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11GENDER RELATIONS IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF RUSSIAN FEMINISTS IN THE
EARLY XXth CENTURY
Filipenko L.V.
Candidate of historical sciences, assistant of department of political science and philosophy
of the Kharkov national road-transport university
АННОТАЦИЯ
Несмотря на то, что термин « гендерные отношения» в начале ХХ века еще не существовал, вопросы о правах и обязанностях мужчин и женщин относительно друг друга и общества, о качественных характеристиках приписываемых каждому полу , о роли женщины в семье и обществе волновали участниц женского движения середины Х1Х и, особенно остро, начала ХХ века. Широкий спектр социальных проблем касающихся положения женщины в семье и обществе, пути устранения дискриминации во всех сферах жизни рассматривались феминистками того периода в рамках понятия «женский вопрос» и связанных с ним дефиниций. На основе публикаций ведущих российских феминистских журналов начала ХХ века - «Женского вестника» и «Союза женщин» в данной статье анализируются подходы участниц женского движения к пониманию и осмыслению указанных выше проблем. Журналы для исследования выбраны не случайно - они фактически были рупором наиболее влиятельных женских организаций того времени - «Женской прогрессивной партии» и «Союза женщин». В статье выделяются основные ценности и идеологии участниц российского женского движения, доказывается, что российский феминизм не был однородным по своей идеологической направленности, и, не смотря на знакомство с европейской традицией феминизма, все таки имел ряд особенностей.
ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that the term «gender relations» did not exist in the early XXth century did not exist, questions on the rights and responsibilities of men and women relative to each other and the society, on the quality characteristics attributed to each gender, on the role of a woman in the family and society troubled the members of the women's movement in the mid-XIXth century, particularly acute in the early XXth century. A wide range of social issues concerning the position of a woman in the family and society, ways to eliminate discrimination in all spheres of life were considered by the feminists of that period within the concept of «women's issue» and definitions connected with it. Based on the publications of the leading Russian feminist magazines of the early XXth century such as «Zhenskiy Vestnik» and «Soyuz Zhenshin» the present article analyzes the approaches of the women's movement participants to the understanding and comprehension of the stated problems. Magazines for the research are not chosen by chance. They were in fact the mouthpiece of the most influential women's organizations at the time - Women's Progressive Party (Zhenskaya Progressivnaya Partiya) and Women's Union (Soyuz Zhenshin). The article highlights fundamental values and ideologies of the participants of the Russian women's movement, it is proved that the Russian feminism was not homogeneous in its ideological orientation, and, in spite of the familiarity with the European tradition of feminism, it still had a number of distinctive features.
Ключевые слова: гендерные отношения, женский вопрос, феминизм, суфражизм, мизогинистский дискурс, равноправие.
Keywords: gender relations, women's issue, feminism, suffragism, misogyny discourse, equality.
Problem statement: The term «women's issue» is understood by most researchers as a system of social problems, including the status of women in family and society, as well as the ways of their emancipation from discrimination in all spheres of life. In the Russian Empire, the women's movement went on within the development of pan-European women's movement context but the understanding of women's issues had a number of peculiarities related to historical, cultural, economic and other factors. Women's magazines seem to be an important source for the study of the women's status including its social, economic and family aspects, i.e. the essence of "the woman question" concept. The most heated debates concerning the status of women were conducted on the pages of feminist women's magazines "Women's bulletin» (St. Petersburg, 1904-19017) and «Women's Union» (St. Petersburg, 1907-1909), which were actually the periodicals of the most influential women's organizations namely Women's Progressive Party and Women Equality Union.
