Abstract
In terms of international Romani literature I consider there to be a strikingly high proportion of women among the Romani writers in the former Czechoslovakia, and definitely this does not mean only younger and educated Romani women. For example the group of 13 authors of solo publications in Romani in the Czech Republic till nowadays consists of eight men and five women and none of them was born later than in the 1950'. There is also a large number of women among the Romani authors who publish in majority languages. In anthologies, too, there is a relatively large proportion of women authors, and this is also the case with literature in Romani periodicals, including in earlier periods.
I want to present two hypotheses for this:
One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the character of the social organisation of the speakers of central Romani dialects. These communities have for hundreds of years been living settled lives in villages or close to them, in more intensive contact with the majority than, for example, the central European Lovari. Via the majority, more modernity has penetrated the culture of these Roma, and has weakened the patriarchy.
The second possible reason is that the communist regime, in its attempts at assimilation, also supported social mobility, often to a greater degree than was the case in the West.
I supported these theses by arguments and examples in my paper.