Slovaks

LOCATION: Slovakia, United States, Czech Republic, Serbia, Canada, United Kingdom, Hungary
POPULATION: 6 million (4.7 million in Slovakia)
LANGUAGE: Slovak
RELIGION: Roman Catholicism (69%); Protestantism (11%); Other (20%)
RELATED ARTICLES: Czechs, Hungarians

INTRODUCTION

Slavic peoples first settled on the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th century ad. The original territory inhabited by proto-Slovaks also included parts of present-day southeastern Moravia and approximately the entire northern half of present-day Hungary. A Slavic state was formed there under Samo, a Frankish merchant, in the 7th century. At this point, Slovaks were still indistinguishable from other Slavs. In the 8th century, the group of Slavs that would later become the Slovaks inhabited the Principality of Nitra, which eventually became a part of the Moravian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries. It was during this period that the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius traveled to this region to convert pagan proto-Slovaks to Christianity. To aid in conversions, Cyril and Methodius developed Glagolithic, a precursor to Cyrillic, and provided Slavs with their first written alphabet. Great Moravia reached its peak during the reign of King Svatopluk between 870 and 894. In 907, Great Moravia was defeated by the Magyars, or Hungarians, in the Battle of Bratislava. Slovakia would continue to be under Magyar rule of some form until the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1526, Hungarians came under the rule of the Habsburg Empire. In 1867, Hungarians and Austrians struck a compromise and transformed the empire into a dual monarchy, but this changed very little for Slovaks. In the wake of the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, Czechs and Slovaks united in 1919 to create the independent state of Czechoslovakia. Throughout the union of the two ethnic groups, the more numerous and powerful Czechs exercised greater political power than the Slovaks, and tensions between the two groups finally resulted in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia by 1939, when Slovakia declared its independence and allied itself with Hitler's Germany. The Slovak puppet government operated under German control during World War II. However, in 1944 Slovaks from the central and eastern parts of the country rebelled against the Nazis, but their revolt was quickly put down and an estimated 30,000 Slovaks were killed.

After the war, Czechoslovakia was reunited, and the Communists seized control of the country in 1948. Under Communist rule, as in the post–World War I era, the Slovaks were once again subordinate to the Czechs. In the 1960s, President Alexander Dub?ek, a Slovak, attempted to combine Communist ideology with democracy, an effort that culminated in the "Prague Spring" of 1968, which was crushed by military intervention from the Soviet Union, which occupied the entire country and abolished the democratic reforms of the preceding years. Twenty-one years later, through the peaceful "Velvet Revolution" led by dissident playwright Vaclav Havel and the Civic Forum party, the old order collapsed and Communism was overthrown. After the first democratic elections and the departure of the Soviet troops, old ethnic enmities resurfaced, with the Slovaks demanding separation from the Czechs. Prime Minister Havel and Slovak leader Vladimir Meciar agreed to dissolve the union of the two peoples, and on 1 January 1993, in an event known as the "Velvet Divorce," the Slovaks declared their independence, establishing their own parliament in Bratislava. In 1991, Slovakia joined the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia in the Visegrad Group, an alliance for the integration of these countries into greater Europe. In 1992, Slovakia joined the United Nations. Since 2004, Slovakia has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU).

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

Slovakia is a small, landlocked country located in Central Europe. It is about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Slovakia's neighbors are Poland (to the north); the Czech Republic (to the northwest); Austria (to the southwest); and Hungary (to the south). It also shares a short eastern border with Ukraine. Much of Slovakia consists of unspoiled mountains and forests. The High Tatras, a part of the Carpathian Mountains, are the second-highest mountain ranges in Europe after the Alps. The Krivá? mountain peak, a Slovak national symbol, is located in the High Tatras. The land of the Slovaks slopes down from this high mountain range into lakes and fertile river valleys, which are traversed by several tributaries that drain into the Danube River. The Danube forms part of the southern boundary of the country. Other rivers that flow through Slovak territory include the Váh and the Hron. Slovakia has fertile farmland. Its winters are cold, cloudy, and snowy, and its summers warm.

