Women-Representatives In Revolutionary Russia - Book Report/Review Example

Women-Representatives In Revolutionary Russia In the revolutionary Russia, women maneuvered their way to gain recognition and raise gender concerns in the administration through a series of tactics. The role played by women representatives was essential although it became riddled with contradictory assertions. This is what emerges in Elizabeth A. Wood’s The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia as a paradox of identity. Wood’s book acts a framework to understand the women and society in the Russian revolution and 10 years after the revolution. Additionally, it provides a better understanding of the functioning of the Zhenotdel-the women’s unit of the Russian Communist party. This section focused its efforts on the emancipation of women and adequate representation of women in the new social and political order in Russia. The Zhenotdel was formed in 1919 and put emphasis on gender. It saw it as the main organizing principle in constructing the social order and influence the political landscape to incorporate more concerns for the women. It was driven by the existing state at the time- the women were reduced to the traditional “baba”-a term in the Russian context that describes a woman who is not educated and backward. In its efforts, Zhenotdel focused on integrating women in the new society that focused on fair and equal representation of the population. Gender contradictions relating to the sameness with men, yet the need to view women as different for fairness purposes is the paradox that the section had to navigate through. It faced challenges in forcing the acceptance of the assertions on the highly placed male leaders of the communist party. The women representatives’ process of comradeship was riddled with conflicting depiction of women roles and needs. Essentially, the women’s factions did not have a broad support from the government and its power was limited. It is only through persuasion and persistence that they represented their views to the authorities. All along, there was increased concern from the communist party 1leaders that the women representatives were not doing enough to support their efforts. The efforts of Zhenotdel were constantly looked down upon because they were accused of having ‘feminist deviations’. While Zhenotdel was advocating for creation of women comrades who were equal to their male counterparts, the party officials also felt that the section also dwelt hugely of feminism to get their way. To them, it only served to support their notion that women were weak and stupid and demonstrated dependence on men to help them make a long term assessment of their futures. Among the barriers that the women representatives faced was that mentality of men and the falling out in the unit. The issue of paradox of identity led to the separation leaving the unit helpless in the long run. The government saw that it had finally dealt with women issues. It is possible that the conflicting claims and demands from women were viewed as slowing the progress of the government and thus the resolve to end the unit. In its own way, the women representatives contributed to their own downfall. They efforts were rendered hopeless and lack of support demotivated them. This is evident in the wake of the implementation of the New Economic Policy. The efforts to turn babas into comrades are the major demonstration of paradox of identity. It implied that women had to be enlightened, to be incorporated into the new social order. At the same time, it meant that Zhenotdel rooted for the elimination of the perspective of women as it was in the traditional way. It is a conflict as it was the same thing that the women leaders would use to advocate for the rights of women in other lights. The group of women tried as much as possible to root for sameness in relation to employment. They planned to achieve this through of education of women and general acceptance in the society and the labor force. At that point, the group eliminated the view of women as traditional care givers and child bearers. They were as capable as their men. On the other hand, Zhenotdel pursued labor and maternity protection. This equates to extra treatment of women which was favored accommodated in the New Economic Policy. There was displacement of women in the labor force. Once again, the paradox of identity worked against the foundations of women’s inclusion in the economic and social Russian environment that Zhenotdel had worked so much to strengthen. The government showed that they had no plans to deal with this new menace of paradox of identity. Aleksandria Kollontai emerged to offer directives to approach the fate of women in the wake of the New Economic policy. She also questioned the decisions in the New Economic Policy that threatened to throw the foundations of women advocacy into shambles. She was dismissed in another showing of the tension that had built up between the comrades and Babas. The New Economic Policy of 1921 served to bring back the domination of the male “comrade’. The numbers of the men who had returned from battlefront was increasing and the efforts were focused on assimilating them in the workforce. For the babas, it meant that their efforts to be incorporated in the new social and political order through enlightenment were futile. They were back to the traditional role and they ideally had no strong representation. It is the identity –that of the enlightened woman that worked against them under NEP. Instead of the leadership and the society viewing them as useful because of their emancipation, they were attributed to negative influences on morals and political allegiances of their kids and the community in general. As a result of being enlightened comrades, they would no longer deal their traditional yet important roles that the society bestowed upon them naturally such as cooking and taking care of children. The babas were in a position, once again, that they could not do anything about. It was all blamed on the failed focus on woman comradeship. This kind of tension and confusion was synonymous with the abolishment of the Zhenotdel. This example of post revolution women in Russian bears a significant resemblance with other women advocacy issues in the world. In America, women rights group toil for the realization of equal rights in employment. However, a paradox emerges when they seek exceptional consideration especially when it concerns manufacturing and duty time. While equality is supposed to apply to all things, some women seek to leave early to attend to their families or handle less demanding work because they lack the “masculinity’ demanded. While they call for less consideration of women traditional roles in employment, they demand exceptions once again in reference to the same thing they want disregarded. This is a paradox in the workforce that often affects their recruitment negatively. Bibliography Wood, Elizabeth A. The baba and the comrade gender and politics in revolutionary Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. Read More