment of a true equality with men, forced women in the labor market. Actually, Lithuanian women, just as Soviet women, were compelled to accept a model of a married working mother (Zvinkliene 1999), however without significant changes regarding gender subordination in public life and family responsibility. Most of the Soviet families, mainly due to the low level of family incomes, were families with both working spouses, although Soviet legislation strictly protected a full employment of population and never banned a non-working woman with children for parasitism. Thus, the traditional family model, where a man is a breadwinner and a wife a homemaker, was the only representation accepted by the upper class of Soviet society, namely, communist nomenclature, commanders, professors, etc., and mothers with many children. At that time, reference letters from communist and trade union authorities accompanied the social life of Soviet people and gave an official image of the true woman. Thus, according to the classical formulation of these letters, any Soviet woman/man, but especially intelligentsia, had to demonstrate diligence in both professional and family activity, communist consciousness, be politically mature and active in public work. Without this phraseology in the reference letter, a professional career could be blocked.

 

Public discussions regarding the limitation of woman’s education did not occur during Soviet times because of the implementation of the principle of equality between men and women in the social political life. The tendency to feminize certain occupations, especially in the sphere of humanities and medicine, stems from the first Higher Women’s Courses in the Russian Empire. However, in the late Soviet times it was considered a negative tendency in the social-economic development of the USSR. Trying to prevent this, most universities and other higher schools applied protective rules for men at the admission exam, especially in the so-called “feminine” areas of study. Just recently, such an open practice of protective rules for men at the admission exam has been prohibited everywhere in Lithuania. Nevertheless, despite some restrictions, Lithuanian women, as the Soviet women in total have had an even better education than men have in the late Soviet period.

 

The Soviet system‘s collapse was accompanied by a strong neo-conservative ideology based on the traditional Christian values concerning the family life and gender equality. However, a model of a married working mother did not lose its actuality, but demonstration of political consciousness and activity in public work became voluntary.

 

 

Lithuanian society remains conservative enough about women. This is due rather to a continuation of a Christian cultural tradition of women’s subordination in society that was actually never interrupted. This devotion to traditions can be verified by a statistical approach as well. In Lithuania, scientists are still highly evaluated, according to public opinion surveys. Traditionally, the public prestige of mental occupation is grounded on the male‘s representation in it. Accordingly, it is not surprising that women‘s share is about one-third in the academic community, and they are less than 2 percent of all women in the labor market of present-day Lithuania. Below are some statistical data from the National Report “Women and Science in Lithuania, 2000” prepared for the European Commission and published in Lithuania (Taljunaite, Zvinkliene 2001).

 

Social factors that influence the number of women in science are the public attitudes concerning the standard of sufficient education for a woman and how science is associated with a female career.

 

 

 

Neo-conservatism in public discourse, together with public disappointment towards higher education, could be among the main reasons for the women students‘ decrease in the higher schools during the first years of Changes. However, it can be seen from Table 1 that there is a slight increase of female students in the graduate (higher) schools over the last years. This is related to recent changes in a demand for higher education. According to the job offers, employers prefer a well-educated staff despite their enterprise‘s field of activity.

 

Statistical data show that in the last decades of the 20^th century Lithuanian girls pursued a better education in comparison with boys in general. However, most of the girls preferred to finish their education career after acquiring the higher education diploma. As far as boys are concerned, they are apt to seek a higher degree.

 

Nowadays, doctoral studies could be considered not only as the main way to a professional career in science, but also as a way to prolong the student‘s enrollment with a relative economic stability for some years, and/or a legal way to reach the West for both women and men.

 

 

 

The level of professional ambitions and abilities has to be acknowledged as one of the main inner obstacles of an academic career. However, the first confirmation of professional ambitions and abilities, namely the first scientific degree, is mainly expected from a man. Accordingly, men are rather more strongly oriented towards achieving a scientific degree in time and attain it in comparison with women. Women are usually oriented towards sacrificing professional ambitions and opportunities in the name of family responsibilities. Often they postpone disputing their thesis for an indefinite time. Therefore, only a woman who is strongly oriented towards being a scholar and, accordingly, towards a professional confirmation, finds her personal way to combine both her professional and family life or postpones family life, and achieves a scientific degree in time. Obviously, such a woman is still not prevalent in the field of Lithuanian science.

