OUR FEMINIST SOCIALIST FOREMOTHERS
Part of the work of feminist socialists today is the uncovering of our past, of the broken political tradition and the hidden lives and writings of feminist socialists who have preceded us. We discover that we are not starting from scratch and, as Sheila Rowbotham says, "it gives you great confidence in the world to know that you did not sprout out of nowhere". There have been mass movements of working women before us, there have been feminist socialists who have made outstanding contributions to socialist and marxist analysis, including but not confined to reproduction, sexuality and the family. As usual, most of these women and their contributions have been neglected, forgotten, and hidden away. Now feminists are digging them out, dusting them off, reprinting the writings and building up a valuable store of materials to use in developing further feminist socialist theory and practice. We list here some of them. There are many more.
Women's Liberation and Revolution, a bibliography
compiled by Sheila Rowbotham (1973). Available from Falling Wall Press Ltd., 79 Richmond Road, Montpelier, Bristol BS6 5EP, U.K. Price: $1.00
An excellent bibliography, with short annotations, it covers the history of women and the socialist movement, the role of women in revolutions and in national liberation movements. It includes works both by and about feminist socialists and also includes a section on the writings of Marx and Engels on women's liberation.
Women, Resistance and Revolution by Sheila Rowbotham (1974). Vintage Books, 288 pp.
This is an exciting narrative history of the relationship of feminism and social revolution. In dealing with more than three hundred years of women's struggles in the West and in revolutionary countries such as China, the U.S.S.R., Cuba, Algeria and Viet Nam, Sheila explores the various historical forms which women's resistance and revolution have taken.
She does not deal simply with outstanding and exceptional women, but describes the activities, ideas and organizations of working women. In her introduction, she writes; "It will be a useful book only if it is repeatedly dismantled and reconstructed as part of a continuing effort to connect feminism to socialist revolution. It contains no blueprint for what we should do in the future; it simply puts together some of the things we have already done, so that we can understand a little more clearly where we are starting from. It is a tentative first step towards correcting the masculine bias in the story we have inherited of our revolutionary past". This book is a very significant contribution to correcting this bias, especially as it is written from a feminist socialist perspective and exposes the male chauvinism not only in capitalism but in socialist movements. More than that it deals with issues feminists are struggling with today and gives us back some of our hidden political tradition.
A New World for Women: Stella Browne - Socialist Feminist by Sheila Rowbotham (1977). Available from Pluto Press.
In another book. Sheila looks at the life and writings of Stella Browne, an active worker for socialist feminism in Great Britain from before World War I through the 1930s. Stella Browne fought for the right to contraception, abortion, and sexual liberation in the context of women's right to control their own bodies and the social and economic struggle for liberation. Her feminism brought her into conflict with other socialists who considered issues such as sexuality and abortion to be a diversion from the main cause. Her recognition of sexual control as a political issue and the fact that changes in the control of production were insufficient for the liberation of women, makes her writings and work very relevant for feminist struggles today.
Working Women for Freedom by Angela Terrano, Maire Dignan and Mary Holmes (1976). Available from Women's Liberation, News and Letters, 1900 East Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan 48207, USA. Price: US S 1.00.
This pamphlet explores .the struggles of working women past and present and emphasizes that the women's liberation movement as an idea whose time has come did not just emerge out of nowhere but is based on the theory and practice of masses of working women in the past. In the appendix by Raya Dunayevskaya "Women as Thinkers and as Revolutionaries", feminists are urged not simply to dismiss past revolutionary theory and practice as "male -defined" but to explore the important contributions made by women theoreticians and the revolutionary practice of masses of women in the past.
Hidden from History: 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against It by Sheila Rowbotham. Available from Pluto Press, Unit 10 Spencer Court, 7 Chalcot Road, London NW1 8LH, U.K.
This is a study of the changing position of women in England from the puritan revolution to the 1930s. It brings together a mass of material on birth control, abortion and female sexuality; on the complex relationship of women's oppression and class exploitation and on the attempts to fuse the struggles against the two. It concludes that victory - than and now - depends on "our capacity to relate to the working class and the action bf working class women in transforming women's liberation according to their needs".
Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontai, translated with and introduction and commentaries by Alix Holt.
Alexandra Kollontai was one of the most influential writers, thinkers and activists of the Russian revolutionary period. Her writings were wide ranging, encompassing the nature of the relationship of Finland to Russia (1905) the relationship of workers to the Party, Workers' movements abroad, and the part of women in revolution and the particular problems of women in society. Following the 1905 revolution she travelled widely in Europe, including Britain, speaking, writing and participating in various revolutionary and feminist/revolutionary situations. In 1915 she joined the Bolshevik, Party, thereafter playing a prominent role as general political spokesperson, propagandist, feminist and diplomat. She was a person of independence and personal/ political honesty, readily recognising the political aspects of personal relationships.
The book is divided into seven separate sections each being accompanied by copious notes by Alix Holt. The entire book is readable and sheds light on the life of this remarkable woman. (Review from Women's Report February-March 1978).
The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman and The New Woman by Alexandra Kollontai with a foreword by Germain Greer. Schocken Books, 1975, 137 pp.
In this fascinating autobiography, Kollontai describes how she became a revolutionary, her political activities before and during the Russian revolution, her struggles for the liberation of women and the opposition she faced because of this, and finally her appointment as ambassador to a foreign country.
The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. History tells us that every oppressed class gains true liberation from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman learn that lesson, that she realize that her freedom will reach as far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. Emma Goldman, The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation.
Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights by Alexandra Kollontai, translated by Celia Britton with an introduction and notes by Sheila Rowbotham and Suzie Fleming. Available from Falling Wall Press, 1971 (originally published 1918), 35 pp.
In giving an account of the organizations of women in the early 20th century, Kollontai stresses the importance of the separate organization of women. The excellent introduction by Sheila gives an understanding of the context in which Kollontai was writing.
Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle and Love and the New Morality by Alexandra Kollontai, translated and introduced by Alix Holt. Available from Falling Wall Press, 1972 (originally published 1919), 26 pp.
These two essays describe how our personal life is shaped and distorted by capitalist society and argue that the changes in sexual morality which occurred in Russia were part of the struggle of a class to take power. In dealing with matters concerning women, sexuality, the family and personal relationships, Kollontai had to face the attitude of others who felt these were secondary issues. As Alix Holt points out in her introduction, "these articles constitute a criticism of that attitude, and an explanation of why these matters are part of the revolutionary struggle and should not be avoided".
