Ten years ago the Berlin wall fell, signaling the end of an era. In a relatively short time twenty-six, more or less, democratic national legislatures were established. One of the clearest consequences of free elections to national legislatures, in country after country, was a dramatic drop in women's representation. Women went from a situation of symbolic representation with little power to a position of no representation and no power. We take as a given that representation in democratic bodies is a crucial part of women having an effective voice in the political system.
Formal representation is therefore an important topic worthy of study.
Ten years after the dramatic disruptions of 1989 the landscape of Eastern Europe has begun to change. Change has come, however, at varying rates. Women in Eastern Germany have reached representation levels that are among the highest in the world, above most of Western Europe. In Lithuania a woman has served as prime minister and women have reached levels of representation near the average for Western Europe. On the other hand, several Eastern European countries have seen very little improvement in women s political representation in the past decade and women are represented at rates below the levels generally found in Western European countries.