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p The removal of all harriers preventing women from achieving an equal footing with men in government and social activity depends on the successful outcome of the struggle of the working class, and of all working people against all forms of inequality born of capitalism. Women acquire genuine equality only with the aholition of all forms of oppression, i.e., under socialism. But already in capitalist society working women manage considerably to broaden their rights by taking part in the democratic working-class movement, and thus enhance their political awareness and political activity.

p The October Socialist Revolution in Russia, which proclaimed and ensured the equality of women and men, played a major role in helping women win political rights. As a result of the upswing in the revolutionary and strike movements and the demonstrations for peace and in support of Soviet Russia women were accorded political rights in a number of capitalist countries. Germany, for instance, introduced universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot at the time of the revolutionary events of 1918 whose chief motive force was the working class. The mass 131 working-class movement which took shape in England in the years of World War I and gained momentum under the impact of the October Revolution in Russia forced the bourgeoisie into making a series of concessions to the working people, including the extension of suffrage to a part of the women (1918).

p The working-class and democratic movement in the United States acquired a mass character likewise under the influence of the October Revolution. While coming out in support of Soviet Russia the working people of the USA sought to improve their living standard and win civil liberties. In August 1920, under the pressure of women’s organisations the US Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which granted women franchise throughout the country.

p That the October Revolution stimulated the women’s fight for political rights is borne out by the following fact. In 24 years preceding the Revolution (1893-1917) only six countries promulgated laws according women equal rights while within a single decade of it similar laws were passed in 17 countries.

p But the bourgeoisie which was pressured by the working-class and democratic movement to extend suffrage to women at the same time strove to restrict it as much as it could, taking advantage of the inadequate political awareness of a part of the women in its own interests. This trend was manifest in the tactics of the English bourgeoisie. In 1918, suffrage was extended solely to women who owned houses or who were the wives of house owners and then only to those of them who had reached the age of thirty. As a result out of 11 million British women not less than five million, including young women and a large number of 132 women industrial workers, were not, entitled to vote.

p The ruling classes intended to use women voters to further their interests at the forthcoming 1919 general election. It was hoped that the votes of women, who were generally conservative and most of whom were influenced by the Church, would outweigh the votes cast by demobilised soldiers many of whom were dissatisfied with the existing system.

p It is noteworthy that the laws granting women political rights on an equal basis with men was passed in England in 1928 shortly after the great strike movement of 1926 which shook the English bourgeois society and forced the ruling class to make fresh concessions to the working people.

p Under the impact of the fundamental changes which had taken place in the world after the Second World War—the emergence of the world socialist system and its mounting influence on the international scene, the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism, the development of the world communist, working-class and democratic movement—most capitalist countries and countries which had freed themselves of colonial and imperialist dependence passed laws according women equal rights with men; many women were elected to representative institutions and received high state, administrative, judicial and diplomatic posts.

p In its Charter, the UN proclaimed the equality of men and women in all fields of social and political activity as one of its basic objectives. The principle that men and women have equal rights is set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 21), approved by the UN General Assembly, in the International Covenant on 133 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 1952, the UN General Assembly adopted a Convention on the Political Rights of Women proclaiming the right of women to elect and be elected to all elective bodies on an equal basis with men and to hold government posts and fulfil any social and government functions.

p The UN Declaration on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women approved by the 22nd UN General Assembly on November 7, 1967 marked a new stage in recognising the equality of women. The Declaration confirmed the women’s political rights defined in the 1952 Convention. In 1972, women legally had the same political rights as men in 129 countries. All these gains became possible thanks to the efforts of all progressive forces in the world.

p The significance of UN documents relating to women’s political rights is not the same in all countries. In some of them they signify the consolidation of the equality of women in political and social activity which they had already won, while in others, where women under the law do not have equal rights with men, they are a programme for the struggle to secure the adoption of corresponding legislation. The important problem currently facing all capitalist countries is that of ensuring the practical implementation of the principles formulated in their constitutions, laws and other state acts, and also in the UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women.