Communism and the Family, Alexandra Kollontai, Sun Press, 1976, (originally in Russian, 1918) 15 p.
A beautifully written account of pre-capitalist family, and how capitalism changed this, with particular detriment to women. It enslaved them to the double day of work, and made of household duties only repetitive drudgery. Kollontai goes on to explain how under communism, collectivization of household tasks (cleaning, washing,cooking) and child care will render men-women relationships much more equal and overwhelmingly enhance the situation of working women.
Living My Life by Emma Goldman (in two volumes). Dover Books, 1970, 993 pp.
Born in Russia in 1869, Emma Goldman came to the United States at the age of 17 and at the age of 20 began her career as anarchist and feminist until her death in 1940. Deported to the USSR in 1919, she was welcomed by Lenin but soon became disillusioned and left. Her fascinating autobiography relates her revolutionary activities and her anarchism which for her was bound up with her feminism. During her years of agitation for women and workers, she had to confront male chauvinism in the movement and in her personal relationships with men. She fought constantly against this oppression of women and developed a feminist analysis which stressed the ideological barriers to women's liberation. She saw clearly, unlike many of her contemporaries, that suffrage and mere economic and legal reforms would not liberate women. Written towards the end of her long anarchist/feminist life, Emma Goldman's autobiography analyzes the development of her ideas and activities and those of her contemporaries as well as the mistakes of the movements for the liberation of workers and women. Her experiences can be a very valuable contribution to women's struggles today.
The Traffic in Women and other Essays on Feminism by Emma Goldman, with an introduction by Alix Shulman. Available from Times Change Press, 1023 Sixth Ave., New York, New York 10018.
These historic essays by the revolutionary anarchist Emma Goldman are remarkably relevant to questions being debated within the contemporary women's liberation movement. They include: The Traffic in Women - an expose of liberal and reformist attitudes towards prostitution; Marriage and Love - a scathing dissection of marriage as an instrument of oppression of women; Woman Suffrage - on the bourgeois nature and limitations of the movement for women's suffrage and why it would fail to achieve its objectives. .
Apostles into Terrorists: Women and the Revolutionary Movement in the Russia of Alexander II by Vera Broido, Viking Press, 1977, 238 pp.
Five Sisters - Women Against the Tsar, edited and translated by Barbara Alpern Engel and Clifford N. Rosenthal, Schocken Books, 1977, 254 pp.
These two recent books explore the development of women's activities in the revolutionary movement of tsarist Russia in the late 1800s. Five Sisters is a collection of autobiographical materials most of which has been unavailable in English until now.
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg with an introduction by Mary-Alice Waters. Available from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New York, New York 10014.
January is the month of the brutal murder of Rosa Luxemburg, the only woman history records as a great Marxist theoretician as well as revolutionary leader. When Luxemburg was savagely executed by pre-Nazi vigilantes on Jan. 15, 1919, at the age of 48, the German Revolution then in progress was beheaded as well. The uniqueness of Rose Luxemburg as a beacon for our day is not due to her martyrdom, but to her theoretical revolutionary legacy, which is solid ground we can build on today.
In the 59 years since, Luxemburg has been relegated to martyrdom by Marxists, and stripped of her sex by feminists who ignore her because she supposedly didn't write about women. Although Luxemburg spent three months speaking for suffrage in the very period of her most intense battles with the leadership of the Second International over its fatal reformism, we have only one 1912 speech on "Women's Suffrage and Class Struggle" preserved and translated into English.
From the start, when she arrived in Germany, 1898, as an exile from her native Poland, Rosa Luxemburg immediately entered the battle of ideas within the first mass Marxist party. Her essay Reform or Revolution? brilliantly exposed the tendency in the German Social Democracy that substituted economic and legal changes for the revolutionary self-development of the masses. (From an article by Anne Molly Jackson in News and Letters January-February 1978). Other works by Rosa Luxemburg include The Accumulation of Capital and Prison Letters to Sophie Liebknecht.
Life as we Have Known It, by Co-operative Working Women, introductory letter by Virginia Woolf, ed. Margaret Llewelyn Davies, Virago Ltd., 3 Cheyne Place, Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4HH, 1977. 142 on.
The feminist publishers, Virago, have done a fine job in republishing this old classic, apparently long out of print. It was first published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press in 1931. It is an extraordinary collection of first-hand accounts of the lives, experiences and desires of working women from 1850 to 1920. These women were all members of the women's co-operative guild - part of the cooperative movement which flourished at that time. Cooperatives were the way in which workers, investing their own money, could have control over shops, and thus what they bought. The Guild was a place where women could come and begin to educate themselves, where they could voice their needs and launch action for instance for maternity benefits and school clinics.
The amazing strength of the Guild comes out forcibly in the various accounts of the women. The appalling conditions in which most of them grew up, got married and raised a family (very often with an ailing husband who was thus no help at all either economically or around the house) must astound us today. I had a feeling of tremendous pride and solidarity with those women: women have survived and fought against horrific odds, and we are the stronger for that. Virginia Woolf's introduction, written in 1930 - 17 years after the Guild's national conference in Newscastle which she attended - also gives a sharp insight into the problems of class in Britain.
As Anna Davin says in the modern introduction, "Life as We Have Known It" has exceptional value as providing accounts by 'us' rather than 'them', and as dealing not just with the generalities of working class life, but with the specific experience of women, as they chose to tell them". This is why this book is so relevant to our struggles with feminism and socialism right now, this and the juxtaposition of the "literary feminist" - Virgina Woolf and the pragmatic feminists.
VIRAGO has published a series of books, beginning last year, which are, we think, directly relevant to feminism and socialism. These include:
The Suffragette Movement, by Sylvia Pankhurst (first publ. 1931.)
Love of Worker Bees, By Alexandra Kollontai.
The Hard Way Up, by Hannah Mitchell, preface by Sheila Rowbotham (autobiography).
Maternity - Letters from Working Women, ed. by Margaret Llewelyn Davies (first publ. 1915).
Other titles include:
The Tamarind Tree,by Dora Russell (autobiography).
Daughter of Earth, by Agnes Smedley (first publ. 1929).
The Cause - a short history of the women's movement in Great Britain, by Ray Strachey (first publ. 1928).
...AND A FEW FEMINIST SOCIALIST FOREFATHERS
Woman Under Socialism by August Bebel with an introduction by Lewis A. Coser, Schocken Books, 1971 (originally printed 1904), 379 pp.
