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p After the triumph of the OcLoher Revolution in Russia, which exerted an enormous revolutionising influence on the working people in the capitalist and colonial countries, the capitalist system began to lose one country after another. The second country to embark on the construction of socialism was Mongolia, in 1921, an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution took place in Mongolia, and in 1924 Mongolia was proclaimed a people’s republic.

p After the Second World War a series of countries parted company with the capitalist system. Once free of the nazi yoke, the peoples of Central and Southeast Europe gained their liberty and national independence, and set out on the road towards socialism.

p Following many years of armed struggle against the landowners and the compradore bourgeoisie, as well as against the foreign imperialists, the Chinese people overthrew the Kuomintang government and took power into their own hands. The People’s Republic of China was proclaimed 63 on October 1, 19’iil. Also after lengthy struggle the Korean People’s Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam embarked on the path of socialist development.

p The year 1959 saw the triumph of the revolution in Cuba—the first socialist revolution in the Western hemisphere.

p It is interesting to sec how the lives of women altered during the building of socialism and how the complex question of women’s status was resolved.

p A vital pre-condition for the revolutionary changes in the countries which embarked on the path of socialism was the struggle of the Communist and Workers’ Parties to unite and organise all the democratic forces during the Second World War.

p At the beginning of the war the countries of Central and Southeast Europe were occupied by nazi Germany. The nazis enslaved these peoples, introduced forced labour in factories and exterminated millions of people. The masses rose up with the working class against fascism and militarism. This gave rise to the anti-fascist popular fronts. Women made an invaluable contribution to the activities of these fronts and to the antifascist Resistance movement. Thousands upon thousands of women in Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia and Albania fought in partisan detachments and worked in the underground, constantly exposing themselves to mortal danger. They used to shelter partisans and Resistance fighters, supplied them with food, clothing and footwear, tended the sick and wounded, and distributed underground newspapers and leaflets.

p The women of China, Korea and Indochina 64 played an active part in the national liberation struggle against the Japanese.

p The people of Vietnam headed in the direction of socialism during their determined struggle against the colonisers—first the French and then the American imperialists. Women were always among those who either with arms in hand or through selfless work in the rear struggled for the freedom and national independence of the Vietnamese people. Throughout the years of struggle they displayed unprecedented heroism, valour, resourcefulness and self-sacrifice. Under enemy fire they threaded their way along narrow trails in order to deliver ammunition and food to those who were fighting, repaired damaged bridges and roads, dug air-raid and bomb shelters and acted as commanders and crews of anti-aircraft units and as nurses. At the same time, they raised and educated their children and did their utmost to keep them healthy.

p With the support of the USSR and other tocialist countries and with the help of all the peace forces, the Vietnamese people brought the war in Vietnam to an end and secured the withdrawal of the American aggressors. The women of Vietnam, like the whole Vietnamese people, stand on guard of their gains.

p During the liberation struggle both in Europe and in Asia progressive women’s organisations arose, and they performed a great deal of political and educational work among women, organised them for the struggle against foreign invaders and taught them to hate all kinds of oppressors and exploiters. The experience acquired during these years formed the basis for all the subsequent activities of the women’s organisations in the socialist countries of Europe and Asia.

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p The important role played by women during the liberation struggle enhanced their authority in socio-political life. Consequently, it was a vital necessity after the liberation that the new role of women in society and the family should be acknowledged constitutionally, legislatively and practically.

p The triumph of people’s revolutions in a number of countries in Central and Southeast Europe and in Asia was accompanied by fundamental reforms which changed the status of women. People’s power effected important social changes in these countries. The peoples received democratic rights and freedoms. Agrarian reform was carried out in the countryside. In addition to the solution of these problems, the first steps were taken towards ending the inequality between women and men.

p First of all, it was necessary to give effect to women’s basic rights—the right to work, education and an equal status in society and in the family. Legislation was passed ensuring women’s labour and political rights, and the protection of mother and child, and regulating marriage and the family.

p Thus, immediately after the liberation of Poland from the riazi occupation the manifesto of the Polish Committee of National Liberation was proclaimed on July 22, 1944, during the early stages of the people’s democratic revolution—the first act which established the power of the working people of town and country in Poland. The document affirmed the complete equality of women.

