Re: Socialism and Women's Leadership (was China Drafts Law to Boost Unionsand End Labor Abuse)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/14/06, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> > I remain a partisan of socialism, but there is one thing that makes me
> > doubt the excellence of socialism: virtual absence of women leaders in
> > hitherto existing socialist states and movements.
>
> Hypothesis:
>
> Socialist regimes result from a revolutionary movement, and the
> leadership of such states consists (for the most part) in those who
> achieved leadership within the revolutionary movement at an early stage.
> The 'problem'* then is to be found in the conditions which generate the
> leadership of embryonic socialist movements. Hence the question "Why so
> few women in the leadership of socialist states" can be seen to be
> _identical_ with the question, "Why so few women on lbo, pen-l, and
> marxism list?

No revolutionary movement has had as few women as lbo, pen-l, and
marxmail.  Take the one in Nepal.  While the leader of the CPN
(Maoist), too, is a man, you can see a lot of women in the rank and
file.  So, in the case of actual revolutionary movements, the problem
is dearth or absence of women in the most powerful positions, whereas
on the mailing lists you mention it's the dearth of women, period,
that's the problem.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
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