A leader of German socialism at the turn of the century, August Bebel saw that socialism could not succeed among a working class that exploited women in the same way it was exploited by its rulers. Bebel wrote: "The Woman Question is only one of the aspects of the general Social Question, which is now filling all heads, which is setting all minds in motion and which, consequently, can find its final solution only in the abolition of the existing social contradictions, and of the evils which flow from them". One of the few male socialist leaders of that time to examine seriously the oppression of women, Bebel explored the situation of women in past history and in 19th century Europe, including issues of work, family,sex, marriage and prostitution.
Socialism and the New Life: The Personal and Sexual Politics of Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis by Sheila Rowbotham and Jeffrey Weeks, 1977, 198 pp. Available from Pluto Press.
Prominent figures in the late 19th century socialist revival. Carpenter was a poet and mystic, a popular socialist speaker and writer, an ardent supporter of feminist aspirations and a homosexual; Ellis was a pioneer writer on sex psychology whose work influenced a generation of sex reformers. In the introduction to this book, the authors state that they are committed to uncovering past socialist tradition "by our own involvement in socialism, sexual politics and feminism. We do not see these studies as presenting 'lessons' for now; we do see them as helping our understanding of our own predicament".
CONTEMPORARY PUBLICATIONS
Feminism and Marxism: A Place to Begin, a Way to Go by Dorothy E. Smith, 1977, 54 pp. Available from: New Star Books, 2504 York Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6K 1E3, Canada.
In the introduction to this short, excellent book, the March 8th Group writes: "Dorothy Smith, like many others in the women's movement, has come to see the liberation of women and all oppressed people as dependent on socialism. Many in the women's movement are feminists who are committed to socialism and who have worked long and hard as socialists and feminists. Though we are committed to working for women's liberation and for socialism, there still exist bitter disagreements about how to work and what in fact to work for. Many people want socialism, but there are essential differences both in strategy and in our final goals... In struggling over how to work in a revolutionary way as Marxists and feminists, Dorothy Smith's paper has provided us with a crucial starting point. We are making it available so that others can study and use it. In working to build a revolutionary movement and party, based firmly on a genuine unity of the working class, we must see that we cannot build our unity on oppression. We must have unity built firmly on the basis of the struggle against oppression".
Hopefully someday, in the not too distant future, it will be taken for granted that unity within the working class cannot be built on the oppression of women. Yet it is precisely a unity built on oppression many Marxists today, both women and men, call upon feminists to accept. And so it is necessary that feminists and Marxists like Dorothy Smith expose this as she does very clearly in this book. There is, she says, "a built-in complicity within Marxist thinking and within the working class itself with the institutions by which the ruling class dominates the society. It is an alliance across class and among men against women. It is something that is implicit but it is present. In the analysis presented here, it is not represented as the product of an extra-historical patriarchal relation of male dominance over women. It is represented as the outcome of a definite historical process, which has established the forms under which women are oppressed now. There is this division then. It is a division which in fact aligns men in this respect on the other side of the class struggle, that is, on the side of the ruling class.This division remains invisible so long as women are silent, so long as women who are Marxist feminists, feminists who are Marxists, find that the only ground on which they may speak as Marxists requires them to renounce their basis in feminism and hence to cross over and to take the standpoint of male domination in society which is the standpoint of the ruling class."
In her brief, but very clear exposition of this, Dorothy Smith shows how the forms of women's oppression have developed historically and how "Marxists begin from the position of men in society just as do the political and economic ideologists of the bourgeoisie". They understand "women's struggles in the class only in relation to the struggles of men." She does this not only from theory but by showing how in practical everyday experiences working class men and Marxists take for granted and benefit from the oppression of women which divides men from women in the working class struggle. She shows the error Marxists make when talking about women in the working class as backward or as portraying them as heroic figures in the struggle -both sides of the same coin - errors arising from a lack of analysis of the oppression of women. She also makes some interesting observations on things such as sisterhood which is not "a sentimental basis for relations among women... that organises a political basis across class" but as something which "forces us to grasp our identity with those who are also oppressed and also more savagely oppressed, not as an altruistic and disinterested concern but because the basis of their oppression is or was their sex and you share that with them".
This book is an extremely valuable contribution to the struggle of feminists and socialists for a revolutionary movement based on real unity and not on a false unity which covers over the division between men and women based on the subordination, dependence and oppression of women. Highly recommended.
Marxism and Feminism by Charnie Guettel, 1974, 62 pp. Available from the Women's Press. Ste. 305, 280 Bloor St. W. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Price: S 1.50.
Marxism and Feminism is a critical examination of feminist thought since the eighteenth century, from a Marxist perspective. It is a response to the growing dissatisfaction with feminist writing which declares simply that men oppress women, sometimes describes how, but falls short of examining why. In this book some of the early proponents of women's rights are examined, including J.S. Mill and the suffragists. The Marxist analysis of Engels is clarified. More recent contributors, writing from the tradition of radical feminism or attempting Marxist explanations, fall under scrutiny: Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millet, Juliet Mitchell and Shulamith Firestone. Guettel takes a critical look at the issues and the theory arising from these in the women's movement today (daycare, equal pay, abortion, consciousness raising, paid housework). The book makes the case that the oppression of women is a consequence of capitalism, and that fighting against women's oppression is part of the class struggle. The liberation of women depends on socialism, and the further development of socialism depends in part on the further liberation of women. Only under socialism is the basis for women's emancipation industrialization of housework, socialization of childcare, and the total entry of women into work of equal value - possible. (From the back cover of Marxism and Feminism).
Although not all feminist socialists may agree entirely with Charnie Guettel's conclusions or her strategy, she does set forth her arguments in a very clear, concise and non-polemical way. In her criticisms of feminist writings she evaluates the positive contributions of these as well and she raises important questions for feminists. Her short book could be a good starting point for debate and further study.
Class & Feminism ed. Charlotte Bunch and Nancy Myron, Diana Press, Maryland, 1974, 90 pp.
