Women in Communist Society

Communist Russia, established by the Bolsheviks through the Russian Revolution of 1917, was the most radical government in Europe at the time. One part of these radical visions the Communists had troubled women. Womens were responsible of taking care of their families and kids.Lenin had a genuinely valued the support of the women and the equality with men. He want to improve the living conditions and positions of women in Communist society. These change by the time of Stalin and WWII, the state were degenerated and abused, and women were frequently encouraged to embody new kids of values and hold different beliefs. Lenin’s policies that had favored the liberation of women and institutions to support women were often cut back by Stalin’s bureacracy.

In the November Revolution of 1917 the proclaimed women’s complete economic, sexual and political equality to men for the first time. Lenin especially was a big supporter of women’s rights, and they want the total emancipation of women. The Bolsheviks, contrary to the rather conservative Mensheviks who often refrained from taking serious action, were impatient to work to make women liberation a higher priority than it had been. In Communist society, wome were “sopposedly” equal to men.

Womens were granted the same work rights, and they would be paid the same as mens were. Lenin saw that womens should also need to participate in politics. Men and women were given equal standing in marriage, and women could get divorced easily. Abortion also became legal in 1920. Woman was considered a independent person so they can’t be bound by their husbands.

They were allowed to hold land and become the head of a household; they also have the right to own a property.

The Bolshevik government, under Lenin launched programs and establishes facilities to promote women to participate in all aspects of life. Bolsheviks started to provide certain material to support women. One policy separate from domestic life was the policy on women’s education, women began to educate themselves. 

This equality had limitations, men did not easily accepted the idea of the participation of women in the politics. They pretended to agree with the idea that women are equal to men, and they do this to gain the support from the leaders who advocated for women rights. These limitations led to women not being treated as equal as they should. Women were often paid less than men, women were still discriminated against in the workplace.

But their participation in the politics help them to give their oppinions about women rights and also they know everything about what was going on in the state.

Lenin was right with women liberation and the equality with men. In the other hand we have Stalin that disagrees with Lenin ideologies. They pretended to accept women but they didn’t treat them well, for example there was law established that women had to be paid the same as men but this was not practiced, also some men didn’t accepted  the idea of woman in the politics or they were discriminated in the workplace. Little by little communism was accepting women in society.

  Written by: Andrea Alva