p Even today in all advanced capitalist countries, in spite of their professed democracy, women in effect do not have equal political rights. The legislation of many countries makes it 134 impossible to assign women to government posls. The Belgian Constitution, for example, reserves the right to "fulfil royal assignments" to men only. Therefore when Belgium ratified the Convention on the Rights of Women, it did so with a reservation to Paragraph 3 (on granting women the same rights as men to hold government posts), saying that Belgian government offices would themselves determine the conditions on which women would be permitted to hold government posts.

p In all capitalist countries there is a gap between the formal recognition of the right of women to participate in social and political activity and its implementation, that is to say, the actual influence exerted by women on the solution of their respective country’s domestic and foreign policy issues. Women do not participate in the state administration on a broad basis. Only a small number of them, mainly those coming from the propertied classes are appointed to government and administrative posts. This is one more proof of the correctness of Lenin’s words: "... wherever there is capitalism, wherever there is private property in land and factories, wherever the power of capital is preserved, the men retain their privileges."  [134•1 

p The adoption of relevant legislation is merely the first step towards the genuine equality of women. Whether they are able to exercise their equal rights depends directly on the social and political system in their respective countries, the level of democratic development and the progressive social and economic transformations that are actually implemented.

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p There are vast potential opportunities for the participation of women in the general antiimperialist struggle and the international working-class and democratic movement. But serious difficulties stand in their way. A large number of women have only recently joined the labour force; they have no experience of class struggle and public activity and many are politically immature. They are vulnerable to bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology and are strongly influenced by the false notions of their backwardness and inferiority and the belief that social and political activity is none of their business which had been cultivated in them in the course of many centuries. In order to bring up children women often make a long break in their professional activity thus getting out of touch with their labour collectives, their interests and struggle. The lack of low-cost public services, a shortage of pre-school children’s institutions, unsatisfactory system of school education and other similar factors make it necessary for working women to carry the doxible burden of professional employment and housework preventing them from taking an active part in social and political life.

p And yet women who participate in social labour come to realise its importance for society and acquire an urge to raise their skill and cultural level. They become" interested in social and political activity and come to apprehend the meaning and magnitude of capitalist exploitation to which they are subjected so that eventually they willingly join the struggle against imperialism and monopoly rule. Working women demand an end to discrimination in payment for work, equal civil rights with the men, 136 introduction of maternity protection measures, etc., and participate in the working-class, democratic, anti-monopoly movement.

p In spite of diverse factors which make it difficult for women in capitalist countries to participate in political activity, the assertions of bourgeois ideologists about the political passivity of the women are absolutely groundless. According to official data absenteeism among women voters in France, Finland, the FRG and other countries is lower than among the men. But not all women vote for candidates nominated by genuinely democratic parties, which can represent and safeguard their interests, and often cast their votes for representatives of parties whose programmes are an obstacle to their genuine equality. Of the total number of people who voted for the Finnish People’s Democratic League in the 1970 elections in Finland only 40 per cent were women; at the same time women accounted for 62 per cent of the votes polled by the Conservative National Coalition Party.

p In many countries adult women comprise a slightly larger group of the population than men, making up the majority of the voters. In 1966, women accounted for 51 per cent of the voters in the USA, 53 per cent in France and 55 per cent in the FRG. It follows that the election results largely depend on women voters who are often instrumental in bringing one or another party to power.

p Yet, although in many capitalist countries the election results and consequently the composition of representative bodies at all levels depend on women voters, the proportion of elected women deputies ranges from a mere 2 to 7 per 137 cent. For instance, in 1975 women made up 4.7 per cent of the total number of members of the French National Assembly (four out of 482 deputies and seven out of 283 senators) the respective figures were 7 per cent for the FRG’s Bundestag and 6 per cent for Belgian Parliament.

p In capitalist countries it is much more difficult for women to become members of Parliament than it is for men. As a rule only a very small number of women are nominated for elections to Parliament. In France, for example, of the 3,092 candidates nominated for elections to National Assembly in 1973 only 201 were women. Very often women are nominated candidates in constituencies where they have no chance of being elected. Only eight out of 201 women candidates were elected in the 1973 French general elections, the remaining seats went tothe 476 men out of the 1,994 who had been nominated.

