Lifting the Double Burden: The Women’s Movement under State Socialism

Lydia, Agata, Anne and Rudy join for a discussion of Kristen Ghodsee's Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. We begin with the forgotten Communist history of International Women's Year (1975) which later became the United Nations Decade for Women (75-85), and the conflicts between the Western and Eastern blocs regarding women's liberation. We also discuss the double burden of women in Bulgaria, and how women's associations interfaced with the government. We then contrast Bulgaria to other Eastern Bloc countries, and also to the women's liberation movement in socialist Zambia, discussing how the double burden of women was alleviated but not eliminated in these countries. We also discuss the differences with Western feminism, and its pitfalls and advantages over the horizons of women's liberation under state socialism, highlighting the role of women's self-emancipation.