This collection of seven essays is one of the most helpful and coherent attempts to deal with the complexities intertwining class and feminism. Written out of the experiences of the Furies, a lesbian/feminist collective composed of white lower, working, and middle class women, these articles reflect efforts to deal with class in the collective and operating in the women's movement generally. "They describe and talk about different class attitudes and behavior and are not meant to be the final statement on class and feminism in America. However, understanding class behavior among women is a useful, and perhaps essential, way to begin to understand class as a political mechanism for maintaining not only capitalism but also patriarchy and white supremacy" (from the introduction). All the essays- are extremely challenging about the way we perceive ourselves in a class society, but give a sense of strength about the possibility of breaking class barriers - with a lot of struggle - within the feminist movement. Highly recommended, and easy to read. (ISIS319)
Feminisme en Socialisme, by Anja Meulenbelt, Van Gennep Publishers, Amsterdam 1976, 110 pp.
Intended as a kind of study-guide or as basic discussion material for feminist socialist theory and practice. After an introduction on the need for feminist socialist analysis, Anja Meulenbelt examines patriarchy in the past and present; the development of capitalism; housewives; the reproduction of the labour force; women in waged labour and the double burden; the family and capitalism, the family and patriarchy; ideology; women in socialist countries; strategies for feminist socialists. This is an excellent book and we hope that it will soon be available in other languages as well as in the original Dutch, as it could be a very useful basis for further development of feminist socialist theory and practice
La Politica del Femminismo, edited by Biancamaria Frabotta, Savelli, 1976, 258 pp.
This book on the politics of feminism is a collection of documents from several currents in the Italian women's movement from 1973 to 1976. Chosen to show the pluralism and development of the women's movement in Italy, these documents come from the autonomous feminist collectives, the Union of Italian Women (the largest traditional women's organization on the left) and from women within left political parties and groupings. Discussion of both theory and practice are included, which give an exciting and interesting (as well as useful) documentation of the growth of the women's movement in Italy.
Feminism and Socialism, edited and with an introduction by Linda Jenness, 1972, 160 pp. Available from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New York, New York 10014.
Written from the point of view of women in the Socialist Workers Party of the USA, a political party with a Trotskyist orientation, this book is a collection of essays dating from 1970 to 1972. The women's movement has come a long way since 1972 and so much of what is said in this book seems outdated. If its tone is often very polemical, it must be remembered that many of these essays are directed against a strong equal rights tendency in the women's liberation movement in the USA at that time. However, these essays are asserting not only the need for a socialist revolution for the achievement of women's liberation but the necessity for women to work within apolitical party and a particular political party at that. In spite of these limitations, however, the book makes interesting reading and throws out some stimulating ideas and arguments on issues such as socialist revolution, strategy, the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion, the relation of Black women and Chicanas to the women's liberation movement, the family and more.
The Political Economy of Women's Liberation by Margaret Benston, reprinted from Monthly Review, September 1969, 14 pp. Available from New Hogtown Press, 12 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Price: $. 25.
Defining women as "that group of people who are responsible for the production of simple use values in those activities associated with the home and family", Benston analyses the economic exploitation of women as houseworkers and child-rearers.
More on the Political Economy of Women's Liberation by Mickey and John Rowntree, reprinted from Monthly Review, January 1970, 9 pp. Available from New Hogtown Press. Price: $. 20.
A response to Margaret Benston's paper, this pamphlet challenges the emphasis on women as houseworkers, countering her argument with a discussion of women's participation in wage labour. Quite a few statistics on women in the labour force in the USA.
The Origin of the Family by Kathleen Gough, 1972, 18 pp. Available from New Hogtown Press. Price: $. 35.
An historical and anthropological analysis of the rise of the family, this pamphlet challenges the distortions of male scholars which are aimed at bolstering the belief in the inferiority of women. It also challenges the idea of the existence of a matriarchy.
Feminism and the Marxist Movement by Mary-Alice Waters, October 1972, 43 pp. Available from Pathfinder Press.
A member of National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party in the USA, Mary-Alice Waters contends that "from the inception of the Marxist movement to today, for nearly 125 years, revolutionary Marxists have waged an unremitting struggle within the broad working-class movement in order to establish a revolutionary attitude toward the struggle for women's liberation". In support of this statement, she examines the record of the First and Second Internationals, Lenin and the Bolsheviks, the Third International and finally the Fourth International and the Socialist Workers Party.
Women and the Socialist Revolution by Mary-Alice Waters, December 1976, 30 pp. Available from Pathfinder Press.
Tracing the rise of the feminist movement from the beginning of industrial capitalism. Waters asserts the necessity of a mass feminist movement for the success of socialist revolution. She concludes "it is impossible for the working class to carry through the social revolution and the socialist reconstruction of society unless masses of women are mobilized to play a conscious and leading role". This is because the working class will not give women their liberation; only women will liberate themselves and other women.
The Politics of Women's Liberation, in Socialist Review (formerly Socialist Revolution) 44 pp. Available from Agenda Publishing Co., 4228 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, Ca. 94609. Price: $ 1.00.
This pamphlet contains four articles which treat the major tendencies and developments in the women's liberation movement. Judy MacLean analyzes the political course of NOW the largest feminist organization in the USA Articles by Barbara Ehrenreich and the Berkeley-Oakland Women's Union explore the origins and prospects of socialist feminism. Barbara Easton surveys the entire women's movement and discusses its main tendencies.
Capitalism and the Family in Socialist Review (formerly Socialist Revolution) 88 pp. Available from Agenda Publishing Co. Price: $ 1.50.
This pamphlet contains four articles which examine the relations among the family, capitalism and contemporary social movements. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English discuss the transformation of housework in this century, and the effects of this transformation on the experiences of women inside and outside the family. Eli Zaretsky outlines the main theme developed in his book Capitalism, the Family, and Personal Life. David Fernback explores the changes in technology and the family and the emergence of gay liberation movements. Mina Caulfield analyzes the role of the family among peoples subjected to colonial domination, and the relations between the family and resistance to colonialism.
Foundations of Socialist Feminism, Available from Radical Women Publications, 3815 5th N.E., Seattle, Washington 98105. Price: $4.50.
