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In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Not sure how that came about.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Not sure how that came about. The liberation of women of all social classes in capitalism from the subservient role as an “instrument of production” in “bourgeois marriage” and/or coerced into a system of “prostitution both public and private” was called out as a natural consequence of Communism in the Communist Manifesto. So, it's quite easy to see why it would be something Communist states would want to demonstrate success at, and when the State directs work, it's not hard to control relative penetration in the workforce to suit the goals of the leadership.
- claudiawerner 8y ago
  Not only that, but feminist Marxism had already taken off by that point, and it's been a present (albeit relatively quiet) topic of discussion ever since Engels. I'm honestly surprised people (especially on HN) don't know about the ideological roots of the liberation of women in Marxism (or Communism generally). Liberation is a fundamental principle; the comment you're replying to makes it seem as though women in the workforce is antithetical to Communism, or something.
AnarchoYeasty 8y ago
Feminism has been a crucial part of Communist ideology for just about ever. In America at the time of the revolution, some of the most influential communist leaders and thinkers were women. Our ideology is one of eliminating barriers that separate people, and that includes gender, sexual orientation, national identity, race, and economic status. Where Liberalism was the ideology of Capital, Socialism was about people.
bildung 8y ago
> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Equal rights were implemented by law since inception of East Germany in 1949. In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!). Being gay was also legalized earlier than in West Germany.
- stormking 8y ago
  > In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!). That's a feminist myth. He could only cancel her contract and only if he could prove in a court of law that she abandoned her "home duties". It is also not known how often this law was actually enforced in reality, if at all. The other way around, husbands were legally required to provide for their family, that was their duty. So while I think that it's wrong to have fixed gender roles enforced by the state, please stop pretending that this was a one-way-street.
  - bildung 8y ago
    My source was Wikipedia. In either case it was a West German peculiarity and unheard of in East Germany.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Not sure how that came about. The liberation of women of all social classes in capitalism from the subservient role as an “instrument of production” in “bourgeois marriage” and/or coerced into a system of “prostitution both public and private” was called out as a natural consequence of Communism in the Communist Manifesto. So, it's quite easy to see why it would be something Communist states would want to demonstrate success at, and when the State directs work, it's not hard to control relative penetration in the workforce to suit the goals of the leadership.

claudiawerner 8y ago
Not only that, but feminist Marxism had already taken off by that point, and it's been a present (albeit relatively quiet) topic of discussion ever since Engels. I'm honestly surprised people (especially on HN) don't know about the ideological roots of the liberation of women in Marxism (or Communism generally). Liberation is a fundamental principle; the comment you're replying to makes it seem as though women in the workforce is antithetical to Communism, or something.

AnarchoYeasty 8y ago

Feminism has been a crucial part of Communist ideology for just about ever. In America at the time of the revolution, some of the most influential communist leaders and thinkers were women. Our ideology is one of eliminating barriers that separate people, and that includes gender, sexual orientation, national identity, race, and economic status. Where Liberalism was the ideology of Capital, Socialism was about people.

bildung 8y ago

> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Equal rights were implemented by law since inception of East Germany in 1949. In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!). Being gay was also legalized earlier than in West Germany.

stormking 8y ago
> In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!). That's a feminist myth. He could only cancel her contract and only if he could prove in a court of law that she abandoned her "home duties". It is also not known how often this law was actually enforced in reality, if at all. The other way around, husbands were legally required to provide for their family, that was their duty. So while I think that it's wrong to have fixed gender roles enforced by the state, please stop pretending that this was a one-way-street.
- bildung 8y ago
  My source was Wikipedia. In either case it was a West German peculiarity and unheard of in East Germany.