In total, there are over six million Slovaks in the world. The population of Slovakia is approximately five and a half million, of which ethnic Slovaks comprise roughly 86%. The rest of the population of Slovakia is made up of Hungarians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns, and Romany, or Gypsies. Just under half of Slovakia's population lives in rural areas, although significant migration from rural to urban areas is steady. The two largest cities in Slovakia are Bratislava, its capital, and Košice, in the east.

It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million Slovaks live outside of the Slovak homeland. Exact numbers cannot be determined since census takers use varying criteria to identify Slovaks abroad. Some counts reflect numbers of individuals who either still possess Slovakian citizenship or have emigrated from Slovakia, while other counts include individuals of Slovak ethnic descent. The largest numbers of Slovaks outside of Slovakia can be found in the United States, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Hungary. Hundreds of thousands of Slovaks emigrated to North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making the number of Slovaks and those of Slovak descent range today between 800,000 and 1.2 million in the United States and 50,000 and 100,000 in Canada. An estimated 200,000 to 375,000 Slovaks live within the borders of the Czech Republic. Because of centuries of Magyar rule, a sizeable Slovak population could be found in Hungary until the beginning of the 20th century. Since the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the number of Slovaks living in Hungary has steadily declined. Currently, roughly 20,000 Slovaks can be found in Hungary.

Historically, a considerable number of Slovaks could be found in the Balkans, primarily in Serbia and Bulgaria. After World War II, thousands of Slovaks left Bulgaria for Czechoslovakia in a state-run initiative to repopulate the Czech and Slovak lands. As such, a very small number of Slovaks remain in Bulgaria today. Roughly 60,000 ethnic Slovaks remain in northern Serbia today, primarily in the autonomous province of Vojvodina. Slovaks are the third largest of over 26 ethnic groups in Vojvodina. Slovak is one of the province's six offi-cial languages. Most Slovaks in Vojvodina are the descendants of the late 18th and early 19th century Slovaks who settled in the region when it was still under Hungarian rule, after the retreat of the Ottoman Empire from the area. Since religion was a primary stimulant for many of the original Slovaks who immigrated to Vojvodina, one of the distinguishing factors of the Slovaks of Vojvodina today is that the majority of them are Protestant rather than Roman Catholic.

LANGUAGE

Slovak is a member of the Western Slavic language group. Of all other languages, Slovak is most similar to Czech. Although the two languages are clearly distinct from one another, they are mutually intelligible. Like other Western Slavic languages, Slovak received a number of formative characteristics from the Glagolithic alphabet and other standardizing initiatives developed by Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius during their efforts to Christianize the Slavs. The present Slovak alphabet has 43 letters and is written using Roman characters.

This reflects the early change in religious orientation from the Greek Orthodox East to the Latin Catholic West and remains a distinguishing factor between the Western Slavic language group and the Eastern Slavic language group, which uses Cyrillic characters. There are three major Slovak dialects: Eastern, Central, and Western. The Western dialects of Slovak shade onto the Moravian dialects of the Czech language. Slovak words have an accented first syllable, and words with more than three syllables have a secondary accent as well. Like those of other East European languages, Slovak words feature many clusters of consonants. Some Slovak words, such as smrt' (death), srdce (heart), slnko (sun), and yrt (to drill, or bore), have practically no vowels at all.

Efforts to standardize the Slovak language began as early as the 17th century, primarily in the form of literature. The two main individuals credited with contributing the most to the standardization of the Slovak language were Anton Bernolák in the 18th century and L'udovít Štúr in the 19th century. While Bernolák worked with the western Slovakian dialect, Štúr's use of the central dialect has become the basis of standardized Slovak today. The Slovak political experience, however, has proven to curtail the development and standardization of Slovak during the last three centuries. Under the Hungarian Empire, the Hungarian language was privileged over Slovak and Slovaks experienced heavy Magyarization efforts in education and other public spheres. During the existence of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak language was considered an official language of the country, but Czech was privileged over Slovak in politics, professions, education, and other public spheres. As a result, the Slovak language was heavily influenced by Czech and took on many Czech borrowings.