 

The level of informal practice of promotion in science has to be acknowledged as one of the main external (objective) obstacles on the way of a woman‘s professional career. Actual practice shows that to obtain an academic degree and even in her professional activity a woman usually must prove her own professional ability with higher requirements than her male colleagues. Furthermore, a woman usually must wait much longer than a man must to obtain a higher academic title or scientific position after disputing a thesis. Women are not expected to achieve a leadership position just as academic authority usually do not consider a woman among the first candidates to a higher vacant academic position. Thus, the former dean of the faculties of the largest and oldest Lithuanian University in Vilnius, answering the journalist‘s question, "Could a woman be a dean of the University?", said that bearing in mind our masculine society it is absolutely unreal: it is very hard to designate a woman even as a head of department or faculty (Česnienë, 2000). Hence, this informal practice of promoting men in science has a negative impact on a woman‘s desire to strive for the higher scientific degree and the academic title as well.

 

 

It can be seen from Table 2 that there has been a slight increase of women scientists in the academic community during last years. At the same time, according to the last Soviet Population Census, the percentage of women among teachers and professors at universities and graduate (higher) schools was 40.1 percent, and, accordingly, among scientists and researchers 48.5 percent in 1989. Therefore, the recent slight increase of women in science is caused rather by the slump in the interest towards academic career among men, and their natural decrease as well.

 

The Lithuanian system of science and higher education has been reformed during the last ten years of independence to meet the requirements of a sovereign state. Admittedly, due to the old Soviet system, a high scientific potential of Lithuania was truly isolated from the country‘s economic structure. After the Changes, all departmental scientific research institutes mainly depending upon the USSR‘s military-industrial complex were closed down. The need for professionals from physical and technological sciences decreased dramatically. Business enterprises and private non-profit sectors were the new possibilities for scientists dismissed from their former employment. Statistics registered only a small number of scientists who work in the business enterprises sector in which the women‘s share is 20 percent.

 

The present reorganization of science in Lithuania could be defined as "waiting for the proper state‘s science policy". The outcome of this situation is the problem of reconstituting the intellectual labor forces. The scarcity of the young generation is caused by the fact that a personal intellectual investment in education often does not correspond to the economic benefits of the achieved academic position, rather than by a weak economy alone. It has to be noted that age actually is not a limit towards achieving and maintaining a high academic position.

 

 

It should be noted that both a higher education sector and a government sector practice still exist in the structure of Lithuanian science. The higher education sector implies that scientists are required to teach and it is understood that they should do scientific research as well. The government sector, which nowadays mainly consists of a relic of the scientific research institutes of the Academy of Sciences, implies that scientists are required to do scientific research and have right to teach. A similar practice of the organization of science still exists, for instance, in Great Britain, France, and Spain. An account on the scientific activity shows that in Lithuania mainly government sector scientists do scientific research.

 

Statistical calculations show that most of the scientists with a scientific degree and academic titles are women. This means that men without a scientific degree more often than women without a scientific degree are involved in pedagogical activity with a permanent contract.

 

During the permanent financing cutbacks of the research programs and higher education, and its subsequent staff reduction, the following tendency was observed: an increase in the number of scientists with a scientific degree with the exception of social sciences, and a decrease of the number of academic title holders with the exception of biomedical sciences. At the same time, a sharp decrease in the number of academic titles, overall and women particularly, in 1999 as compared to 1998 can be seen in all scientific disciplines.

 

 A number of scientists, with a scientific degree and an academic title and working in the government sector, indicates how many of them participate in both higher education and government sectors, and, accordingly, have extra income. Hence, every second man and every fifth woman with a doctor habilitis degree, and every seventh man and every twelfth woman with a doctor‘s degree hold more than one position. It also means that men with scientific degrees from research institutions are involved in pedagogical activity more frequently than the same women are. According to these statistics, it would be possible to assert that men prefer and combine scientific and pedagogical activity and women simply prefer a scientific work. However, bearing in mind the economic situation in science, and a gender perspective in Lithuania, such a situation is due more to the preference accorded to men.

