French and Bolshevik Revolution - Essay Example

FRENCH REVOLUTION AND BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION Both French Revolution and Bolshevik Revolution brought no significant improvement inthe lives of the women. Before the revolution, the Soviet women were treated as typical housewives whose roles were only limited to the domestics chores. At the eruption of the World War I, these women had an opportunity to serve the nation at public level and their relentless efforts were notable as they strived to take up the roles of their absent husbands. Their reward was just but a handful of temporary rights which were later reversed by Joseph Stalin. The situation was not any different in France. The women were only defined by sex their and not by their innate capability and ambitions. Even though the Enlightenment writers seemed to advocate for women liberation, they had a limited scope; there was nothing like public rights. This essay shall critically evaluate various facets of both French Revolution and Bolshevik Revolution in an attempt to establish whether they really improved the lives of women. Years before the onset of Bolshevik Revolution, women had no voice in the Soviet Union. The women were treated as inferior sex that had no right to participate in any public event. In fact, most of them were left for peasantry jobs and house chores. The industrial jobs were preserved for men. Women would come from the farm and attend to her household at home. In France, the perception of women was not very far from that in Russia. The Enlightenment writers gave men more powers over women, just like John Locke had formulated. Rousseau, for instance, insisted on the traditional roles of women. He stated that women should limit their participation to family level. He discouraged any active participation of women in public and political events. Most women in France were, thus, peasants, laundresses and shopkeepers1. There was also no formal education for this gender. Education was only for few men who belonged to the middle and upper classes. A woman needed not to be educated, as claimed the chauvinists. Her work was to educate the girl child. The lack of formal education limited the chances of women securing job opportunities in some service industries. In France, Rousseau had argued that if a woman was to obtain any form of education, the knowledge should only be used to manage the family and not in any public offices. The arguments of Rousseau raise questions about his reasoning, him being a learned person. How can such a great scholar be in support of oppression? The French Revolution that began in 1790 was marred with numerous protests and violence2. The Feminists formed social circles that fought for equal political rights on behalf of the women. Many women were directly or indirectly involved in the revolutionary movement. Some women personally marched to king’s palace in Versailles, demanding for the improvement of life. In 1791, the female section was set up by women political club to advocate for their civil equality, property ownership and divorce rights. In the very year, Gouges published the “Declaration of the Rights of Women” to challenge the rights of men3. However, her proposals were never implemented and she suffered persecution from the government. The revolution did not stop. In the end, it brought women some rights. Through the National Assembly and Convention, there were rights such as equal boy and girl education, equal ownership to family property and legalized divorce. These rights improved the life of women in various ways. For instance, the right to education helped the women attain formal education and get good jobs. The ownership to property meant that women could now own land and cultivate. Legalization divorce helped women walk out of oppressive marriages. However, the women never gained any political right. It implied that they were still not allowed to vote or hold any political office. Politics is the pivot of all policies in a nation, yet the women were denied this opportunity. World War I marked the beginning of the rise of women in Soviet4. The eruption of the World War I was somehow good news and a relief for the women who had been eagerly waiting to unleash their potentiality. During the war period, most men were called off to the battle field. They could not resist but obey and leave their wives with their duties. Therefore, the Russian women had to take the places of their husbands and protect their families. Besides, the women also directly or indirectly participated in the battle. Some women actually wore the army combat and were taken to the battle fields. Those who were left at home assisted the soldiers by offering food and other supportive services. It was during this period that the women started to take advantage of the vacancies left by men in various industries. The number of women in industrial sectors gradually increased as most women left peasantry and house duties. To the amazement of the employers, the women were just as good as men. They were very submissive diligent workers. However, there was still no equality at workplace. The employers took advantage of these docile women and underpaid them. Men were receiving relatively receiving higher payments compared to women, even with equal workload. Furthermore, the women workers had been granted very minimal labor rights. Their rights were only compared to other women workers elsewhere and not to fellow men workers. They employers claimed that the women could not go on a strike however much they were oppressed. 1917 marked the beginning of the long awaited proletarian revolution that sought to relieve women from the aforesaid oppressions. The revolution was led by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. The core aim of the revolution was to obtain political and social equality for all, at workplace and at home. The Bolshevik revolution was based on Marxism ideologies that proposed “generalized wants”5. The Bolshevik revolution brought the realization of a number of women rights. These rights included but not limited to full legal rights, political rights, free abortion on demand, establishment of dining halls and laundries, day care for babies, equal opportunities in civil services, industries and armed forces. These rights somehow helped improved the quality of life for women. The full legal equality and rights enabled the women to fight for their legal rights in court. It lifted the burden of oppression on women. For instance, with this right, the women could now sue any person practiced oppressive act on them. The legal rights also paved way for divorce at the will of women, in the event that their marriages were becoming oppressive. The legal rights were not only limited to the domestic issues; it extended to public places and workplace. These women could now enjoy equal privileges as men did in the workplace. Their salaries were also adjusted to match their jobs.6 The abortion rights enabled the women to carry pregnancies at their will. The “free abortion at will” may immoral but it is not. Before, the women were not allowed to abort even if the pregnancy was unacceptable. For instance, if the baby was conceived as a result of incest or rape, the woman may not feel comfortable with it delivery. Many women also used to die as result of ectopic pregnancies. The only remedy for ectopic pregnancy is abortion yet the women had no such a right. This right, therefore, helped to sustain and improve the health of women. The establishment of dining halls and laundries relieved the women of the many house chores at home. Some men could take their clothes to the laundries as women do other constructive activities. With establishment of dining halls in most towns, the women did not have to spend better part of their day in the kitchen. Men and women could use these food outlets as they labor in the industries7. In essence, the establishment of dining halls and laundries helped the women save time and concentrate in income generating activities. The building of Day Care institutions did the same by taking care of the babies and allowing women to work. Equal opportunities in civil services, industries and armed forces enabled the women to explore the vast opportunities across the nation. The learned women could get the very lucrative jobs in the service industries. More women could be absorbed to work for the government. This meant reasonable payment for the women. The living standards of women slightly improved due to such opportunities. However, most conservative peasant women were not in support of the revolution. They associated it with the women in the upper social class. Therefore, the revolution never improved their lives at all. They also derailed the entire process of revolution due to the rift created between the women. All the rights that women gained in both the revolutions were quite cosmetic; they never last for long. In France, under the rule of Napoleon, the women lost most the rights attained through the revolution. Napoleon strongly stated that such rights were tampering with an ideal family structure. In the Soviet, Joseph Stalin reversed most of the rights, if not all. Through his Nationalism and conservative bureaucracy, most rights such as homosexuality were disrupted and criminalized. In 19368, Stalin criminalized abortion. The women were, once again, relegated to housewives. In conclusion, both French Revolution and Bolshevik Revolution partially and temporarily improved the lives of the women in those eras. The rights that the revolution brought never lasted as they had wished. Before they could even settle to enjoy these rights, they were already criminalized by the leaders of these nations. Women in France, particularly, never gained any political right. Therefore, the French revolution and the Bolshevik revolution never made any significant improvement in the lives of women. Bibliography Barbara, Evans. Bolshevik Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985 Bently, Jerry and Ziegler, Hebert. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past: New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013 Ferro, Marc. A Social History of the French Revolution. London: Routledge, 1980 Glickman, Rose. “Russian Factory Women”: Workplace and Society, 1880-1914. Berkley: University of California Press, 1984 Kollontai, Alexandra. Love of Worker Bees. 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