Communism Dbq

During the 20th century after World War II, communism became a widespread ideology in different parts of the world that originated in the Soviet Union where it developed from the inequalities of capitalist societies and the ideas of Karl Marx. Once implemented, communism governments became totalitarian and controlled the lives of the people under their regime and social structures such as the treatment towards women and their roles in society. Communist movements affected women’s struggle for rights superficially by emphasizing women equality while in actuality they were largely ignored by their governments.

Under communist governments, the equality between men and women was emphasized as women were encouraged to stand for their rights and

take up active roles in society. In Russia there were educated women of high positions who encouraged the struggle. Alexandra Kollontai, as a member of the Bolshevik government had to have a good understanding of the government and the oppressions that were occurring under them. Kollonta notes how little women’s rights took up the government's interest and vowed to gain the support of Russian women workers to achieve equality (doc 1).

Another intellectual women, Maria Maratova was a Soviet official in the Women’s Department of the Bolshevik Central Committee which gave her a good understanding of the oppressions occurring and her a way to stand out to women. She promoted equality by clearly stating that those who supported the veiling of women were not able to join the communist party (doc 2). To the communists, the veiling of women was seen as an oppressive symbol aimed at making women inferior to men. In China, a similar approach was taken under the Mao during the Chinese Cultural Revolution where China was declared Communist. This led to policies such as the Great Leap Forward being implemented requiring many laborers to industrialize China. Through propaganda posters, women were encouraged to prioritize their career and labor before their family thus promoting the end of Confucian traditions of patriarchy (doc 5). Throughout much of its history, China was a confucian society which was patricalchal and oppressed women through different ways such as foot binding. Women were clearly thought of as inferior

and that only their appearance and role as a mother was important. This changed with the Qing dynasty and then the communist government as it was encouraging women to seek more opportunities outside of their domestic lives. The clearest example of the emphasis on women’s rights would be in Vietnam where the constitution stated that Vietnamese women enjoyed equal rights with men in political, economical, cultural, social, and domestic life and that they were protected by the state (doc 3). However, it must be noted that as it is a constitution, it is meant to display the government in a glorified and positive way.

While such communist states emphasized women’s rights, internally they tended to ignore them.

Russia which had educated women of high positions creating and inspiring movements, but it saw little change in the percentage of women workers in professional and research careers. Men still made up the majority thus implying that the communist governments took little action to actually help women (doc 4). Further showing this was Cuba. As the president of Cuba, Fidel Castro had control of virtually the entire nation and knew very well which groups of people were oppressed and ignored by the government. Castro clearly states that despite the contributions made by women to the Cuban Revolution, there was a discrimination towards them (doc 6). To have the president acknowledge this clearly showed how little women’s right were actually being affected. Romania was yet another communist state who saw women being ignored by the government. In a letter addressed to the wife of the dictator, a group of women wrote about how major inequalities existed as women were forced to both labor for long hours and take care of their family exhausting theme to the point of feeling like dying rather than continue living like that (doc 7). The anonymity of the letter implies that women were truly oppressed and that they feared punishment or

persecution.

Communist movements took little action to actually help women in their struggle for equal rights as men, but it still inspired women through emphasis on their rights. It continued the spread and globalization of feminism which had been been a trend since the Industrial Revolution where women found themselves being able to become workers outside of domestic life and inspired by the struggle that others were creating in confrontation to the inequalities between them and men. Communism contributed to the progression of society to the slightly less patriarchal society of present day.