 

Nowadays, scientists with an academic title but without a scientific degree are actually found only in the field of humanities and to some extent in the field of social sciences. Thus, 75 percent of all scientists working in the field of humanities and 97 percent, accordingly, in the field of social sciences had a scientific degree in 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

The data from Table 3 present changes in the number of scientists, and give the possibility to demonstrate again the practice of woman’s discrimination in Lithuanian science, in spite of some positive tendencies during the last years. Following the data, it is possible to conclude that a defended thesis does not necessarily guarantee a corresponding position in the staff of the higher education institution or in the government sector as well. Vice-versa, obtaining a professorship does not necessarily depend on the existence of a corresponding defended thesis. However, as a rule women‘s positions are lower than men‘s positions with the same scientific degrees.

 

As there is no internationally recognized classification of academic staff, a comparison of women‘s standing in science in various countries is quite difficult. At the same time, available statistical data from the European Union (Statistics in focus 2001) could be comparable. For instance, in 1999 the proportion of female students at tertiary level was 52 percent in the EU in comparison to 58 percent in Lithuania. The percentage of women with higher education above the EU average level is one of the few positive instances of Lithuania‘s Soviet heritage. However, differences between Lithuania and EU countries at an academic level actually disappear in 1999. Thus, Lithuanian women are slightly better represented in Higher Education senior teaching grades. They represent 31 percent of the academic staff while the EU average is 27 percent, with variations ranging from 9 percent in Germany to 35 percent in Finland. In the government institutions, the share of women researchers is 37 percent in Lithuania and 34 percent in the EU, excepting Portugal where the share of women researchers is 53 percent. Common to Lithuania and the EU is a constant drop in the number of women at each level of the academic ladder: many highly trained women are subsequently lost to science. Thus, at the top level of full professorship the proportion of women is 11 percent in the EU and 10 percent in Lithuania. This phenomenon is referred to with the image of a ‘leaky pipeline’.

Therefore, representation of Lithuanian women in science corresponds and even exceeds the average of the EU.

 

 

Academic women belong to the professional group that produces new knowledge and/or transmits it to the public. Pursuit of knowledge and a high potential of creativity have to be among the main traits of both women and men interested in scientific activity. However, science is traditionally considered a male activity because of the right and access to knowledge that is power - scientia potestas est- and women are traditionally excluded from the possession of power.

 

Thus, a woman enters an academic community fully burdened by prejudice against woman professional in general and a woman scientist in particular. Her gender is used to doubt her ability to participate in the important spheres of professional activity, and her professional activity is used to doubt her ability to be a good wife and mother (West and Zimmerman 1991). Therefore, a woman has to counter the devaluation of her femininity and professional abilities, and her successful scientific career requires a high flexibility of self-identity.

 

In the frame of radical pluralism as a social theory of postmodernism, a concept of identity is considered the expression of self/other relation. Generally, Self is defined as the individual’s expression of his/her uniqueness that structures his/her behavior to a considerable degree, and presupposes the simultaneous acknowledgement of the individual’s belonging to the group and/or society. The main source of self-identity building is the individual‘s life history - a process affected by the individual’s participation in the social structure of society. In this case, identity can be considered as developed through a process of self-reflection that is generated originally from the outside. Theories of recognition consider identity formation an open and ongoing dialogue and struggle with significant others (Taylor 1992). The dialogic theory of M. M. Bakhtin argues that, “the self is an embodied entity situated in concrete time and space, and is constituted in and through its dialogical relations with others and the world at large” (Gardiner and Bell 1998; 6).

 

Sociological research on identity, according to such a self/other relation concept, consists of two parts. The first one is devoted to the investigation of self, and the second one to the investigation of attitudes of others, because the public/professional career could be considered as a sort of struggle for recognition through an open/inner dialogue with significant others.

