Socialist Societies Old and New: Progress Toward Women's Emancipation?

Abstract

It has long been the claim of socialist parties and governments that they, and they alone can bring about the full emancipation of women. They maintain that the abolition of inequality along the lines of sex can only be achieved as part of the broader socialist transformation of society through which divisions along lines of class will also be abolished. This assertion can be found throughout socialist programs and legislation. It is seen as an integral part of their claim to be socially revolutionary, and it is proclaimed as much in the new post-revolutionary states of the Third World as it is in the USSR and Eastern Europe. If true, even partially so, it represents a significant point of reference for discussing strategies of women's emancipation throughout the developed and less developed worlds.

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