_p In some capitalist countries the number of women in representative bodies is steadily dwindling. Forty-eight women were elected to the Italian Parliament in 1948, 35 in 1953, 28 in 1958, 32 in 1963, and 29 in 1968 and 1972. In 1946, a total of 39 women deputies were elected to the French National Assembly, 23 in 1951, 9 in 1958, 8 in 1962, 10 in 1967, and 8 in 1973. In 1947, 15,000 women were elected to French municipal councils, 14,000 in 1953, 11,250 in 1959, 11,150 in 1965, and 11,050 in 1971.

p The number of women in the US Congress is also declining.

p In the US Congress there are only 18 women in the House of Representatives and none in the Senate. In 1970, women held only 318 out 138 of 7,700 posts in Federal and local legislative bodies.

p There are several reasons why there are more women in the local organs of power than in the central ones. Inasmuch as local organs in capitalist countries do not determine state policy, which is a realm monopolised by men, women are more freely admitted to these subordinate links of state administration. Another reason is that a much greater number of people are elected to these bodies than to Parliament. In Belgium, France, Switzerland, Great Britain and some other countries women were admitted first to local organs and only afterwards to parliamentary activity. It should be added that women who do not hold high administrative or political posts as a rule, have better chances of being elected where they are domiciled and are consequently better known. In 1975, in France there were 54 women out of 3,200 General Councillors, 671 women out of 37,708 mayors and 5.6 per cent women Municipal Councillors; in Belgium women mayors constituted 1.5 per cent and women Municipal Councillors, 5 per cent; in the FRG the respective figures were provincial councillors, 7 per cent and municipal councillors, 8 per cent.

p The broader participation of women in local organs is also due to the fact that their work in them does not require such a high level of political training as parliamentary activity. Since the duties of a municipal councillor are performed on the spot it is easier to combine them with domestic work. Finally, local self-government organs take up issues directly connected with the everyday life and activity of the women.

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p An analysis of data about the activity of local self-government bodies shows that women councillors prefer to work in commissions concerned with issues which are close to their interests. In 1971, seven out of 12 women councillors of the Paris municipal council worked in the aid-tochildren commission: three in the school commission, two in the housing commission and one in the hygienic commission.

p It should also be noted that women are much more active in the local progressive mass organisations than in local self-government bodies.

p Women display much greater enthusiasm for work in various public organisations on a local than on a national level. The French sociologist Marie-Therese Renard studied the participation of women in a number of public organisations in 12 French towns of diverse economic and political significance (Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Nancy, Besancon, Quimper, Tours, Chartres, Valence, Sarcelles, St. Briene, St. Nicolas)  [139•1  with populations ranging from 3,600 (St. Nicolas) to 535,784 (Lyons). According to her estimate of the total number of people active in various public organisations, many of which were of a mass nature, women comprised 6.2 per cent of the people working on social security and family allowances boards, 12.1 per cent in low-cost housing administrations, parents’ and teachers’ organisations, recreation committees, etc., 20.9 per cent in family associations, and 24.9 per cent in the trade unions.

p But she did not mention the participation of women in many organisations whose activity 140 was closely connected with the life of women (peace-fighters’ movement, movement for peace in Vietnam, various women’s organisations and others), or in political parties. In these 12 towns women municipal councillors comprised a mere 5 per cent of the total.

p Formally in the majority of bourgeois states there is no discrimination against women holding high government posts, but in practice they have no chance of getting such appointments. Thus at the end of the 1960s just over 20 women were in executive positions in the US government and diplomatic service. And out of more than 300 high administrative posts in the US Government apparatus only 13 were held by women.

p It is extremely difficult for women to enter the legal profession and be appointed to judiciary positions. In Belgium only 52 out of 2,353 magistrates are women and only 63 women lawyers out of a total of 1,290. In the USA in 1969 only eight women held positions of responsibility in the judiciary, two of them working in district courts, one in the customs court and three in the courts of the District of Columbia. Although women account for about 7 per cent of practising lawyers in the United States girl students make up only 4 per cent of the student body at higher law schools.

