Soviet women gained economic equality yet remained bound to domestic roles

Evidence

This participation of woman in public life has raised a difficult problem: her role in family life. For a long while, means were sought to free her from her domestic constraints: on November 16, 1942, the plenary assembly of the Comintern proclaimed, “The revolution is impotent as long as the notion of family and family relations subsists.” Respect for free unions, liberalization of divorce, and legalization of abortion ensured woman’s liberty relative to men; laws for maternity leave, child-care centers, kindergartens, and so on lightened the burdens of motherhood. From passionate and contradictory witness reports, it is difficult to discern what woman’s concrete situation really was; what is sure is that today the demands of repopulation have given rise to a different family policy: the family has become the elementary social cell, and woman is both worker and housekeeper. Sexual morality is at its strictest; since the law of June 1936, reinforced by that of June 7, 1941, abortion has been banned and divorce almost suppressed; adultery is condemned by moral standards. Strictly subordinated to the state like all workers, strictly bound to the home, but with access to political life and the dignity that productive work gives, the Russian woman is in a singular situation that would be worth studying in its singularity; circumstances unfortunately prevent me from doing this. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 286

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s larger argument about how material/economic conquest does not in itself dissolve woman’s Otherness — resonates with later analysis of work and domesticity in Beauvoir’s own chapters. — connects to: Economic and social structures still subordinate women despite overturning the femininity myth — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675; Orthodox Marxism reduces woman’s oppression to economic capacity and class — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 144; Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920
• DEFINE: Illustrates Beauvoir’s ‘situation’ concept: equal legal status coexists with role prescriptions that keep woman subordinated to family and state.

Broader Connections

• Economic and social structures still subordinate women despite overturning the femininity myth #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• Economic emancipation alone does not place women in a situation identical to men’s #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1920
• Orthodox Marxism reduces woman’s oppression to economic capacity and class #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 144