Domestic Violence as a Threat to Socialist Society: Lila Hojčová's Feminist Intervention in Czechoslovakia

This article explores the intellectual and political legacy of Lila Hojčová (1912–1989), a Slovak lawyer, sociologist, communist, and advocate for women's rights embedded within state-socialist institutions in Czechoslovakia. By addressing issues that challenged the socialist pledge of gender equality in her work, including alcoholism, domestic violence, and family breakdown within Slovak society, Hojčová's legal and sociological expertise functioned as feminist agency within ideological and bureaucratic structures. Drawing on Hojčová's work, this article argues that feminist activism operated as a relational force within the restrictions imposed by the complex, contradictory practices of governance, expertise, and welfare under socialism.