Post/socialist chemical research: a gendered politics of visual representation

Blanka Nyklová and Nina Fárová

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2021, vol. 29, issue 2-3, 133-155

Abstract: This article explores changes to the strongly gendered politics of representation in applied chemical research using visual material from company magazines of Czech-based chemical plants (1969–2000). This representation overlaps with identified developments in the gender order and how these relate to the disputed Cold War discourse. The focus on visual representations gives us a novel perspective on the intersection of technology, gender and geopolitics and what it can tell us about the ways in which competing versions of modernity have been shaped. We find that in the 1969-1989 period, applied chemical research is primarily portrayed as interaction between women and chemical equipment, making the face of applied chemical research distinctly feminine. This is in line with the definition of socialist modernity through a stress on women’s emancipation and equality as part of the liberation of society as such. However, a detailed visual discourse analysis reveals that this visual representation is less about applied chemical research and more about femininity defined around a singular understanding of motherhood. The gradual dehumanization of chemical research in the visual material resonates with the onset of political and economic change around 1989 marked by a radical change in the overall visual culture.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/25739638.2021.2007597 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cdebxx:v:29:y:2021:i:2-3:p:133-155

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cdeb20

DOI: 10.1080/25739638.2021.2007597

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe is currently edited by Andrew Kilmister

More articles in Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().