A packet of sixteen pamphlets on various aspects of feminism and socialism from the perspective of the Radical Women of Seattle, Washington, USA. While there is a lot of interesting and useful material presented here, these pamphlets are not so much intended to foster discussion and analysis among feminist socialists as to present a particular point of view as the feminist-socialist answer.Thus they have a rather triumphalistic tone and much space is devoted to denouncing other groups and currents with whom they do not agree. The contents of this packet are: Radical Women Manifesto - Theory, Program and Structure; Which Road Toward Women's Liberation - a Radical Vanguard or a Single-Issue Coalition by Clara Eraser; Race and Sex, 1972, Collision or Comradeship? by Dorothy Mejia Chambless; Lesbianism - a Socialist-Feminist Perspective by Susan Williams; The Emancipation of Women by Clara Eraser; Woman as Leader - Double Jeopardy on Account of Sex by Clara Eraser; Women Who Work by Melba Windhoffer; The Women's Movement and the Class Struggle by Cindy Gipple; Sexual Politics, a selection of articles by Radical Women; Women's Psychology: Mental Illness as a Social Disease by Susan Williams; In Defense of Marxism - a Critique of Current Trends in the Socialist Feminist Movement by Susan Williams; Putting it All Together - Organizing materials from the Seattle Struggle collected by Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party; The Feminist Movement and the Gay Movement by Laurie Morton; Its Alright Doc, I'm Only Dying (on sexist medicine) by Susan Bonderant; Women in the Struggle, reprint of articles by Third World Women's Alliance, New York; A Political Organizer Is a Leader by James Forman.
Manifest der Mutter, by Gunild Feigenwinter, Hexenpresse nr. 5 (1976) from Fempublic, Missionsstr. 15 a, 4000 Basel, Switzerland. 51 pp.
A long "manifesto" which analyses man/women relations from the standpoint that most women are mothers and that until now the work that mothers do has never been analysed - only "observed" within a (male) marxist analysis. Calls for a Feminist Party/Organisation as being the only vehicle which can take women's and children's rights seriously. Heavy-going but solid. (ISIS 333)
Problems of Women's Liberation by Evelyn Reed, 1969, 96 pp. Available from Pathfinder Press.
A marxist and a feminist, Evelyn Reed explores in this collection of essays the economic and social roots of sexism in modern society - contrasting male/female roles today with the leading part played by women in ancient societies.
Femmes dans la lutte de classes: travail des femmes dans la production et socialisation des taches menageres, by Groupe "femmes dans la lutte de classes", Geneva, 1976. 20 pp.
Collection of documents posing the question of women as a class, and especially women within the work force. Outlines initiatives taken by women (strikes, retraining for industry etc.) to claim power in this domain. (ISIS 335)
Women and Socialism Conference Papers, Birmingham 1974, 169 pp. Available from 108 Springfield Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7DY, U.K.
This conference was a successful attempt by women in the women's liberation movement in the U.K. to analyze women's oppression and develop theory drawn on current and historical practice. Several of the papers concentrate on theoretical analyses of domestic labour and on the women's liberation movement as a mass movement and its relationship to class struggle. These papers are very useful.
Rural Origins of Women's Liberation in India, by Gail Omvedt in Social Scientist (Nov-Dec. 1975) Indian School of Social Sciences, Trivandrum-1, India, pp. 40 - 54.
An extremely clear, mainly descriptive article linking the thrust of the new women's movement in India to the rural poor, and the unrest especially during years of famine (1971 - 74). Describes historical development of women's organisations related to the Communist Party India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, and their strengthening role as separate women's organisations. The climax of the efforts was the United Women's Liberation Struggle Conference in Poona, October 1975.
This number of Social Scientist is entirely devoted to women. Other articles are: Perspective of the Women's Movement (E.M. S. Nambeodiripad); Women's Liberation and Productive Activity (Manorama Savur); Patriarchal Capitalism and the Female-headed family (Carol Brown); Women Office Workers: Petty-bourgeoisie or new proletarians? (Martin Oppenheimer); Towards Emancipation (Mythily Shivaraman); Employment, Incomes and Equality (Kumaresh Chakravarty); Status of Women In India: a historical perspective (Sophie M. Tharakan, Michael Tharakan); Problems of Working Women in Urban Areas (Wandana Sonalkar); Literacy: doorway to liberation (Aleyamma George); Working-class Women (VImla Randive); Sex Discrimination in Work and Wages (Leel Gulati). (ISIS 332)
The Mission of Women, edited and with an introduction by Marilyn Weingartner, winter 1975/1976, 139 pp. Available from IDOC, Via Santa Maria dell'Anima 30, Rome, Italy. Do not be misled by the title of this dossier, it is not about the exploits of women missionaries but is a collection of documents from women in various "streams" of the women's liberation movement. It was, however, put together with a christian audience in mind and most of the documents come from feminists and others who situate themselves in the Christian tradition. The documents are placed into three categories: "women's rights" tendency, "radical feminists" and "socialist feminism", and there are contributions from Africa, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and North America. There is also a lengthy bibliography.
Latin American Perspectives, Vol. IV Nos. 1 and 2 (Winter and Spring 1977) P.O.Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517, USA.
The double issue of this quarterly journal on capitalism and socialism (self-description) is entitled "Women and Class Struggle". Under three sections - theoretical and methodological questions, changing modes of production, and Imperialism, the State, and political implications for the liberation of women - eleven essays deal with peasant women and women workers in different Latin American countries (Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Guatemala).
Red Rag. Available from Red Rag Collective, 22 Murray ^ Mews, London NW1, U.K. Price: £ 1.50 for 4 issues.
A magazine of women's liberation. Red Rag aims to develop an understanding of feminist socialist experience, both theory and practice. The Red Rag collective states: "Feminism is not, as it is sometimes characterised, reducible to the politics of personal life alone, neither can class struggle and the politics of socialism be left to a male-dominated Left... The fact is that revolutionary socialist theory itself is in the process of assimilating and being assimilated by political imperatives outside itself. The women's movement is taking to itself aspects of Marxist theory. In that sense it is both using it, and changing it." Issues include articles such as discussions of the relevance or not of Leninism to the women's movement, women talking about their own political development based on the experiences of their lives, and discussions between women who are members of the communist party and those who are not.
Scarlet Women. Available from the Scarlet Women Collective, 5 Washington Terrace, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, U.K. Price: £ 1.00 from 3 issues.
At the Socialist Feminist Conference held in Manchester, U.K., in January 1978, it was agreed to develop Scarlet Women as the open journal and newsletter of the socialist feminist current in the U.K. Past issues of the journal have included surveys of the analyses of Marx, Engels and Bebel on the position of women, discussions of whether women can be called a class and how sexuality is used to oppress women, as well as both sides of the debate between revolutionary feminists and socialist feminists.
Women's Struggle Notes. Available from Box 339, 182 Upper St. London N1, U.K. Price: £ for 6 issues.