 

Following is the data of the empirical research “An Academic Woman’s Identity from Central and East Europe” conducted in 1998-2000 by the author. Participants of the seminars on gender and feminist studies were at Budapest in 1998, and Yurmala in 2000, as well as scholars from universities in Switzerland and Lithuania. A total of 68 respondents, of which one-third were Westerners, took part in the investigation of identity. The number of participants at the international seminars allowed to distinguish a group of Western women (from Finland, USA etc., and Switzerland) and a group of Central and East European women (from the Balkans, Russia, Latvia, etc., and Lithuania).

 

Woman’s identity was investigated using the infamous Kuhn-McPartland Twenty Statements Test (TST). Each woman was asked to write 20 responses to the question “Who am I”. Nowadays, critics argue that attitudes, self-concepts, social labeling, group membership, etc., conceptualized in the TST are “neither personal identity nor the social self, but practices and consequences of identification: who we identify with, and how we describe ourselves as a result ” (in Peuter de 1998; 35).

 

Certainly, in most cases the statements elicited by such tests are the result of an identification with, and simultaneously the presentation of those personal categories or attributes considered important by the herself/himself or by the respondent‘s significant others. Moreover, the respondent is aware that her/his answers will be read and analyzed by others. Accordingly, the statements elicited by the TST are considered self-presentations.

 

“Significant others” from the academic community of the West and East have been asked to define a woman-scholar. Responses are received from audio-interviews; some responses are received by e-mail. All the women investigated, and women and men interviewed are from the so-called mixed gender research area: humanities and social sciences.

 

TST gave the following results.

 

Women from Central and East Europe more often than the investigated Westerners use so-called consensual references, meaning that they refer to their social-demographic characteristics, kinship, and group membership in their responses. Western women prefer to use so-called subconsensual references: namely, personal traits, self-esteem, hobby, a situation, etc.

 

Consensual references that usually transmit “official” information about oneself could be considered as the respondent‘s attachment to the social system‘s values on the one hand, and the concealment of ‘unofficial” personal traits on the other hand. Subconsensual references, in other words auto-reflective references, accordingly, are an orientation to self and a relative independence from the social system in which a definite status has already been achieved.

 

It is possible to say that a predominance of consensual references indicates social (collective) values in the self, and a predominance of subconsensual references, accordingly, individual values in the self. At the same time, most of the auto-reflective references should be considered in terms of the respondent‘s cultural context, meaning that they should be interpreted within the permissible cultural norms of the individual as well. Thus, self-references as “friendly”, “good” etc., or references to the popular leisure activity - hobby, are actually socially positive in all European cultures (Westin 1983). Self-reference to “a social drinker”, which could be considered socially negative, is positive enough for Central and East European intelligentsia; it is the hallmark of a true intellectual, and, actually, a reference to membership. Apparently, self-reference to “a social drinker”, especially for Russians, may be compared to self-reference to “a lover of coffee” for Finns or self-reference to “left-oriented”, “antiglobalist” etc. that is common amongst the Western intellectuals.

 

The Western and Central East European women investigated are culturally different in the expression of self-irony and happiness as well.Thus, women from Central and Eastern Europe are distinguished by self-ironic responses: for instance, I am  “ a witch”,“ a creature”, “an incarnation of consciousness”, “a work machine” etc. At the same time, there are only a few references to having a sense of humor among all responses. Indeed, self-irony as a part of identity is a vitally important personal characteristic of people from post-socialist countries; it is a kind of self-support to survive all the stages from totalitarianism, to transition, to consolidation.

 

Apparently self-irony, to the some extent, substitutes and probably often conceals a sense of happiness among women from Central and Eastern Europe. Actually, half of the investigated Western women, with different levels of sureness, have referred to their identification with happiness as, for instance, “I am a happy girl”, “I am happy where I am but”, “Trying to be happy”, “happy at the moment”, or at least “happily married, still in love ”. There is actually neither “happy” nor “unhappy” among the references of women from Central and Eastern Europe. The only reference to “happy” was from a Latvian woman, which could be considered rather as a self-ironic statement because of such responses as “like Maria Callas” and “a goddess” in her TST.