p Today the political rights accorded to women include the right to join political parlies, trade unions and various mass organisations. Women play a prominent part in mass actions in defence of the rights of the working people and in the movements for democracy, peace, social progress and national independence. Working women contribute their share to the anti-monopoly 141 struggle of the working class and democratic forces. They play a bigger part now in the class battles in France, Italy, Britain, the USA, Japan and other capitalist countries. But the working women’s activity and fighting capacity which come to the fore at the height of strike battles and political campaigns lack adequate organisation when the movement begins to wane.

p The involvement of women in the trade union movement enormously stimulates their activity. But the number of women in trade union associations is still small. In 1960, only one-seventh and in 1965 one-eighth of the total number of working women in the USA were members of the trade unions. Even though the aggravation of class contradictions and the upsurge of the strike movement has led to a certain increase in the inflow of women into the trade unions, they still make up a very small proportion of organised labour. In 1970, an estimated 4,300,000 women were trade union members—21 per cent of the total membership—and that in spite of the fact that women accounted for 36.2 per cent of the total employed labour force. This means that of the total of 29,700,000 employed women in the United States in 1970, more than 25,000,000 lacked the security enjoyed by trade union members.

p In its Programme the Communist Party of the United States pointed out that "women are virtually excluded from leadership in unions, even where they are a majority. Their struggle for equality, for entry into new fields of gainful occupation, for participation as equal partners at all levels of union leadership and for defense of children, home, family and community is the fight of all labor, it is the fight for labor’s unity, 142 for its increased strength against the capitalist enemy".

p Appreciating the great significance of the working women’s participation in the common struggle against imperialism, trade union organisations standing on positions of class struggle are making a great deal of effort to draw women into the trade unions and get them to play a greater part in the activities of the mass organisations of the working people. A case in point is the French General Confederation of Lahour. In 1972, ils Confederate General Committee included two women and the Administrative Commission twelve; fifty women were executive secretaries of the National Federations of the General Confederation of Labour and were members of their General Committees. For instance, the General Committee of the Metal Workers’ Federation included four women, two of whom were executive secretaries. Two hundred women in the General Confederation of Labour were members of the Executive Committees of its Federations and 350 were members of the leadership of departmental unions.

p The Confederation’s leadership is training women for professional trade union activity. Women participate in drawing up collective agreements, in the work of committees at enterprises and in discussing the working people’s demands. They study social and political issues in the system of trade union education organised by the Confederation.

p The extension of trade union rights has a beneficial effect on the status and activity of the working women. In France women acquired better opportunities to join in trade union activity following the powerful strike movement 143 which swept across the country in May and June 1968, and as a result of which, the trade unions won the right to carry on their work at enterprises and organise meetings during working hours (from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on the number of workers employed at a given enterprise). Women comprised a large portion of the 400,000 people who joined the General Confederation of Labour after the May and June events of 1968. The Confederation organised a mass discussion of issues of vital importance for the working women at meetings, such as the National Conference for the Reduction of the Working Day, National Meeting for Equal Pay, Conference on the Use of Woman Power, Professional Training and the Retraining of Women, etc. The General Confederation of Labour has special commissions working on problems hearing on the labour of women, their status in the family and so forth. Like other trade union associations the Confederation has a woman representative on the Commission on Questions of Female Labour at the Ministry of Labour. Specific problems relating to working women are a matter of constant concern to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). At its Seventh Congress (October 1969), it urged trade unions to increase their efforts to get the urgent demands of the working women satisfied and create conditions enabling women to play a greater part in trade u lion activity and be elected to leading trade union bodies.

p In order to help women unite in trade unions, to secure the defence of their interests and to train them for professional trade union activity, the Congress recommended the leading organs of the World Federation of Trade Unions and 144 Trade Union Internationals and national trade union centres to organise research, seminars and conferences on issues connected with the employment of women in industry and their role in social, political and government affairs. The Congress recommended the WFTU Secretariat periodically to convene a consultative trade union committee on prohlems of working women and its working group, and hoped that the WFTU would set up a standing specialised agency to protect the rights of women.