This magazine is produced by socialist women who say "we think that only the united strength of all the working class people will ever change society for the better. But within this,we women have to fight for equality, for our liberation." Women's Struggle Notes, then, is a sharing of experiences and ideas among women, about their lives as housewives, waged workers, housework, sexuality, health, maternity - with the emphasis on what women are doing together to bring about change. A recent issue, for instance, included an article about action by women health workers to fight cut-backs in health care; the occupation of a factory by workers, mainly women; and independent mothers organising.
NIeuwsbrlef van het Feministies Socialisties Platform. Available from Bettie Ritsema, a/b Costa Rica, Weesperzijde t/o nr. 20, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 12.50 Dutch guilders per year.
This is the newsletter for the feminist socialist current in the Netherlands. Each issue contains extensive national and regional news, schedule of events, contact addresses and reports and articles from feminist socialist groups in the Netherlands. In addition, there are usually book reviews resource listings and some international news of particular interest to feminist socialists.
Feminism vs. Socialism: What Are Our Priorities? by Leah Fritz in Liberation, February 1975, 5 pp. Available from Liberation, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, New York 10012.
Delightfully written article by a feminist who has been a political activist in the USA since the early sixties. Leah Fritz analyzes the relationship of the rise of feminism and the decline of the male-dominated new left in the USA.
Socialism and Feminism: A Necessary Ground for Liberation by Sheila D. Collins in Cross Currents, Spring 1976, 15 pp. Available from Cross Currents, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, New York 10522.
This article looks at the effects of the economic crisis on women and the family in the USA and concludes that feminists must have a deeper understanding of the economic bases of oppression. Likewise, socialists must accept the experiences and insights of feminism.
Marxism and Women's Liberation by Juliet Mitchell, in Social Praxis, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1973, 11 pp. In this article Juliet Mitchell discusses what historical materialism has to say about the position of women and what marxist political practice has to contribute to a conception of a revolutionary women's movement.
The Working Class Has two Sexes by Rosalyn Baxandall, Elizabeth Ewen and Linda Gordon, in Monthly Review Vol. 28, No. 3, 1976, 9 pp.
A criticism of Harry Braverman's Labour and Monopoly Capital from a feminist socialist perspective.
"Feminism and the Left", special supplement in Big Mama Rag, January-February 1977, Vol. 5, No. 1.
Attempts to take a personal approach to socialist feminism in six long interviews of women with varying commitments to the women's movement and leftist groups; ties it all together with the article "Demystifying Socialist
Feminism" which does a nice job. Short on dialectics, long on hard individual experiences in feminist/radical feminist/ leftist/radical socialist/radical lesbian etc. groups (Untitled manuscript), K. Jayawardena, Colombo, (1977), 7 pp.
A well-written outline of the Marxist approach to the question of women, marriage and the family, with a refutation of some of the non-Marxist, idealist views on the perfect place of Asian women, and the fact that they do not, therefore, need liberation. The author especially concentrates on religions of India and Sri Lanka and shows how they have helped to enforce this myth and the subjugation of women. Emphases the need for a greater socialist analysis of the situation of Asian women. (ISIS 337)
"Feminism/Socialism" by Fern Mercier in Broadsheet, September 1976, No. 72, New Zealand. A two-part feminist/socialist analysis of society with a deep idealistic bent. Strong on the goals of a Utopian feminist/socialist state, she concludes "We are fighting to create a society where all can flourish and fly". (ISIS 327)
Some Notes on the "Relations" of Patriarchal Capitalism by Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College, Spring 1976. Well-developed paper which attempts to apply the Marxian method to the analysis of sex, class and race with the dual systems of patriarchy and capitalism and to understand the relations and processes of power which define women's oppression under these systems. Well researched and documented, good historical analysis. (ISIS 331)
Women and Socialism by Helen Diedrich, 1977, 5 pp. Available from WSCF ( World Student Christian Federation ) 37 Quai Wilson, Geneva, Switzerland.
This paper is the result of the work of a group of feminist socialists in the Federal Republic of Germany, who have been studying the living conditions of women in the German Democratic Republic. They feel this is important in view of increasing participation of communist and socialist political parties in the governments of several countries of Western Europe including Italy, France, Portugal and Spain.
Die Ziele der Frauenbewegung, in Aus Politik und Zeit Geschichte, 13 December 1975, 31 pp. Available from Das Parlament, Fleischstrasse 61-65, 55 Trier, Federal Republic of Germany.
A survey and analysis of the contents of publications pertaining to women's liberation available in German and dating from 1968 through 1973. This includes materials relevant to feminism and socialism.
Die Frau und der Kapitalismus. Alice Ruhle-Gerstel, Archiv sozialistischer Literatur 19, Verlag Neue Kritik Frankfurt (Myliusstrasse 58, 6000 Frankfurt).
First published in 1932, this is an early feminist analysis of the relationships between men and women in the class structure, with a look at the biological, psychological and social determinants.
"Ende der Patriarchalen Herrschaft", by Gabriele Kuby in Frauenoffensive Nr. 2 (April 1975) pp. 3-13. (Verlag Fraunoffensive, D-8 MiJnchen 80, Josephsburgstrasse 16, Federal Republic of Germany).
Drawing from psychology, mythology and anthropology, the author analyses current patriarchal society, and proposes various bases for its overthrow, with the final advent of the matriarchat. Although she does not specifically speak of socialism, the author does outline what is a feminist-socialist notion of society. Seems outdated and somewhat heavy-handed. (ISIS 328)
"Frauen und Linlce", in Extrajournal; Nationaler Frauenkongress am 5/6.3.77, Frauenzentrum Miinchen, Gabelsberger str. 66, Federal Republic of Germany.
Report of a working group on women and the working class struggle during the national women's congress in March 1977. The thrust is for women to work on their own and to develop their own theories, and that working within the Left wing movements simply dissipates our energies.(ISIS 328)
"Dislcussion 'Scliwarze Botin' ", in Protokolle, informationsdienst fur frauen, nr 14 (1977), Verlag Frauenpolitik, D-44 MiJnster, Wolbeckerstrasse 78, Federal Republic of Germany, pp. 3-4.
A short run-down and clarification on the battle in Germany between the "radical feminists" of the magazine "die schwarze Botin" and women within the Left, called K-Frauen.
"Politisclier Kommentar", by Ursula Linhoff in Protokolle, Nr.16 (1977). See above, pp. 24-26. Some good thoughts about feminism/socialism vis-a-vis fascism, and the need for a strong women's movement to confront the new ultra-right in Germany (also applicable elsewhere obviously).
