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WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: FROM SOCIALISM ... WHERETO?
Политология, современная политика. Статьи, заметки, фельетоны, исследования. Книги по политологии.
Independent, i.e. not initiated by the state women's movement is a social phenomenon caused by the systemic transformation that the countries of East/Central Europe, and new nation-states among them, are going through. Postcommunist society in Belarus is in a painful search of the idea which could unite the nation and give the way for further development. Women's movement is a part of the process of the new reality rethinking and of formation of civil society. This process is certainly a gendered one.
The emergence of independent movements is a mark of the weakening state control over social life: the extent of state involvement into these processes is more important than the country's development level. Women's movements are weak or non-existent, as it was in the USSR, when state control permeates the development of civil society. The new movement in Belarus could not have emerged without attempts at rethinking that personal and social agenda which could be identified as "women's" for any relation to the pre-revolutionary tradition of charitable and educational activities or participation in the national revival were lost; and there was no access to Western intellectual discourse of gender or the experience of post-colonial women's movements. The only women's organization, the state-run Committee of Soviet Women (the Union of Women of Belarus has become its successor) used as an instrument of power, was represented at enterprises by "zhensovets" (women committees). Their role, according to the socialist idea of "women's issues", was usually limited to distribution of goods being in deficit or sometimes to social support of mothers. During the perestroika "zhensovets", as well as all other social organizations, had a Renaissance period but belonging with the state they soon found themselves in oppostion to the democratic transformation which urged the emergence of movements of a new type.
In 1990 in Minsk there appeared the first independent women's group - Women's League; now there are several dozens of organizations. As a specificity of that initial period, most of the groups emerged in search for a "survival strategy" through self-help and social support, e.g. Mothers of Afganistan, Women's League "For Survival", Union of Single Mothers, Organization of Soldiers' Mothers, Association of Handicapped Children's Mothers, Union of Parents with Many Children (large families are not popular, even despised and almost always poor), Women's Charitable Fund "Faith, Hope, Love", "Social Initiative" and others. The reason for this "maternalist feminism" was the ambiguous situation created for women by economic restructuring, deconstruction of the old welfare system and ecological consequenses of Chernobyl. No other social group was so radically affected by the contradictions of economic development and new political processes: both heavy losses and new opportunities of individual choice. It is worth mentioning that Western political and social scientists consider one of the main results of postcommunism radical changes in gender relations leading to the exclusion of women from public space and their marginalization into the private realm.
In 1992 women constituted 81.4% of the unemployed which, to some extent, was a product of the protective legislation that had stressed women's reproductive function and implied primary support of motherhood but not parenthood. A welfare model that would not make women into expensive and "inconvenient" employees was never considered by those women's groups which were first to tackle the unemployment issue. They put most of their effort into starting new businesses and almost all failed, for several reasons. One of them was inadequate business tax legislation; others also were of institutional character. The popular way of getting initial capital through privatization of state enterprises was unattainable for women as they constituted an insignificant number of directors and top-rank managers.
There was also an attempt of retraining and developing some urban version of "cottage industry". Women were usually offered to learn needlework, sometimes accounting: the very concept resulted from the idea that women (but not men) would want to spend more time with the family. But this idea emerged in the country where the whole system of relations with the state, welfare included, was based on participation in labour force and paid work; leaving this sphere implied the loss of social status and social protection. Quite soon it became clear that one can hardly earn a living through home needlework, while flexible working hours are the privilege of high class professionals and not small office employees. With time there appeared a new retraining model based on the "Western" version of emancipation which provides opportunities for upward social mobility. Courses for women- entrepreneurs started at the Centre for Social Support of Women in cooperation with the EU TASIS programme require learning computer skills, foreign languages, basics of international and Belarussian law, management, business planning, marketing and psychology.
Any social and political transformation brings new definitions of gender roles and family values, and public discourse on these has been incessant in Belarus since 1980-ies. A popular call for "bringing women back to families" is presented in the media and by community leaders as an extremely positive model originating from the Slavic ethical tradition. This tradition does not consider the political part of the gender equality issue as politics is a formal sphere of human relations. Thus, emancipation is conferred to ethics only. Having survived through modernity, the "Slavic tradition" is taken by many as the only alternative to the Western technological and politicized civilization of the 20th century, while the woman becomes the "savior" of the mankind and disseminator of Christian values and humanistic ideas. Women's Movement of the National Salvation Fund expresses hope that societal revival will come through the woman who is viewed as possessing ulterior spiritual and moral qualities and as the guardian of the family. Spiritual revival in the form of return to traditional values, dissemination of humanistic Christian traditions are the goals of Ephrosinya Polotskaya Belarussian Women's Fund (Ephrosinya Polotskaya is an Orthodox female saint who lived in the 12th century; she is considered to be the guardian of the country). The Fund's activities are mainly centered on culture and education; it was one of the Fund's initiatives to celebrate the Day of Saint Ephrosinya Polotskaya in June as a national day. The attempt to start a national tradition was immediately "appropriated" by the state and now is not perceived as initiated by women. Another focus of the Fund's activities is bringing back the names and "history" of women who participated of the national revival movement at the turn of the centuries.
