The Czech Republic’s Public Affairs party has published a racy calendar of its female MPs.

One of the Czech Republic’s political parties has published a glamorous calendar of six women in its party to create awareness of the strong presence of women in the country’s government.

The 2011 calendar from the Public Affairs party features four women MPs and two others in the party – one the party’s candidate for the mayor of Prague –  photographed twice in provocative  poses, which will be sold for charity.

The calendar, which was first released during the election campaign, is described by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as “A sign of the times here [in the Czech Republic]. A new generation of Czech women is coming of age that is embracing femininity and sex appeal while at the same time fighting for, and winning, more equal treatment in the realms of business and government.”

May’s elections saw a huge percentage of women elected to parliament – the 200-person lower house now has 44 female members. In a significant political shift, young parties such as Public Affairs, in which women have a stronger presence, entered parliament for the first time.

“We want to draw attention to the fact that we have women in politics,” said MP Lenka Andrysova (26), who appears in one shot in a thigh-high dress kneeling on a shelf, is completing a doctorate in political science and currently represents a district in rural Moravia.

Katerina Klasnova, the 32-year-old Deputy Speaker for the lower house of the Czech parliament, is photographed lying on a bed wearing a loose-fitting robe.

Public Affairs and TOP09, another newcomer to the Czech parliament, are both part of the coalition forming the country’s new government alongside the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

“Women’s political influence is growing. Why not show we are women who aren’t afraid of being sexy?” said Marketa Reedova, Public Affair’s 42-year-old candidate for the Prague mayor’s office.

Public Affairs has previously used glamour to highlight its strong female presence. During the election campaign four of the women who appear in the calendar posed for a billboard poster wearing black swimsuits.

According to the WSJ, Andrysova and others think that Czech women’s strand of feminism was shaped in a large part by the country’s experience of Communist rule – women were ordered to work, and to work in the same jobs as men – a big step in establishing equality.

Many are likely to claim that a project like this objectifies women and represents a step backwards for feminism. However that same argument suggests the acceptance of a system that does not recognise femininity and “feminine” traits on the same level as those classic “masculine” business attributes so entrenched in the male-oriented business and political structures of society.

Women can be intelligent and sexy all at the same time – shock horror – and they certainly don’t need to act like or behave like men to be good at what they do. They can be celebrated for many things – being glamorous included.

On a simple level, this calendar demonstrates that working in politics doesn’t require women to stop being women – and all that this entails. In real terms it has done an excellent job of making the news, promoting the fact that the Czech Republic is leading the way in political representation for women and inspiring other women to engage with and view politics as a viable career.

What do you think readers?