NOTE: Verlag Frauenpolitik also publishes books, dossiers, etc. on a number of feminist issues. Write for their catalogue.
Document de Travail pour le Week-end national des mouvements de femmes, Berne 27-28 Mars 1976. (prepared by femmes dans la lutte de classes, Geneve). 22 pp.
Collection of documents posing the question of women as a class, and especially women within the work force. Out- , lines initiatives taken by women (strikes, retraining for industry etc.) to claim power in this domain. (ISIS 335)
Big Flame, Available from Big Flame, 217 Wavertree Road, Liverpool 7, U.K. A mixed revolutionary socialist organisation, which "fights against sexism" and "supports the independent organisation of women". Big Flame produces a monthly newspaper. Although most of the issues seem to be devoted to the struggles of working class women and men in the place of work outside the home, the fight against sexism does come out clearly in the articles. Also contains articles on struggles against racism, and for sexual freedom, women's right to control their bodies, social services such as childcare facilities and housing. The articles on actions and labour organising are very interesting.
Link, Communist Party Women's Journal. Available from Link, 16 King St. London WC2E SHY, U.K.
The women's journal of the Communist Party of the U.K., Link appears quarterly and contains articles on women in the labour force, women in trade unions, health, childcare facilities, the working women's charter, housework, laws affecting women's rights, women in socialist countries, women in the socialist struggle in the past. It also contains quite open discussions on the relationship of the communist women's organisation and the women's liberation movement expressing differing positions on this. Each issues includes book reviews and resource listings of materials both from within the communist party and from the autonomous women's liberation movement.
Marxism and the Family, selected contributions from a discussion in Marxism Today, from 1972 to 1974, 19 pp.
Published by the Communist Party of the U.K., this pamphlet discusses various aspects of the family under capitalism and socialism and in marxist theory.
Women and Revolution Journal of the Women's Commission of the Spartacist League. Available from Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 G.P.O., New York, New York 10001.
Very polemical with strong attacks on all political parties and movements not agreeing with the line of the Spartacist League. Special words of scorn are reserved for feminists of all tendencies.
Socialist Woman, a Journal of the International Marxist Group. Available from: 97 Caledonian Road, London N1, U.K.
Concerned that "socialists in the women's movement have utmost political clarity on many of the fundamental questions", this publication deals with most of the issues in the current women's struggles in Europe: abortion, housework, marriage laws, child care, etc. It is particularly interested in presenting the perspectives of women in the various sections of the Fourth International and the role played by these women in the women's movement.
Noi Donne, available from Noi Donne, via Trinita dei Pellegrini 12, 00186 Rome, Italy.
This is the weekly magazine of the Union of Italian Women (Unione Donne Italiane), the largest traditional left-wing women's organisation in Italy. The contents of this magazine have been very much affected by the resurgence of feminism and an autonomous women's movement in Italy. It regularly carries discussions on housework, the abortion struggle, child-care facilities, health, consultori and the struggles of women in both the cities and the rural areas.
Espagne en Lutte, Bulletin du comite unitaire de solidarite avec le peuple d'Espagne (CUSPE), No. 7 (May 1977), Paris, France.
Includes a 23-point manifesto of the Union Popular de las Mujeres (UPM) in Spain, which covers the demands and statements about socialism that this Union is making. Seems to be well-placed within the Left, although the Union itself claims to cross all classes, and be made up of women only. (ISIS 336)
Les Communistes et la condition de la femme: conference des partis communistes et ouvriers des pays capitalistes d'Europe, Roma, November 1974, 18 pp. French, (printed in Switzerland).
Two papers which came out of the Rome conference of communist and workers' parties of capitalist European countries (November 1974) are reproduced here. In very familiar left-wing polemic style, the first gives details of the position of the communist parties on women's problems, with emphasis on women as the flexible labour force, and the second is a memorandum addressed to the United Nations and other international organizations with suggestions as to steps to be taken. These include the right to work (be in employment), the right to adequate social services, legal rights for women. Communist countries of Europe are held up as the shining example (!) (ISIS 318)
ANARCHA-FEMINISIM
Recently there has been a growing interest in some parts of the women's liberation movement about the relationship of feminism and anarchism. We are including here a list of some anarcha-feminist publications and groups.
Anarchism: The Feminist Connection by Peggy Kornegger. Available from Black Bear Anarcha-feminist pamphlets, 76 Peckham Road, London SE, U.K. Price: 30p.
According to a review in WIRES, "this pamphlet represents a first tentative step towards a feminist definition of anarchism. Read it - and then start on your own. But what does she say? Actually rather simple. Anarchism and feminism ... share an "incredible commonality of vision". Just that. She discusses briefly the stereotype (bombs) and the reality of anarchism: belief in the abolition of authority, hierarchy, government; belief in individuality and collectivity; belief in both spontaneity and organisation. She describes anarchist successes in the thirties in Spain and the relative successes in Paris of 1968. But what stops us making the connection, she asks? Basically it's that we live in and are conditioned by an authoritarian society, that the way we think reflects this, and that we just don't have the non-authoritarian language available to even conceive of a non-authoritarian society. We may, as women, be natural anarchists - but we just don't know it. "
Open Road, Box 6135, Station G, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6R 4GT
The autumn 1977 issue of this anarchist newspaper contains an article on Anarcha-Feminism which reviews some of the publications available.
Zero, c/o Rising Free, 182 Upper St., Islington. London N1, U.K.
An anarchist/Anarcha-feminist monthly, containing articles, lists of events, publications and anarcha-feminist groups and contacts.
Anarchist Women's Network, c/o Sophie Lewis, 43 Grosvenor Terr., Bootham, York, U.K.
Publishes Anarchist Feminist Newsletter.
Revolting Women, P.O. Box 46571, Station G, Vancouver, B.C. Canada.
They say "we have made a commitment to study anarchist analysis and strategy, and hope to add our writings on the connections between feminism and anarchism to those relatively few that already exist." They would like to contact other anarchist feminists.
WOMEN IN SOCIALIST COUNTRIES
An analysis of the situation of women in socialist countries is important to the development of feminist socialist strategy. While feminist socialists agree that the liberation of women is not possible under capitalism, it does not follow that a socialist revolution will automatically bring about the liberation of women. It is useful to compare the situation of women's liberation in various socialist countries of the world not only for insights into the extent of women's liberation there, but also for analyses of the successes and failures of women's struggles in socialist revolutions and countries. We are including here a small selection of materials dealing specifically with women in socialist countries.
