Communist Movements and Women's Rights in the 20th Century

Doc.1 In 1905, at the time the so-called first revolution in Russia broke out, after the famous Bloody Sunday, I had already acquired a reputation in the field of economic and social literature. And in those stirring times, when all energies were utilized in the storm of revolt, it turned out that I had become popular as an orator. Yet in that period I realized for the first time how little our Party concerned itself with the fate of the women of the working class and how meager was its interest in women’s liberation. To be sure a very strong bourgeois women’s movement was already in existence in Russia. But my Marxist outlook pointed out to me with overwhelming clarity that women’s liberation could take place only as the result of a new social order and a different economic system....I had above all set myself the task of winning over women workers in Russia to socialism and, at the same time, of working for the liberation of women, for her equality of rights.

Doc.2 It is incompatible for a member of the party to be in the party and Komsomol* if his wife, sister, or mother is veiled [as was customary for Central Asian Muslim women]. It is necessary to demand of every Communist the fulfillment of this directive. And to that Communist who resists, who does not want to carry out this party directive, who wants to preserve the remnants of feudal relations and seclusion, to that Communist and Komsomol member we say: there is no place for you in the party and Komsomol.

Doc.3 Article 24: Women in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of political, economic, cultural, social, and domestic life. For equal work, women enjoy equal pay with men. The state ensures that women workers and office employees have fully paid periods of leave before and after childbirth. The state protects the mother and child and ensures the development of maternity hospitals, day care centers, and kindergartens.

Doc.6 In Cuba there remains a certain discrimination against women. It is very real, and the Revolution is fighting it. This discrimination even exists within the Cuban Communist Party, where we have only thirteen percent women, even though the women contribute a great deal to the Revolution and have sacrificed a great deal. They often have higher revolutionary qualifications than men do.

Doc.7 Where is our agricultural produce, dear “First Lady of the country”? We would dearly love to know it, from yourself, in your capacity of communist woman, wife and mother, where is our foodstuff? Where on earth could one find cheese, margarine, butter, cooking oil, the meat which one needs to feed the folk of this country? By now, you should know, Mrs. Ceausescu, that after so many exhausting hours of labor in factories and on building sites we are still expected to rush about like mad, hours on end, in search of food to give our husbands, children, and grandchildren something to eat. You should know that we may find nothing to buy in the state-owned food shops, sometimes for days or weeks on end. And finally if one is lucky to find something, as we must stand in endless lines, which in the end stop all desire to eat and even to be alive! Sometimes we would even feel like dying, not being able to face the suffering, the utter misery and injustice that is perpetrated on this country.