A Draft of a Self-PortraitBy LIUDMILA POGORYELOVA
I’ll be talking about a status of woman in socialist Ukraine. I was born and raised in the USSR. When the break-up happened, I was already 26 years old. The great decline on each and every level of our society happened on my eyes. Like many other people, I think that the Soviet State achieved the world’s most significant results in both women’s rights and women’s advocacy.
Women and society
As in any industrial world, the factor that stimulated the advance of women from housekeeping and enter social life was World War I. The Russian Empire mobilized almost half of its battle-worthy male population to fight in that war and a civil war that followed. This situation required extra working hands on factories, plants and in the offices. Women of a young country became that workforce, in addition to their household and family responsibilities.
One of the first decrees of Soviet Government was about giving women rights to vote, about equality with men in pay, and about protection of motherhood. Women leaders and activists were involved into the development of state policy toward women’s status, family development and the defence of motherhood and children.
Besides that, a process of women emancipation in Soviet country was different from capitalist countries. There was no need in feminist movement in Soviet Union since emancipation was a part of Government policy, which was oriented on absolute equality of genders. Here I have to say that taking into account a lack of democracy, there were difficulties in starting any movement at all in the Soviet Union. Now, in capitalist Russia, this movement is free. At the same time, it shows that “negative social problems influence women heavily. As it was expressed, today’s politicians of democratic orientation see woman only from her traditional and instrumental position. On the contrary, old communist party politics regarding women question looks much friendlier.” (http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2002/081/analit03.php).
In a capitalist society employers tend to treat women like less-capable workers and pay them less then they pay men. Socialist system advocates strongly full equality between men and women in general, and their job payments in particular. You could often meet women directors, masters, professors, and supervisors. Everybody knows that the first woman-cosmonaut was a soviet woman Valentina Tereshkova.
Woman at home
Besides her full-time job, a married woman was responsible for the main part of a household and family work. Woman had pretty significant help from the government. Maternal leave lasted 1.5 years, with the 100% wages and the right to keep a job position. In order for the woman to keep working after she’s had a baby, a system of state kindergartens was organized around the whole country. Kindergartens were available for all children and were established in every neighbourhood. They opened at 7 am and closed at 7 pm. Some rooms were open for 24 hours and were for children whose parents worked shifts. Children were getting home-style meals 3 to 5 times a day, after-lunch sleep, playing, music, dance and sport activities and education. At the age of 5-6 years old, most children were able to read, write, count, and were ready for grade 1. All kindergartens were subsidized by the government, so parents paid very symbolic price, something like 5% of family income a month. Most factories and plants had their own kindergartens that served children of their employees, 100% free of charge.
That system of pre-school childcare institutions was absolutely unique. On top of providing quality care and education for the children with minimum cost for parents, they implemented their main role - to give woman opportunity to keep working full-time.
Education of children was compulsory. Boys and girls stayed at school till the age of 15. After graduation some of them could take two more years of academic studies, others could enter vocational schools. Children’s work for money was prohibited, except for seasonal agricultural jobs.
Every school had a cafeteria, where children were served home-style hot breakfasts, lunches and snacks. I spent 10 years at school and my lunch, which included a soup, main course, drink and a desert, always cost only 30 cents. No one child was hungry. No needs to tell how many children go to school hungry in rich and highly developed countries. To tell the truth we started to really appreciate our past achievements when we lost them, which happened with the breakdown of all system that was built and enhanced for years.
All levels of education in the Soviet Union, including Universities were free of charge. There was no such thing as tuition. Not only didn’t you pay for your studies, the government paid you scholarship if your marks were higher than 60 % or your family income was low. In addition, out-of-town students were provided with low-rate student residents with all services involved. After graduation young specialists were directed to their workplaces where their profile was in demand.
Men and women were treated absolutely equal when accepted for Universities, job places or elected for state or civil position.
Woman and medical care
Overall, medical care was organized in a system of clinics and hospitals. Clinics usually had all specialists as well as laboratories and rehabilitation rooms at one building.
When ill, you could come to the clinic and visit few doctors-specialists at once. Women could go directly to the gynaecologists without being referred and without many-weeks waiting period. Individuals who needed to improve their health could get medical resort tickets from their trade union for 25% of the real cost. The rest of the cost was paid by the state.
With the downfall of Soviet Union women of post-Soviet countries lost many rights and privileges. High level of unemployment keeps women at home. Many of them agree to work for much less pay then men. Many attractive young women earn their bread by prostitution or serving rich businessmen. A lot of women were urged to leave their families and take jobs, mostly, primitive, in more prosperous countries, like Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. Many kindergartens became private and very expensive. Others closed because number of children attending them dropped down. It happens partly because overall less children are born, and partly because many mothers stay at home.
Level of education declined. Students that would have been competing for better grades to enter Universities now understood that the key to post-secondary education was money.
Number of suicides, especially among young capable of working men went up significantly. Feeling that they are not able to put bread on a table no matter how hard they try, they leave their families devastated.
It is easy to break, and it is hard to build. 20th century elapsed under the sign of struggle between socialism and capitalism. In the course of that struggle capitalism elaborated new highly effective protective means that allowed it not only to extend its existence, but also to defeat socialist system.
Marxism asserts that history repeats
itself, but on the higher, more developed level. I believe that
socialism will reappear. Based on our experience, on sovereignty of
people, public property and planned and controlled economy, it will
provide future progress of human civilization.
A Draft of a Self-PortraitBy Stojanka Radenovic-Petkovic
When asked when I was born
I got reminded that trough my
birth may other births occur
When asked, what’s your name
I say Eve, Sara, Mary, Nada and Helen and other immortal and mortal names
Carrying the burden of many names
spoken and unspoken I step into the world
followed by grass fields of my homeland
A thorny wild roses wreath
is over my brow and wild flower
of many colors are blooming on my chest
Empty poetic books under my arm
with letters still in my pen
many unvoiced songs I’m carrying
Often I meet other lonely people
hurt on a lonely path of life
and armies of unarmed mothers hurting
While passing I look into many
alien strange and familiar faces
I’m mirroring in all of them
And I’m folding all images I met
and their midnight loneliness
with a gentle touch of awareness
Among them are world women
beggars for peace and love
generously offering a life for life
And my voice is in somebody’s ear
other women’s voices are in mine
guarding my awaking and my sleep
In the end I show my unwritten book
Many say they see me and know me
Yes, that’s her Sarah and Eve, Mary and Helen…
Say, her real name is Women in fact!
She stood her ground
and she found that
she could move the mountain
that stood in her way
she could change the course of rivers to flow her way,
she could make the song less fate
sing to her tune,
she could fly o the sky
and touch the moon.
All this she could do, she found,
by simply and firmly
standing her ground.
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