Ideology and Equality

Abstract

Socialism has had a mixed impact on the status of women in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. While women's roles have changed since the institution of socialist systems, the rate and extent of change in different areas of life have varied. The pattern of role change which has occured in these countries as the result of modernization and directed social change differs from that which has occurred more spontaneously in non-socialist countries, particularly in the areas of education and employment. Women in socialist states have greater access to higher education and are more often employed. But they remain at the fringes of economic and political power and are hindered by the persistence of a traditional division of labor within the home. This pattern is explained by reference to the differential commitments of socialist elites, who have tended to promote improvement in the status of women, only where it contributes to higher priority goals, such as modernization. Prospects for further change in the status of women in socialist and Western states are assessed.