CHINA
The Women's Movement in China: A Selection of Readings, 1949 - 1973 edited by Elisabeth Croll, 1973, 115 pp. Available from: Russell Press Limited, 45 Gamble St., Nottingham, U.K.
An anthology of articles translated from Chinese newspapers and the publications of the Women's Federation, this booklet is, in the words of the editor, "on the structure, working methods and goals of the women's movement in China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It does not concentrate on the numerous success stories of the achievements of Chinese women, but on the collective organised effort of the great numbers of Chinese women in both rural and urban areas to expand their public role and attain equality of status with men in the family and in all major sections of social, economic and political life". A copy of the Chinese marriage law of 1950 is also included.
Women in China, by Katie Curtin, 1975, 95 pp. Available from Pathfinder Press.
A Canadian feminist and socialist, Katie Curtin "describes the transformation that has taken place in the status of women in the quarter-century since the victory of the Chinese Revolution. She traces the development of the early feminist movement in China, shows how the Communist Party's whole-hearted support of women's emancipation at the time of its founding in the early 1920s changed to vacillation when the CP became Stalinized, and outlines the role women played in the civil war and the transformation of Chinese society" (from the back cover). Katie Curtin also takes a critical look at issues such as sexuality, birth control and abortion in China today.
Women and Child Care in China, by Ruth Sidel, Penguin Books, 207 pp.
A very interesting book by a woman who went to China to look at child care: birth control programs, pre-natal assistance, maternity leaves, child-care facilities. Ruth Sidel also compares Chinese child-rearing practices with those in Israel and the Soviet Union and raises the question of what aspects of the Chinese experience might be valuable in the USA.
Asian Women, special issue of Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, January - March 1975, 72 pp. Available from CCAS Bulletin, Bay Area Institute, 604 Mission St., room 1001, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.
This issue is devoted to articles on the situation of women in Asia, particularly India and China. Especially interesting is the article by Phyllis Andors on "Social Revolution and Women's Emancipation: China during the Great Leap Forward".
Ting Ling, Purged Feminist, by Akiyama Yoko. Available from Femintern Press, Box 5426, Tokyo International, Japan. Price: $ 1.20.
Ting Ling, an outstanding communist activist and writer in the People's Republic of China, was also a woman with radical feminist ideas. Her ideas on how women should be liberated came into conflict with the more orthodox views of the Chinese Communist Party and she was purged in 1957. This pamphlet contains an article on the life and works of Ting Ling; a translation of Ting Ling's Thoughts on the Eighth of March; and the Chinese Communist Party's attack of Ting Ling On Rereading Ting Ling's Thoughts on the Eighth of March by Lin Shiau Hwa.
EASTERN EUROPE AND SOVIET UNION
Soviet Women by William M. Mandel, Anchor Books/ Doubleday, New York 350 pp.
Based on considerable research and visits to the USSR and extensive knowledge of and discussions with both Soviet women and women who have lived in the Soviet Union, this very readable book looks at the history of women's emancipation in the USSR and examines in considerable detail the present status of women there now. It paints a very glowing picture, giving ample evidence for a more than-favourable comparison with the situation of women in the USA. For this reason, there have been extremely varied reactions to the book from women around the world, some saying it is exaggerated, others that it is a clear, coherent and very welcome document. The author certainly consciously writes in order to dispel the "picture of unsmiling gray uniformity and brainwashing created by the American press and electronic media" (p. 204), and succeeds well.
This is an important historical and contemporary document on Soviet women, and highly recommended by the Women's History Research Library in Berkeley who also aided in the research for the book. Includes an extremely comprehensive bibliography on women in USSR.
Women and Socialism, by Hilda Scott, Allison & Busby, London 1976. 240 pp.
Hilda Scott, who lived for 25 years in Czechoslovakia, sets out to examine "What did happen in the daily lives of women in post war East European countries, when an attempt was made to put a consistent body of ideas about the liberation of women into practice in a changed social order". With sources mostly from Czechoslovakia, but including the situation in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, the book is a factual account of legislation, trends, attitudes, a social and political history of women as well as an analysis of how a society basing itself on Marxism sets out to make men and women equal. But it is also a dialogue with the women's movement in the West, with an informal discussion of such questions as protective legislation and a woman's right to chosse. There is recurrent reference to the relationship between the Soviet Union a and the other Socialist countries.
"Hilda Scott's main conclusion is that the fundamental problem in the Socialist countries remains their inability to recognise that 'a system of priorities (which) rests on a concept of equality according to which men and women are equal but different and it is woman who deviates from the standard' can never guarantee woman's equal status." The whole area of reproduction and sexuality has not been adequately approached by women in Eastern European countries. (Quotations and summary taken from an excellent review of the book by Katriona Graham in Red Rag no. 12 (Spring 1977, London).
Women of the Whole World, Journal of the Women's International Democratic Federation. Quarterly from Unter den Linden 13, 108 Berlin, German Democratic Republic. Price USS 2.50.
Produced by an organisation whose member groups are from countries with strong political ties with the Soviet Union, this Journal nonetheless has a very varied mix of articles from all over the world some of which are important and informative. Published in English, Arabic, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
The Situation of Women in Hungary, E. Szuhay Havas, National Council of Women, Budapest, 1975. 54 pp. A descriptive and partially analytical account showing that the situation of Hungarian women is certainly not perfect. Gives especially the example of the majority of working women being in low-paid unskilled jobs. Also describes the great progress and improvements that have been made for women since the War.
Women in Eastern Europe, from Barbara Holland, CREES, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, Irregular mimeographed newsletter containing reviews and articles.
VIETNAM
Women of Viet Nam, by Arlene Eisen Bergman, Peoples Press, USA (revised edition 1975) distributed outside USA by Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DN, England. 224 pp.
Reviewed in ISIS Bulletin No. 3 p. 21. A well documented and nicely produced study.
CUBA
Cuban Women Now, Margaret Randall, Women's Press & Dumont Press Graphix, Toronto, 1974, 376 pp.
A series of interviews with Cuban women who describe their lives in revolutionary Cuba, providing insights into the ways in which the Cuban revolution has been instrumental in liberating women from their traditional roles, and also its limitations.
A Bibliography on Cuban Women in the Twentieth Century, Nelson P.Valdes, Center for Latin American Studies, University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.