The 'shadow pandemic' of domestic violence: The role of women and gender relations in Lithuania in light of Soviet occupation

Abstract

More than 30 years after regaining its independence from the Soviet Union, Lithuania's public discourse is underlined by a social watershed surrounding the concepts of family, gender, domestic violence, and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, which all together lead to some major contemporary challenges of women‟s rights and gender equality. In order to address these issues in a more comprehensive manner, this research offers a chronological analysis by looking at the Soviet and post-Soviet developments. It relies on an in-depth analysis of the selected primary sources such as the communist propaganda posters from the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, glorifying females as heroic mothers-workers, yet in reality constituting paradoxical gender models based on patriarchal attitudes and a “pseudo-emancipation” of women. By looking at the historical roots of the female representation and related social norms, this research reflects upon the current public discourse and progress in gender equality which fills the historiographical gaps of the social transformations in the post-Soviet space. In turn, it contributes towards an enhanced understanding of the “shadow pandemic” of domestic violence in contemporary Lithuania.