 

At first sight, these differences in perception of self and the present situation could be caused by a different economic situation. Indeed, being a scholar in Switzerland, Finland or USA, and in any country of Central and Eastern Europe means a different enough personal economic situation, and concurrently that most respondents avoided references to their economic situation except in a few cases, such as “mother living in poverty ” or simply “poor”. Moreover, data analyses of a European quantitative research of values in 1999 show that there is a weak connection between a feeling of happiness and economic and personal factors. Nevertheless, Lithuania ranks higher for the feeling of happiness of its population than Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovakia etc. and a little lower compared to Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, and Czechia (Geèienë 2001). It seems that the inclination to avoid such type of responses has a cultural background rather than being just a psychological reaction to a personal situation.

 

Happiness as a state of personal being is not among culturally acceptable self-statements, at least in Lithuania and apparently in Balkan countries as well. Explanations could be related to the historical memory of representatives of the former Great States: of nationalities (ethnic communities) whose glory is buried in the deep Past. People are socialized in a social environment that has no place for personal happiness when all the country is humiliated, oppressed, occupied etc., by others. It could also be a cultural atavism of an agrarian society that usually repudiated any display of individual emotions. Being personally happy and referring to it means having a real chance both to lose God‘s favor as well as becoming an outsider of the community.

 

It seems women from Central and Eastern Europe are still afraid to be openly happy even when apparently a set of traditional components of woman’s happiness (love, a family, employment) are evident; knock on wood! Moreover, most of them do not know what it is, how to be happy, since it was not culturally accepted. Probably, fear of happiness is one of the reasons why women are often depressed and do not even avoid referring to it in the TST.

 

For Western women living in a society of personal success, of the constant OK, vice-versa the reference to happiness is the reference to her justifiability in this world. The reference to “depressive” is the reference to the recognition of her being a failure. It is argued that the “ 20^th century tested everything and has finally found the last metamorphosis of culture - culture of happiness”(Greimas 1991; 15). Here lies the fear that at least Lithuania might choose the most easily accessible components of the  “culture of happiness” as McDonald‘s, etc.

 

Hence, the predominance of subconsensual references in the responses of Westerners could be considered both as a display of individualism, and a presentation of culturally accepted norms.

 

Actually, all women have referred to a gender, age, and ethnic or national belonging. Many Westerners wrote their names as the first response to the TST while nobody from Central and Eastern Europe did the same, except the one respondent from Lithuania and one from Russia who signed her TST sheet. At first sight, it is possible to conclude that women from Central and Eastern Europe did not write their names because the instruction did not demand it. However, it is known that respondents follow an instruction when it does not conflict with their attitudes. Absence of a name in the TST could be considered as some kind of inner censorship, some sign of the totalitarian past‘s profound impact when the state required to be dissolved in “the group of comrades”, which also gave the possibility to preserve “a true inner identity” and/or evade responsibility for individual acts.

 

Anyhow, name, gender and age are usually the first criteria of self-identification in the life of the individual and are among the most salient self-references; however, women from Central and Eastern Europe preferred remaining anonymous in comparison to Western women.

 

Actually, all investigated women have done their self-identification within the public sphere; most of them referred to profession, but some referred to membership in a political party, labor marker, social structure. An academic woman apparently avoids identifying herself with ”a creator” and “a fighter” or referring to such indispensable traits for a scholar as being “ambitious”. Quite possibly such so-called masculine self-statements are considered a challenge by most women, and academic women would rather define their own personality as “intelligent’, “open-minded”, “curious", “serious”,  “active” at least.

 

All modern European societies still live under the dictatorship of the traditional family ideology meaning that every adult should marry and have children. However, it is loosing its dominant position due to the liberalization of social life in its entirety. The traditional family based upon marriage is being replaced by cohabitation, living apart together, etc.

 

Traditionally, woman’s subjectivity is considered to be found only through relations with a man and this is reflected in TST as well. Actually, all married women have referred to their identification with their marital status - “a wife”. Single and divorced women, except some young women up to 30 years old, prefer avoiding identification with a marital status at all or refer to cohabitation. It could be noted that one third of the Central and East European women, both married and single, although single in most cases, have referred to being “a lover”. Only one single woman from Lithuania and one from Finland were so open. Self-reference to “a lover” could be considered a replacement of “a wife” for single or divorced women on the one hand, and the importance of love for women in general in Central and East European culture, especially Russian, on the other hand.

