Women and Men in Eastern Bloc Communist Parties
Christian, Michel
Women and Men in Eastern Bloc Communist Parties - 2015.
62
This article deals with the role of women and men in ruling Communist Parties, focusing on the case of East Germany’s Social Unity Party (SED). Although women were consistently under-represented in the Party, female recruitment improved starting in the 1960s and ultimately became more energetic than male recruitment. Nevertheless, the recruitment of women reflected, and sometimes emphasised, the gendered characteristics of the various occupational sectors in which the Party was established, a phenomenon which could also be observed in the Communist Parties of Western Europe. Moreover, women were not comrades like any other. Either their specificity as women was denied in the name of a neutral model of militancy, which was in reality based on a male template, or, on the contrary, their specificity was highlighted, but ultimately used to limit their action to specialised spheres of activity seen as inherently feminine.
Women and Men in Eastern Bloc Communist Parties - 2015.
62
This article deals with the role of women and men in ruling Communist Parties, focusing on the case of East Germany’s Social Unity Party (SED). Although women were consistently under-represented in the Party, female recruitment improved starting in the 1960s and ultimately became more energetic than male recruitment. Nevertheless, the recruitment of women reflected, and sometimes emphasised, the gendered characteristics of the various occupational sectors in which the Party was established, a phenomenon which could also be observed in the Communist Parties of Western Europe. Moreover, women were not comrades like any other. Either their specificity as women was denied in the name of a neutral model of militancy, which was in reality based on a male template, or, on the contrary, their specificity was highlighted, but ultimately used to limit their action to specialised spheres of activity seen as inherently feminine.
Réseaux sociaux