ABSTRACT
The women’s section of the Russian Communist Party (Zhenotdel) functioned from 1918 to 1930 as an organization to draw women workers and peasants into socialist construction and to educate them in the spirit of socialism. Later historians have had considerable debates, however, as to the degree of its autonomy and effective agency. Overall its work encompassed five main areas: (1) organizational work among women; (2) publishing work; (3) work in maternity and childcare as well as the broad improvement of daily life; (4) improving women’s position in the labor force; and (5) equal rights legislation. From the beginning, the women’s section activists had to strike a balance between trying to advocate for women’s emancipation and self-realization, on the one hand, and carrying out the tasks of the party, on the other.
