The_Dunedan

That's it exactly, unfortunately. At least in the case of Czech, Slovak, and Polish women it seems to be largely composed of a kind of brassy self-confidence...I've known American ladies who mimicked the poise and dress of European-born women, but none yet who have learned that particular flavour of out-in-your-face self-assurance. Any woman can look like a Queen once she learns to act like one, and the current generation of young Central European women have grown up with memories of the end of Communism and the beginning of an era in which the world was their oyster and they knew it. They've witnessed, and been part of, one of the most astonishing social transformations in recent history, and I think the knowledge of this is a large motivator of this kind of confidence. Friends who've worked and studied in Russia report a much, much more concentrated and developed form of the same attitude, which makes even more sense.

Nothing against our American ladies, of course; the personally independent streak in American women is not something I encountered often overseas, and something I find very attractive. Most of the Czech and Slovak women I knew put a huge emphasis on having a family and raising children, usually starting fairly young by American standards (mid-20s or so), and sometimes go to rather extraordinary lengths to make sure such things work out. American ladies seem much more inclined to go it alone if needs be, and in some ways more emotionally secure in the absence of a husband and family of their own.