The Slovak Language is the official language of Slovakia, but both Czech and Hungarian are also widely spoken. Th ose who speak Hungarian primarily populate the southern region of Slovakia. Because of the rapid pace of globalization, borrowing from both Czech and other languages still occurs.

FOLKLORE

Slovaks possess a very rich oral history that deals, like most peoples' folklore, with all aspects of life and nature. Because of Slovakia's predominantly agrarian history, however, themes of love, marriage, health, and agricultural bounty are particularly common.

Almost every ruined castle in the Slovak Republic has its legend. Sometimes these legends are extremely violent, like the story of Csejte, a ruthless countess who murders three young girls and bathes in their blood in an effort to renew her youthfulness. There are also many stories about Janosik, a well-known folk hero whose adventures date back to the Turkish invasions of the 16th and 17th centuries. These kinds of folk tales provided a great deal of inspiration for later Slovak literature. In the mid 19th century, Pavol Dobšinský worked to collect and publish anthologies of Slovak folk fairy tales like these. Such activities were closely related with the Slovak National Awakening.

Belief in witches, ghosts, and other supernatural beings persists as a remnant of pre-Christian paganism. One such figure is Morena, a goddess of death who is the object of a springtime custom by which young girls ritually "drown" a straw doll in waters that flow from the first thaw. In rural areas, some Slovaks still believe that illness and misfortune can be caused by witches, demons, or the "evil eye" and seek the services of traditional healers who use folk remedies and rituals to protect or exorcise villages and homes.

Slovak folklore also includes a number of means by which individuals can determine and try to control their futures, most occurring around Christmas and the New Year. On November 30, lead is poured into boiling water, and the shape it takes is used to make predictions about the coming year. Young women have many ways of trying to discover who their husbands might be, such as peering upside-down at the water's surface in a well. On Christmas Eve, nuts are cracked and their contents are examined to determine what the coming year will bring. Additionally, food from the Christmas Eve feast is given to livestock in hopes that they be granted good health.

RELIGION

Most Slovaks (about 70% of the population) belong to the Roman Catholic Church and are closely affiliated with their church communities. Slovak Catholicism is generally more traditional than the more liberal Czech version. The next largest group, 13% of the population, consists of those who claim either atheism or no religious affiliation. This is quite small compared to the 59% of neighboring Czechs in this category. Roughly 11% of the population identifies itself as Protestant and roughly 4% as Greek Catholic, a Christian religion that acknowledges the Catholic Pope but whose liturgical traditions follow those of Eastern Orthodoxy. Others include Calvinist Reformed, Eastern Orthodox, and Baptist. Slovakia's once populous Jewish community was destroyed in the Nazi Holocaust.

Churches and religion presented a strong obstacle to the Communists after World War II. The government banned religious activity and closed all private religious schools. In 1989, with the fall of Communism, churches were restored and religious schools reopened. Although most Slovaks have returned to the traditional Slovak religion of Roman Catholicism, the Protestant Evangelical movement in Slovakia, as in other former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, continues to grow in order to fill the religious vacuum created by the Communist ban on organized religion.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

National holidays in Slovakia include New Year's Day (January 1), Liberation Day (May 8), Cyril and Methodius Day (July 5), Slovak National Uprising Day (August 29), Constitution Day (September 1), Independence Day (October 28), and Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy (November 17), which simultaneously commemorates Slovak demonstrations against the Nazis in 1939 as well as the demonstrations in 1989 that are said to have triggered the Velvet Revolution.

In late October, Slovakia hosts the Bratislava music festival, which attracts national and international performers. Many towns and villages host annual folk festivals in the late summer or fall, with plentiful singing, dancing, and drinking.

