Some International Influences on Policy-Making: Marxism,Feminism and the 'Woman Question' in Existing Socialism

Rudolph Bahro's term 'actually existing socialism' refers to those states which broadly adhere to Marxist doctrine and which have socialised a substantial proportion of the economy, while effecting policies of social redistribution. They have not, however, introduced measures to democratise political power, and are therefore not socialist in the full sense. See Rudolph Bahro, The Alternative in Eastern Europe (London: New Left Books, 1978).

Gita Sen and Karen Grown, for instance, recognise the importance of including the socialist states in their analysis, and promise to do so in the next stage of their work. See Gita Sen and Karen Grown , Development, Crises and Alternative Visions (New York: Monthly Review Press , 1987).

More extensive discussions of these points can be found in Maxine Molyneux , 'Women's Emancipation under Socialism: A Model for the Third World? ' World Development (No. 9/10, 1981) and Maxine Molyneux , 'Mobilisation without Emancipation? Women's Interests, State and Revolution in Nicaragua ', Feminist Studies (Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1985).

I am using a broad definition of feminism here which emcompasses struggles against gender-based forms of subordination and domination as well as campaigns for equal rights before the law. In the socialist countries the term

'feminist' is often (but not always) avoided by those who would be so described by most definitions of the term.

The guidelines laid down by the 1920 resolutions included: bringing women out of the home and into the economy; reorganising peasant households that kept 'women in subservient positions'; developing communal services to alleviate domestic work and childcare; providing equal opportunities for women; mobilising women into political work and into government administration; and providing protective legislation 'to safeguard women's reproductive activities'. See Barbara Wolf Jancar , Women Under Communism (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978) and Gail Lapidus , Women in Soviet Society (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1978).

See William Butler , Soviet Law (London: Butterworth , 1983).

For instance, the Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen was drawn up with the help of East European jurists. See R. Stookey , South Yemen: A Marxist Republic in Arabia (London: Croom Helm/Westview, 1982) and Maxine Molyneux , 'Legal Reform and Socialist Revolution in Democratic Yemen: Women and the Family', International Journal of the Sociology of Law (Vol 13,1985) pp. 147-172.

Cited in Chris Corrin , 'The Situation of Women in Hungarian Society ', (Mimeo), Leeds University, 1988.

For an account of the Almanac collective, see Alix Holt , 'The First Russian Feminists', in Barbara Holland , ed., Soviet Sisterhood (London: Fourth Estate, 1985). See also Mary Buckley , Women and Ideology in the Soviet Union (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1989) and Mary Buckley , 'Soviet Ideology and Female Roles', in Stephen White and Alex Pravda (eds.), Ideology and Soviet Politics (London: Macmillan , 1988), pp. 159-79.

For an interesting discussion of this phenomenon, see Gail Omvedt , Women in Popular Movements: India and Thailand during the Decade of Women ( Geneva: UNRISD, 1986).

Rada Ivekovic and Slavenka Drakulic , 'Yugoslavia: Neo-feminism - and its Six Mortal Sins', in Robin Morgan (ed.), Sisterhood is Powerful (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984); and author's conversation with Slavenka Drakulic, 1989.

In Nicaragua, for example, feminist interest groups have been effective in influencing a number of government policy initiatives; in 1982, they protested at being excluded from the draft and gained acceptance into the army on a volunteer basis; and they have been active in campaigns for legalised abortion. For details, see Maxine Molyneux , 'The Politics of Abortion in Nicaragua ', Feminist Review (No. 29, Spring 1988). Cuban and Nicaraguan delegations attended the fourth Latin American Feminist Conference ('Encuentro') in Mexico in 1987 and participated in the debates on feminist issues.

For a fuller discussion, see Barbara Einhorn, 'Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the GDR', in Jan Bradshaw (ed.), The Women's Liberation Movement: Europe and North America (London: Pergamon, 1982).

Barbara Einhorn , 'Sisters Across the Curtain: Women Speak Out in East and West Europe', END: Journal of European Nuclear Disarmament (No. 8, February-March, 1984), pp. 26-29.