Current rethinking of the national idea in terms of independence and statehood is related to the "myth" of shared origin, experience or culture which ascribes different functions in biological and cultural reproduction of the nation as well as different roles in political space to men and women. Woman's place in this ideology is on the continium between motherhood and the symbol of Motherland. This ideology is attractive for many as it offers the inclusion of women into the sphere of "formal relations" and politics, but only as a supportive group with limited roles within the nation. Women's group "For the Revival of Motherland", active in the Belarusian opposition movement builds its human rights rhetorics on the idea of mothers supporting their sons which is incompatible with the liberal tradition of citizens supporting other citizens. To some extent it is related to the fact that Belarussian women lack collective perception of inequality or the idea of the social arrangement that can provide their inclusion as equal partners.
Liberalization of political processes has meant marginalization of women from decision making. As soon as deputies to the bodies of power started to be elected and not appointed the number of women there fell down to about 3%. Attempts to form women's factions in some parties and movements (for example, Social Democratic Gramada) were motivated by the need to strengthen party structure and not protect women's interests. That is why women's political party "Nadzeya" (Hope) founded in 1994 proclaimed as one of its goals active women's political participation. "Hope" which is based on the well-developed trade union structure is nowadays one of the most massive women's unions. As its main objective the party states "social and economic reforms promoting normal life and working conditions for women" and "building a democratic, welfare, rule-of-law state concerned with comprehensive development of creative potential and abilities of women, protection of mother and child and family values". Socialist rhetorics is undoubtedly dominating in this declaration. It can be regarded as the welfare agenda for the benefit of women and the family. "Hope" takes part in activities in support of economic situation of workers and in the ecological movement, it initiates oppinion poles and monitoring of women's situation in industry.
The efficiency of a social movement is not always dependent on the numbers of its participants, though this may be the most visible aspect. What is considered more important now is the existence of small but active local groups. They add dynamics to the movement as conscious collective activity for social changes with some degree of organization and active participation of their members as a resource. The Organization of Women-Workers which was founded in 1996 unites 19 primary and 9 city groups. It focuses on women-factory workers, semi or low-skilled, quite often living outside big urban centres and used to routine work. Working at factories and workers' hostels, the Organization teaches women to articulate their interests and fight for them. It catalyzes politicization of women: with workers, one can't discuss gender inequality outside the larger political and economic context.
Rethinking democratic changes in the countries in transition involves the elements of liberal democracy and capitalism on the one hand and remains of socialism as nostalgic idealization on the other. Women's Christian Democratic Movement of Belarus (an Associate member of Christian Democratic Union of Eastern Europe) which borrowed the idea of equal opportunities distinctive of Western welfare states and working to adapt it to the Belarussian context, is very active at organizing national seminars on women's issues. These include equal opportunities at the labour market, women in the media, ecological politics, development of the National Plan for the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Actions. The Movement started, With the support of the US Agency on International Development (US AID), Women's Educational and Consulting Centre which offers information, educational and consulting services for women.
One of the key issues of Western feminist discourse is violence against women as representation of the societal power structure (figuratively speaking, battered are those with no power), and fighting violence is regarded as political struggle leading to the deconstruction of power hierarchy. In Belarus, violence against women is slowly taking its place on the agenda of women's groups(Association of Young Christian Women is very active on this arena), mostly in responce to the initiatives of Western foundations and donors. What strikes is the interpretation given to the issue of violence in this country which is quite contrary to the Western discourse in the field. Sometimes at seminars on violence or at the organizations starting hot-lines and women's shelters one can learn that the roots of violence are in women's behaviour and if trained in ulterior morals and chastity women will not "provoke" violence by their behaviour. This view of the issue of distribution of power between the genders, which would astonish Western social scientists, signifies the lack of intellectual academic discourse in the field. What exists as a theoretical basis for the movement is formal human rights agenda.
Rejection of gender studies as a new paradigm of knowledge by scholars and public figures, or their reduction into "splitting by gender" typical of Soviet empirical sociology is the reality of the dialogue Eastern Europe/"western feminism". The reality of adaptation of a strange theory to the local situation is the publication of "Feminist Bulletin" by the Belarussian Association of University Women, international women's film festivals organized by women's film studio "Tatyana", and workshops held by the "Women's Discussion Club" or "New Faces".
The institutiolization of a social movement, its NGOization through a network of formally registered groups can be a responce to the outside support (starting an organization with the only purpose of getting a grant is a popular ideology everywhere). Finding a voice of one's own is possible through articulating one's owm pain. Women's movement of Belarus has come out of socialism and has left it.
Will it come to the idea that all people are sisters?
Опубликовано 14 мая 2014 года
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