Most Slovaks also observe the major feast days and holidays of Roman Catholicism, such as Easter and Christmas. The Slovak celebration of Easter extends to the Monday after Easter Sunday as well. September 15, the Day of Our Lady of Sorrows, is an important holiday for Slovaks since the Virgin Mary is considered to be the patron saint of Slovakia. The largest of Slovak celebrations culminates around Christmas, over a period of three days. On Christmas Eve, Slovaks attend church services. Christmas trees are decorated, gifts are exchanged, and there is a traditional Christmas Eve dinner called vilija , consisting of mushroom soup, fish, peas, prunes, and pastries. December 26 is the Feast of Saint Stephen and is called "Second Christmas Day" by Slovaks. Slovaks usually celebrate birthdays with their families, and name days, days dedicated to the saint for which one is named, with friends and co-workers.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Most Slovaks observe major life events, such as birth, marriage, and death, according to the religious traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Shaking hands is a standard form of greeting; men generally wait for women to extend their hands first. Upon parting, a man may hug a woman or kiss her on both cheeks. Standard salutations include Dobrý den (good day), Velmi ma tesi (pleased to meet you), and the more informal Ahoj (the equivalent of "hi"). Dovidenia means "good-bye," and the more casual terms Ciao and Servus mean either "hello" or "good-bye." In rural areas, some older residents still greet each other with S Bohom ("God be with you").

When not among family or close friends, Slovak forms of address are very formal and courteous, including both Pán (Mr.) or Pani (Mrs.) and any professional title, such as doctor, professor, or engineer. As in many other languages, modes of expressing respect and courtesy are built into Slovak grammar. Slovak has a second, more formal case for the second person. For example, in addressing a close or familiar acquaintance, Slovaks use the word ty for "you." When addressing someone unfamiliar, or to convey a more formal, respectful relationship, Slovaks use the word vy for "you."

Slovaks enjoy entertaining at home. It is customary for guests to bring to their hosts a bottle of wine or some sort of alcohol. Upon entering a Slovak home, guests generally remove their shoes; their hosts often provide them with slippers. Fresh flowers are often given, and when they are presented, they are always unwrapped and in odd numbers, since it is the custom to bring even numbers of flowers to funerals. The gesture for wishing someone good luck (the equivalent of crossing one's fingers in the United States) is to fold the thumb inward and close the other fingers around it.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Roughly 21% of Slovakia's population lives below the poverty line. Life expectancy for Slovaks averages 75 years of age, and the rate of infant mortality is 7 deaths for every 1,000 live births. The adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is less than 0.1%, and it is estimated that fewer than 200 people in Slovakia are HIV positive. There is virtually universal access to medical care and a high rate of immunization for infants in the first year of life. Slovakia's health spas are known around the world and have many international visitors.

Most city dwellers live in modest-sized apartments built during the Communist era. Varied types of housing are found in rural Slovakia, ranging from two-room detached dwellings to two-story apartment buildings with up to six units. Indoor plumbing has been standard in rural areas for the past 40 years. Common building materials are cinder blocks and fired bricks. In the wake of the fall of Communism, Slovakia experienced a serious housing shortage as housing units were recovered from state control. The privatization of state housing units resulted not only in the slowing of new construction, but also in the increase in the amount of owner-occupied housing. Both of these trends have affected the rental market, causing the creation of a rental black market and making housing unaffordable for many. Additionally, the shift of maintenance responsibility from public to private has caused repair and upkeep of lower income rental properties to be neglected. The Slovakian government is addressing these problems by building new rental properties. Now, approximately two million housing units exist in Slovakia, but it is estimated that over 150,000 units are still needed.

Most Slovak families own a car, but public transportation, including buses, trolleys, and trains, is widely used due to the high price of gasoline. There are rail links and highways between major cities. Because of the growth in cellular services and access to the internet, communication technology in Slovakia has expanded dramatically in recent years and is widely accessible.

FAMILY LIFE

The most common family unit in Slovakia is the nuclear family, although extended families can still be found in rural areas, where houses may have extra rooms to accommodate the family of a grown son or daughter. The average Slovak family has one to two children. Women receive paid maternity leave and a cash allowance when each child is born. Most women work outside the home (women account for 47% of the Slovak labor force.) Women and men have equal rights under the law, including property and inheritance rights.