 

As already mentioned, the “private service” of woman - motherhood - is viewed as an integral or anyway a main part of her identity. Thus, those who wrote “ a mother” have often referred to the number of their children, their names, gender, and age. Actually, all childless women -whether married, divorced, or single- do not refer to the absence of children, except two young married women around 30 years old from Latvia and Russia. Hence, “a mother” is the most salient characteristic of woman’s identity compared to other family related characteristics. At the same time, “a daughter” is the next salient characteristic only for half of the women from Central and East Europe and three quarters of respondents from Lithuania. The Westerners self-indicated with “a daughter” were one respondent from Switzerland and another from Finland. References to other kinship are singular among all investigated women except the Lithuanian ones. This could be connected with a real family structure and/or a style of relationships between family members of academic women; however, Central and East European women seem more family oriented than Westerners according to the number of kinship’s responses. 

 

At present, especially in post-socialist countries, the concept of traditional family concentrates primarily on women‘s roles; the woman is the person mainly responsible for the maintenance of family base, either moral or even economic. Thus, among all investigated women a few references to being “a householder”, “a breadwinner", and “a housewife” are found. At the same time, almost half of the women from Lithuania have referred to being “ a housewife” or even “maid-servant”. It seems that academic women from Lithuania, especially young, identify themselves more with the problem of combining family responsibilities and professional activity when professional aspirations are dominant, than their same age group colleagues from other countries. Thus, only post-graduate students from Lithuania referred to “familial“ statements with its evaluation: namely,  “a normal mother”, and “a bad housewife”.

 

As mentioned, academic women from Central and East Europe who participated at the seminars on feminist and gender studies were the most investigated. Thus, only half of the Central and East European women taking part at the seminars identified themselves with a feminist according to the TST. Western women, actually the Scandinavian ones, all identified themselves with a feminist. Some academic women from Switzerland did not reject self-identification with a feminist as well.

 

At the same time, not a single academic woman from Lithuania referred to her identification with a feminist, although some are involved in gender studies. Here it could be noted that Lithuanian along with Estonian scholars taking part at the seminars did not identify themselves with a feminist as well, whereas Russians and a single Latvian scholar did.

 

Refusal of self-identification with a feminist for those academic women involved in gender or feminist studies could be related to knowledge or imagination of “the” feminist. This model of “the” feminist could be an unacceptable identification, or the respondent does not find similarities between the model and herself. Apparently, even the Western academic women who are not involved in gender issues often accept feminist ideology and identify themselves with a feminist. Evidently, academic women from Central and East Europe usually do not do so. This could also be due to a professional distance between self and a research object. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that among women-scholars as well as NGO’s activists working on women’s issues in Central and East Europe there is a significant part of the so-called “feminists for the sake of the grant”. In the context of the economic situation of Central and East Europe this is understandable since a connection with topics on women’s issues often offers a job prospect. It seems Western academic women choose gender or feminist studies according to their personal attitudes and preferences more often than their colleagues from Central and East Europe.

 

Therefore, following the data of the TST it is possible to conclude that the representation of self/identity of academic women from Lithuania is more traditional by comparison with Westerners and even women from Central and East Europe.  

 

Interviews with “significant others” show that there are no significant differences in the definition of academic women between Western and Central and East European scholars; moreover, they supplement each other with new details. However, Central and East European scholars often broaden their responses with the current problems of achieving a scientific career.

 

Thus, academic women, and men as well, are usually people from families where an ideal of educated person was highly evaluated. However, entrance in the academic community depends upon many individual moments rather than structural ones as, for instance, a favorable scientific situation, good luck with a professor, department, etc. that stimulate and support an interest to the definite scientific problem, and finally, personal motivation. During Soviet times, when a worker was primary and an engineer was secondary, intellectual work was equally low-income in all spheres; accordingly, many new-comers in the academic community were more oriented towards the social prestige of the profession of scientist. At present, according to the notes of middle-aged academic women, the students‘ interest to defend a bachelor‘s, master‘s, and doctor‘s degree is more in view of the likelihood of moving and remaining in the West in higher positions than any unskilled worker.    