p The political domination of the bourgeoisie hinges on what is known as the multi-party system. But when hourgeois parties clash in a "bitter struggle" over secondary issues, particularly during the preparations for and in the course of elections, they in effect pursue one and the same class aims. Upholding as they do private ownership and the interests of monopoly capital, they cannot genuinely act in defence of the interests of the working people in general, and working women in particular. Bourgeois parties want to preserve in various forms the inequality, low cultural level and political passivity of the women in order to impede their participation in the anti-monopoly movement and keep them under their ideological influence.

p The bourgeoisie successfully exploits the circumstance that even in advanced capitalist countries there are many working women with a relatively low professional training and cultural level and inadequately developed class consciousness. Through a ramified system of various women’s organisations, clubs and benevolent societies, bourgeois ideologists seek to distract them from becoming actively involved in social and political life and to convince them that 145 although women are playing an increasing role in social production, their interests should be coni’med to the homo.

p The proportion of women in bourgeois parties is small, between five and ten per cent. In the FRG, in 1972, women comprised 12 per cent of the members of the Christian Democratic Union and 6 per cent of the Christian Social Union. However, taking the mounting political activity of the women and their evolution from a potential into a real force into account, some bourgeois parties endeavour to draw them into their ranks. The following example illustrates this point. In 1908, in the United States women comprised 17 per cent of the delegates to the Republican Party Convention and 13 per cent of the delegates to the Democratic Party Convention whereas in 1972, they made up 30 and 39 per cent respectively.

p While canvassing for women’s votes the bourgeois parties rarely help women get elected to representative bodies. In the US House of Representatives in 1972, there were only five women out of 247 Democrat members and another five women out of 187 Republican members.

p The proportion of women in Social-Democratic parties, just as the number of women socialists, in elected offices is somewhat bigger. Thus women make up 35 per cent of the membership of the Socialist Party of Austria. In the beginning of the 1970s women socialists held 6.3 per cent of the elected posts in all representative bodies of that country, while women members of the Austrian People’s Party accounted for 1.7 per cent. In 1972, women made up 22 per cent of the membership of the Social-Democratic Party 146 of Germany (FRG), 20 per cent of the SFIO (France), and from 25 to 30 per cent of the membership of Scandinavian Social-Democratic parties;

p Although in their programmes many socialist and Social-Democratic parties demand that the rights of the working women should be protected and support their efforts to have them extended, they do not consistently pursue this line and frequently make concessions to the bourgeoisie.

p Only the Communists—the vanguard of the working masses lighting for their vital interests, for peace, democracy and social progress—are waging a determined struggle for the equality of women in social and political life.

p Communist Parties in capitalist countries have to overcome many difficulties to get women elected to representative bodies. In 1967, 11 women were elected to the French National Assembly, including four from the French Communist Party (73 deputies), one from the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (116 deputies) and live from the Union for a New Republic (224 deputies).

p As they involve women into social and political activity, the Communists set themselves the task of turning them into genuine fighters of the anti-monopoly front and active Party members. Women account for a considerable proportion of the membership of Communist Parties in many developed capitalist countries: 27 per cent in France, 24 per cent in Finland, 21 per cent in Italy, 34 per cent in Great Britain, 33.4 per cent in Denmark, 29.3 per cent in the FRG, and 25 per cent in Sweden.

p There are good prospects for conducting work among women in countries where Communist 147 Parties have won strong positions in the local government bodies. The Communist Parties of Italy, Finland and Franco have gained considerable experience in using the local government bodies as links for establishing contact with wide sections of the working people, including women. It is the duty of a democratic municipal council to create conditions which would facilitate the everyday life of women, help them fulfil their maternal and family functions, and to increase their free time.

The Communist and Workers’ Parlies are consistent in their efforts to close the gap between the women’s role in social production and the extent of their participation in social life, between formal recognition of their political rights and the possibility to exercise them, that is, to actually influence the solution of the country’s domestic and foreign policy issues.