CLOTHING

Slovaks wear modern Western-style clothing, including business attire for work, and jeans and T-shirts for casual wear. On special occasions, or during festivals or holidays, some Slovaks still wear traditional dress. For women, this includes puffed-sleeve blouses, vests, full skirts, aprons, boots, and a bonnet or headscarf depending on marital status. For men, this includes hats, shirts, vests, boots, and either form-fitting or flared pants. Such costumes are usually very colorfully embroidered. Traditionally, they were made of homespun cloth and sheepskin, but this is rarer today. Styles, colors, and accessories historically varied depending on region.

FOOD

Pork is the most common meat consumed in Slovakia, although beef, poultry, fish, and game, such as boar, rabbit, and venison, are also regularly eaten. Slovaks also make various types of spiced sausages, primarily from pork. The Slovak national dish is bryndzové halušky, dumplings made with potatoes, flour, water, eggs, and salt and served with processed sheep's cheese, and occasionally, bits of pork. In some regions, halušky is also served with cabbage and onions. Other Slovak favorites include Kapustnics, or cabbage soup, and rezen, or breaded steak. Fresh fish and wild game are often served in Slovak homes, and fresh-baked bread and soup are dinnertime staples. Favorite desserts include tortes, frosted, multilayered cakes, and kolác, or rolls with a nut or poppy seed filling.

Pilsner beer and dry, white wine are both produced and regularly consumed in Slovakia. The vineyards of Slovakia are primarily located in the southern part of the country, in the Male Karpaty region near Hungary. As in the Czech Republic, slivovice (plum brandy) is also very popular.

The traditional main meal of the day in Slovakia is lunch, but more Slovaks are increasingly making dinner their main meal.

EDUCATION

Slovakia has a literacy rate of over 99%. Schooling is compulsory for 10 years, from ages 6 through 16. As in the United States, students go to school for five days a week, Monday through Friday. There are many secondary schools in Slovakia that prepare children for a higher education, as well as a variety of vocational schools. Most schools are still owned by the state, although since the fall of Communism there has been an increase in church-run schools and other types of private schools. There are over 30 schools of higher education in Slovakia, several of which opened after the fall of Communism. The oldest Slovak university is Comenius University in Bratislava, founded in 1919. Despite pending plans to implement tuition fees, there is still no charge to attend a university. Admission, however, is limited and highly competitive. The grading system in Slovakia uses a scale ranging from one to five, with one being the highest grade and five being the lowest.

Since the fall of Communism, public schools and universities have struggled to overcome a lack of adequate funding. Instructors are underpaid and a great deal of the teaching material is outdated. As a result, corruption has become widespread as educational administrators and instructors are more prone to turning to illegal bribes in exchange for giving students entrance to schools, better grades, and more. Additionally, the quality of teachers has diminished since schools cannot compensate better qualified professionals and experts.

Regardless, Slovakia's secondary education is ranked as thirtieth in the world, just behind the United States, which is ranked twenty-ninth.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Folk music is one of the most important elements of Slovakian culture. Slovakian national music was greatly strengthened and popularized in the early 19th century, although the origins of traditional Slovakian music are located in early Christian liturgical music. The Slovaks' pride in their musical tradition is expressed in the saying Kde Slovák, tam spev ("Wherever there is a Slovak, there is a song"). Villages have amateur musical groups that perform at school graduations and harvest festivals. Characteristic Slovak folk instruments include the bagpipes (gajdy), pipes (píst'ala), the fujara, a large shepherd's flute held vertically in front of the body, and native instruments similar to the fiddle and dulcimer. One popular series of folk songs, Janosik songs, are based on the exploits of a well-known folk hero. A common theme in many Slovak folk songs is Slovak subjugation to other national groups, such as Hungarians and Turks. Immigrants from Romania, Germany, and Hungary have also brought varying music styles to Slovakia. More recently, contemporary composers have begun to incorporate Slovak folk melodies into their works. Slovaks also have a strong folk- dance tradition, with dances such as the Kolo, Hajduch, Verbunk, Czardas, polka, waltz, a shepherd's dance called the Odzemok, and the Chorodový, a communal women's dance. Although popular music began to replace folk music after World War II, folk music remains an important element of Slovak culture and is celebrated, along with other folk arts, at a major folk festival every year in July.