p One of the basic laws adopted by people’s power in Bulgaria after its victory on September 9, 1944, was the law published on October 16, 66 1944, on the equality of women. H sol in motion a revision of ali the old laws which discriminated against women. Women’s equality was confirmed by Article 72 of the Bulgarian Constitution adopted in December 1947. Article 36 of the new Constitution (May 1971), which women had a hand in drafting, states that "in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria women have the same rights as men".

p Article 14 of Rumania’s Labour Code declares: "In the Socialist Republic of Rumania women are provided with broad opportunities for upholding... their complete social equality with men. They receive equal pay for equal work, and this is guaranteed by special measures. Women are guaranteed the right to occupy any post or do any job in accordance with their training, so that they can make their contribution to the development of material production and creative cultural work, and, at the same time, the necessary conditions for the upbringing of children are ensured.”

p Radical changes in the lives of women have also occurred in the Asian countries that have embarked on the building of socialism.

p As a result of the triumph of the August Revolution of 1945, all the laws relating to women that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam inherited from the old system were abolished. Under the colonial and feudal regime the women of Vietnam possessed no rights. 95 per cent of the women could neither read nor write, and so they worked mainly as domestic servants and as daylabourers on plantations and at factories, where they were cruelly exploited. The woman was a slave in society and in the family.

p Thanks to the revolution, Vietnamese women were granted equal rights with men in all spheres of the country’s life. Article 24 of the DRV’s 67 Constitution defines women’s rights in the following terms: "Women in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of life: political, economic, cultural, social and family.

_p “For equal work women enjoy equal pay with men. The State ensures that women workers and office employees have fully-paid periods of leave before and after childbirth.

_p “The State protects the rights of mother and child, and provides kindergartens.

p “The State protects marriage and the family.”

p The basic rights of working women that are established in the constitutions of the socialist countries have been further developed and made more specific in a whole series of labour codes and other legislative acts and decrees.

p This has enabled women to participate on terms of complete equality in the rehabilitation of their countries’ war-ravaged economies, in the implementation of agrarian reform and in the organisation of state and cultural life.

p However, the first steps along the path of socialist development, and also the experience of the Soviet Union have shown that the true equality of women and their full-fledged participation in all spheres of social life can only be achieved when women are enabled to receive an education and training for skilled jobs and to raise their cultural and political level (it should be remembered that in a number of countries—Mongolia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Vietnam, China, Korea and Cuba—many women were illiterate). It was necessary to set up and constantly expand the network of children’s institutions and public utilities that lightened women’s housework, and to help them bring up children.

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p From the very J’irst steps in the building of a new society people’s power paved the way materially for guaranteeing women’s equality: industrial enterprises and educational establishments, cheap and good-quality housing, and children’s institutions were built, services were developed, and so on. At the same time, practical effect was also given to women’s real equality in state and public life. A large amount of ideological and educative work was carried out among the population.

p A similar situation obtained in the People’s Republic of China up to the 1960s, when as a result of the failure of the "Big Leap" there was a cutback in the employment of women, which did much to revive a feudal attitude towards women.

p The period of the "cultural revolution”, which dislocated economic and socio-political life in the country, had a negative effect on the status of women in China. Founded in 1949, the AllChina Democratic Women’s Federation, which was supposed to complement the state bodies in upholding the interests of women and involving them in the country’s productive and socio-political life, actually ceased its activities throughout the period. In 1966, its ties with the international democratic women’s movement were also broken off.

p Press reports indicate that women in China are still in an inferior position. Despite the fact that the PRC ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Convention No. 100 Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, there is still a difference in the payment of men and women. The magazine Hungchi, the ideological organ of 69 the Communist Party of China, commented that there were many instances when "the most industrious and dexterous of women are paid no more than 70-80 percent of the wages received by men”.

The Chinese press shows that such views as "a woman cannot do the same work as a man”, "two women cannot replace one man”, and so on, are very widespread. Frequently, particularly in rural districts, parents do not send girls to school, believing that "reading, writing and a speciality are no use to them”, since girls "will just get married and become housewives, so it’s better to make use of them on housework or on unskilled work in production than to give them an education".