 

According to the opinion of a young generation, an academic occupation is risky enough because there is no guaranty of achieving a scientific position and an income adequate to the effort.

Thus, “ In Lithuania and the West also, you have to make a lot of investments and then you really don’t know if it will pay back. Till 30-33 years old I am as suspended between a student and an office worker whereas my coevals do and did a definite career” (female, 29, post-graduate student, sociologist, Lithuania).

 

A former post-graduate male student confirms the young scholar‘s uncertain situation regardless of gender. Thus, an academic woman is:

 

It seems that many invested efforts keep scholars, especially women, in academy. Thus,

“Only after 25 years I can argue that to leave science for a better income would be a dead loss for me because the definite aspirations and ambitions are already formed. I think that I have been accomplishing something and now giving it up would be foolish.” (female, 49, Dr., sociologist, Lithuania)

 

Altogether, it is acknowledged that there are several obstacles towards becoming an academic woman and pursuing an academic career, mainly related to the present state’s education and science policy. Thus,

“ Today, everything prevents an academic career: namely, absence of adequate payment, absence of finance for scientific research, and public opinion as well. I mean the opinion of common people, people who repair your flat, drive your buses, sell goods in the bazaar, etc. They look at the academic world, which is incomprehensible to them, with great respect; education and science are still highly evaluated by them. It is perceived as necessary but undesirable for their children because they consider scholars as some kind of self-murderers. Our new authorities, new rich from whose decisions depend the development of the state and society do everything to annihilate the rest of public respect towards intellectual workers. For instance, an initiator of the banking business in Latvia, an incredible nationalist, told me: people like you - pink- have to be expelled from Latvia because you ruin our population, 7 years of education is enough for them (female, 45, Dr., philologist, Latvia).     

 

Professional occupation usually has a profound impact on personality although “national” traces remain at least in the appearance of academic women. Thus, a male scholar from Switzerland stresses the elegance of women from Central and East Europe, especially Russians, and even pays attention to their very short skirts in comparison with Western academic women. A Lithuanian female scholar stresses differences in appearance as well; however, this may be defined as an inclination to underline pseudo-femininity with cosmetics, spangles etc., at least in comparison with Scandinavian academic women.   

 

Young and middle-aged Lithuanian academic men usually try to uphold the opinion that academic women do not have to be unlike an average woman, although they prefer all intellectual workers to be distinguished by their erudition, intellect, and to some extent by competency. Often it is argued that woman’s intellect does not interfere with her beauty and academic activity is quite compatible with femininity and so-called woman‘s nature. At the same time, it is supposed that

 

It seems middle age at least for Lithuanian males is a demarcation line between more conservative and egalitarian attitudes toward academic women. This could be related to Lithuania‘s social context where equality between women and men has recently been reintroduced in the state’s ideology, although with age male attitudes towards women become in fact more conservative. Thus,

 

A response to the conservative, and to some extent humiliating, characteristics of an academic woman, compared to an average woman, from older or coeval colleagues has to be considered not as an excuse but rather as a confirmation of the woman’s choice.

 

However, Swiss and Lithuanian women alike have noted that academic women are confronted with some specific conditions: the authority of “woman’s voice” in the first place. Thus,

 

Academic women are definitely isolated from male colleagues and from people who have not much educational background as well. Both usually considered an academic woman as being slightly handicapped or at least very complicated. At the same time, it seems a present young generation of women scholars has to be less confronted with conservative attitudes regarding a woman’s nature from her male-colleagues, at least at the beginning of their career.

 

Usually the majority of men see the situation in the public sphere, in our case science, as non-problematic from a gender equality perspective. In general, Western males are usually more “politically correct”, to the same extent more practical and less emotional in their definitions of academic women than their colleagues from the “East”. Western style of conservatism is hidden enough. Thus,

 

They recognize a gender-structured professional world and explain the so-called feminization of science with the “softness” of scientific discipline, which is usually related to power relation, rather than by the discipline‘s actual value in modern society.