Slovak literature began to experience great vibrancy in the early 19th century, when talented poets, such as Andrej Sladkovic and Jano Kral, produced some of the most original Slavic Romanticism. Such writing was heavily inspired by Slovak folk tales. Slovak literature came of age after World War II, but during the four decades of Communist rule after World War II, Slovak writing underwent a general decline.

WORK

Slovakia has more or less completed its transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. Like other Eastern European countries, Slovakia became highly industrialized during the Communist era, creating manufacturing jobs in steel, chemicals, glass, cement, and textiles. Since the end of the Communist era, the Slovakian economy has undergone a major shift in composition. In 1991, for example, 43% of the labor force was employed in heavy industry. In 2003, however, 56% of the labor force was employed in the service industry, with 29% in heavy industry, 9% in construction, and 6% in agriculture. Workers in Slovakia have benefited from the country's sustained, strong economic growth, which has occurred even during a more general European slowdown. In the midst of privatization, the rate of unemployment went as high as 19.2% (in 2001). By the beginning of 2008, it had dropped to 8%. Despite its generally successful transition to a market economy, however, Slovakia is still in need of greater investment in research and development in order to cultivate a modern knowledge-based economy and remain competitive with the rest of Europe and the world.

SPORTS

Popular sports among Slovaks include soccer, tennis, and skiing, although Slovakia is known best around the world for ice hockey. Ice Hockey became popular in Slovakia in 1925 when the European Ice Hockey Championship was held in the High Tatras in 1925. This established the beginning of the Tatra Cup, which is now the second oldest tournament in Europe. In 2002, Slovakia won the world hockey championship.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

In their leisure time, Slovaks enjoy attending movies, local festivals, and cultural events and participating in outdoor activities including hiking, swimming, and camping. Slovakia also has over 1,000 mineral and hot springs. In rural villages, men meet after work at the local bar to drink, play cards, and socialize.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Folk arts and crafts, which include pottery, porcelain sculpting, woodcarving, metalworking, toy making, and glass painting, have a long and popular tradition in Slovakia, especially in rural areas. Many women knit, sew, embroider, and make lace. Popular patterns are handed down from generation to generation. Slovakia also possesses very rich folk architecture in the forms of wooden churches, brightly painted houses, and more.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Despite the large improvements in the economy over the last several years, Slovakia still has the highest unemployment rate of any country in the European Union. Many Slovaks have moved abroad in search of employment, and Slovakia's accession to the European Union has aided in such movement. This trend of emigration contributes to Slovakia's extremely low population growth rate of 0.14%. The fertility rate in Slovakia, 1.33 children per woman, is one of the lowest in the European Union. In the coming years, this may not only negatively impact Slovakia's economy, but as work force and age distributions of the population change, Slovakia's social security system, infrastructure, educational system, and other systems may become unsustainable. These trends comprise the greatest long-term social threat to Slovaks.

Two of the larger immediate social problems facing Slovaks are drugs and prostitution. Both drugs and humans are trafficked through Slovakia. Synthetic drugs are produced in Slovakia and distributed throughout Eastern and Central Europe. The drug ecstasy is also used in Slovakia.

GENDER ISSUES

Women and men in Slovakia are roughly equal when it comes to literacy, education levels, employment, and civic and political rights. Some of the main social and economic problems of the post-Communist transition, however, have had a disproportionately negative impact on the female gender. Generally, the Communist period is thought by experts to have had a negative impact on the feminist movement. Under Communism, women and men in Czechoslovakia were officially declared equal by law, but this did not translate into practice beyond the most visible public spheres. The Communist government's version of equal rights was simply ensuring that women were employed at a comparable rate to men. They did little to address the other domestic and societal conditions, expectations, and stereotypes of women. Often, gaining employment outside the home actually worsened conditions for women, who were still largely expected to perform all of their domestic tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing, in addition to their work outside the home. Many experts argue that the Communist rhetoric of equality among men and women produced a false comfort among Slovaks, as among other peoples under Communism, that the gender imbalance had been solved. This sense diffused and undermined the feminist movement by making women's rights a non-issue in society.

