The post-1989 transition from state socialism to capitalism and democracy has produced winners and losers.[1] There is no doubt that women in Eastern Europe find themselves mainly among the loser. Irrespective of variations in economic and political development, birth-rates dramatically dropped in all countries of the former ‘Eastern Bloc’, while at the same time female unemployment increased significantly.[2] Statistics disclose the reasons behind this development. They reveal a sharp decline in the number of places available in day nurseries for children, and an escalation of gender-specific segregation in the labour market. Both developments have contributed to a ‘feminisation of poverty’ which many Eastern European authorities accept as an inevitable consequence of modernisation.