Thus, “Humanities was and is in the West and in the East a "soft" activity and therefore not so "hard" as economy, natural sciences, law and politics, which are dominated by men” (male, 53, professor, sociologist, Switzerland)

Actual knowledge in economy, law, or politics is directly connected with the government of the state. Therefore, scholars of these disciplines can make some impact on decision-makers, and thus are more evaluated, and usually better paid, than scholars of other “soft” disciplines. Usually women have limited access to the sphere where obtaining power and money is possible, and science is not an exception to these rules.

 

In conclusion, in defining an academic woman, Lithuanian academic woman particularly, it should be heeded that Western men involved in the “local” academic community for long terms acknowledge the professionalism of “local” women in achieving an academic career, usually in contraposition to Lithuanian and Russian men at least. They notice the differences between Westerners and Central and East European women in relation to marriage and family life as well.

Thus,

 “I see many women working at the University in Lithuania. Probably, because we are at the faculty of Philology. I think most of them are married. In Italy, for instance, a woman, usually, if she makes a career is not married. If an Italian woman is married, the problem of conciliating work at the University and marital life is hardly solvable. Probably, doing it here is easier, simpler, in Lithuania. However, some people I know, women also, have told me that becoming a professor at the University is not so easy. Before, there were more men than women at the faculty of Philology as well, while now there are more women than men. In any case, it was caused by some type of struggle, by proving that women can do it also. Here women are able to work hard, they are also fighters, very ardent, very persistent in Lithuania" (male, 42, philologist, Italy).

 

Certainly that attention to the special traits of Lithuanian academic women is caused rather by the opportunity of  “included observation” to compare two academic communities. In Central and East Europe a woman involved in professional activity - married working mother - is a part of public discourse; however, usually without the awareness and high evaluation of her traits as a professional.

 

Hence, according to the above mentioned interviews, it is possible to define the Lithuanian academic women, despite the usual representation of traditionalism in self-identification, as adequate competitors to men in the stern masculine world of Lithuanian science. It is possible to foresee that if science remains neglected by the state the number of women in the highest academic positions will increase while fewer men will be interested in an academic career.

 

 

Social history may be regarded as a permanent struggle between woman’s exclusion from the so-called public sphere by pushing her towards a private sphere on the one hand, and woman’s strife for inclusion in the public sphere on another hand. The main instrument of this struggle is access to education. In spite of society‘s democratization and recognition of equality between men and women, the development of gender ideology remained in the frame of Christian structure: a woman is a servant of a man. Women on the top of social hierarchy, regardless of positive changes towards women’s representation here, were and are an exception rather than a rule. Moreover, usually these women represent power relations that pertain to a masculine world by definition.

 

Despite the trend towards the so-called feminization of definite disciplines, science is after all a highly masculine activity also, with still visible divisions between masters and servants from a gender perspective.

 

Modern science usually develops through collective work efforts that need a significant number of well-trained ancillary personnel for routine work of collecting data that increases women’s participation in public research. Modern pedagogical activity in the higher education sector could be considered rather as a tedious, routine work with a huge mass of students that increase women’s participation in higher education as well. However, a minor number of women in the highest academic position is caused rather by the discriminative practices in advancing women in science in all the steps of their academic career than by the low level of professional ambitions of academic women.

Academic women could be considered as a discriminated professional minority though resolute enough. There are no significant differences in the status of academic women between the West and Central and East Europe. Moreover, a statistic approach allows concluding that women from Central and East Europe are often better represented on the national level than Western women. Some ethno-national peculiarities of academic women are distinguished on the level of self-representation that is caused by cultural contexts of women respondents.

 

In any case, the academic community behind inner gender, national and economic problems still belongs to an élite. Self-identification with the élite has to be rather among the salient characteristics of scientists; however, especially the academic women usually avoid representing it openly. Thus,

“I am working a lot because I am aware that I am a privileged person. In our time, it is not as being an aristocrat but you have to justify it  (male, 53, professor, sociologist, Switzerland).

In conclusion, one may say that most academic women remain slaves of gender that precludes them from leadership in academy as well.

 

 

 

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