The feminist movement in Slovakia does not have much strength and it is not a part of mainstream Slovak culture. Inequality, at least in societal expectations of women, still exists when it comes to reproductive issues, family life, work, political affairs, and public life. Slovak women themselves, however, do not consider their situation to be inappropriate or in need of being changed. Studies show that only 30% of women in Slovakia have positive or neutral views on the idea of feminism, while 24% have a negative view and 46% are not even familiar with the concept. Even more Slovak men are ignorant or possess a negative view of feminism. In both men and women, social demographics seem to affect awareness levels of feminist issues, but not attitudes. The more highly educated men in Slovakia are actually more negative toward the feminist movement, which poses problems for educated Slovak women attempting to pursue women's rights.

The post-Communist period has also taken its toll on certain groups of women in a very concrete way. High unemployment, the rising cost of living, and increased contact with larger markets since the fall of Communism have caused an increase in prostitution activities of Slovak women, both in Slovakia and abroad. Within Slovakia, authorities have done little to regulate prostitution, which has been detrimental to both women practicing prostitution and inhabitants of areas where prostitution activities occur. Before the fall of Communism, prostitution was prohibited in the streets, making many of these problems new to Slovak society. The lack of regulation or restriction leaves women who practice prostitution with no rights or protection and has led to the increase in other problems connected to prostitution, such as violence and drug abuse. These problems penetrate broader portions of Slovak society because they occur in residential areas. Since no official laws exist to regulate prostitution, police are often not able to respond until other crimes surrounding the activity, such as pimping, drug distribution, and theft, are committed. Often, it is the female prostitutes who are punished by law enforcement rather than the male perpetrators. Official regulations have still yet to be put into place, leaving only non-governmental organizations to address the issue. Such organizations focus on health education, social and legal issues, the provision of contraceptives, and widespread preventative activities in an effort to alleviate the problem. Such organizations are few and lack sufficient state support for their activities. Additionally, due to the nature of prostitution, many of the women who need to access these services cannot since they are outside of the mainstream social system. Prostitution is highly stigmatized in Slovak society, making it even harder for these women to break away from their situations.

Prostitution is equally, if not more dangerous for Slovak women outside of Slovakia's borders. Since the fall of Communism, the illegal trafficking and prostitution of women from former Eastern Bloc countries in Western Europe has grown immensely. The European Commission estimates that over 2,000 Slovaks per year are trafficked as prostitutes to France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Germany. Young Slovak women are most often told by traffickers that they will be employed in high-paying jobs as waitresses and au pairs in their new country of residence. Upon arrival, their personal identification and travel documents are stolen and they are forced to work as prostitutes on streets or in brothels against their will. Such women are not only limited by not knowing the local language, but are also beaten and threatened. These women become susceptible not only to heavy drug use, but to murder as well. Contrary to the call for regulation of prostitution at home, some experts believe that legalization and toleration of prostitution in Western Europe has only aided human traffickers in seeming more legitimate. Police and various non-governmental organizations are working to create a system for locating and retrieving victims, but due to widespread Slovak social attitudes toward prostitution, many of the victims who do make it back to Slovakia are ostracized from their communities.

Legitimate agencies that seek to employ young Slovak women abroad as au pairs do exist, but when Slovak women arrive in foreign countries, they are often treated not as au pairs on a cultural exchange but as live-in migrant domestic workers, making them vulnerable to exploitation. Both forms of exploitation are made possible by the unemployment rate in Slovakia and by the economic disparity between Slovakia and its richer western neighbors.

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-by Sarah Dixon Klump