PATRIARCHAL STRUGGLES AND STATE PRACTICES - A FEMINIST, POLITICAL-ECONOMIC VIEW

Feminist scholars challenge ahistorical conceptions of the patriarchal stare and emphasize the importance of power struggles across class, r ace, and gender lines in transforming state gender policies. They also unintentionally downplay the ideological power struggles among race- and class-homogeneous patriarchal institutions, especially in relative ly monolithic political contexts with little or no independent feminis t movement. Our historical (1945-89) case study of the transformations of Polish abortion laws and selected economic policies geared toward women explores how these changing policies were used in, and shaped by , the ideological power struggles between two homogeneous, powerful, m ale-dominated institutions: the Communist Party and the Catholic Churc h. We argue that one cannot understand patriarchal state practices wit hout considering the ideological power struggles between patriarchal i nstitutions in homogeneous social contexts as well as in those of a mo re heterogeneous nature.