Communist Feminism (Ch.21)

Communism "pioneered forms of women's liberation that only later were adopted in the West" (P.940). It declared "full legal and political equality for women; marriage became a civil procedure among freely consenting adults; divorce was legalized and made easier, as was abortion; illegitimacy was abolished; women no longer had to take their husbands' surnames; pregnancy leave for employed women was mandated; and women were actively mobilized as workers in the country's drive to industrialization" (P.940).

A group called "Zhenotdel, whose radical leaders, all women, published newspapers and magazines aimed at a female audience, provided literacy and prenatal classes, encouraged Muslim women to take off their veils" (P.941).

By 1978 "50 percent of agricultural workers and 38 percent of nonagricultural laborers were female. Women can do anything became a famous party slogan in the 1960s" (P.941).