Analysis of recent researches and publications: Most of modern domestic and foreign historians are inclined to believe that as an object of public attention «women's issue» raised in the middle of the nineteenth century at the end of the Crimean War and the beginning of Great Reformation Age [1,
p.9; 4, p.55, 7, p.63], although there must be mentioned a few attempts to prove that some struggle for women emancipation existed at earlier stages, namely in the second half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century [2]. Indeed, the idea of improving family and social status of women in the Russian empire had appeared long before the registration of the liberal movement; however for a long period they were spread only in a narrow circle of male intellectual elite and virtually had no response from women. The «women's issue» became a socially important question only in the 1860s when the ideal of a free individual acquired extraordinary popularity among the Russian intelligentsia and began to spread to women as well. By the way, this period was recorded as a «starting point» by the participants of the events. One of the «figures of the sixties», S.F. Goryanskaya, recalled: «The reformation in 1861 changed the entire economic structure of Russian life... It made a lot of untrained people, both men and women, to work. At that time new aspirations for independence and self-employment awakened among women. Those aspirations would help them break out from under the yoke and despotism within a family «[3,p. 118-119].
Highlighting previously unsolved aspects of the problem: The problem of the ideological foundations for the Russian
women's movement has remained understudied until today.
The aim of the study is to clarify the leading activists' positions within the Russian women's movement on the pages of women's feminist magazines, essentially concerning the concept of «women's issue» especially its moral and ethical, social and economic aspects. The aim also includes selection of ideas, values and ideologies specific to the women's movement participants in the early twentieth century.
The statement of main research: In the 1860s, during the statement and formulation of the «women's issue», its basic content applied to the rights of women for education and work. After further considerations the concept of «women's rights» significantly increased and on the verge of XIX - XX centuries included the right for property and the right to divorce, it also meant improvement of the situation in a family, struggle against prostitution and double standards in relation to genders etc. The «women's issue» gained an anthropological dimension, which was reflected in a comprehensive discussion on individual talent and particular fate of women [4, p. 56]. In addition, in Western Europe the great popularity was gained by John Stuart Mill's ideas, who in 1867 suggested his fellow parliamentarians a bill on granting women equal political rights with men and soon issued a joint work with H. Tayler «Conquest of the woman» where they were defending civil and political rights of women. Published in England in spring of 1869, it had four editions for two years in Russia having found here both passionate fans and serious critics [4, p. 114-116].
The analysis of ideological discourses and trends in contemporary European feminism has allowed historians and sociologists to distinguish several areas of feminism. Thus, N.L.Pushkareva writes about liberal feminists who seek to create equal opportunities for both genders' self-fulfillment; socialist feminists (Marxists) who view discrimination against women and conflict between the sexes as a result of antagonism within society based on private property; and radical feminists, for whom women are discriminated and exploited class that suffer from male monopoly in culture and sexual discrimination in everyday life and whose liberation is possible only by capturing all reproductive rights [5, p. 22]. Several researchers note the presence of different positions among European and Russian feminists in the late XIX - early XX century. Within European women's movement G.A.Temkina distinguishes the supporters of «liberal» paradigm, who recognized similarities and equality between genders and demanded equal treatment of men and women, and those who stood for «social-feminist» positions, recognizing the difference between genders and moral superiority of women and requiring their special protection [6, p.41]. I.I. Yukina describing solutions to «women's issue» outlined by then Russian public opinion concludes on the popularity of liberal and Marxist approaches in understanding the problem in question [7, p. 31-32].
Another point, that requires special elucidation, is antifeminist movement, which, according to R.Stites, was not properly organized in Russia [4, p. 225]. The most heated debate about «women's issue» took place initially, in the 1860 - 1870s [7, p. 82-123]. On the verge of XIX - XX centuries most of the arguments in support or refutation of the idea of women's equality were made and continued to broadcast almost unchanged. While highlighting the «women's issue» as a general
philosophical problem the conservatives restrict themselves to reissuing European works, such as «Love" and "Woman» by Jules Michelet (SPb., 1900), «Physiological imbecility of women» by P.Moebius (Moscow, 1909) and others. The only original approach was represented by L. Tolstoy's asceticism [4, p. 225]. Tolstoy had indisputable authority in Russian society, so his antifeminism was not denied but it was quite originally interpreted by the national women's movement supporters [8].
A new momentum for antifeminist demonstrations was provided by the work «Sex and character» by a German philosopher Otto Weininger which was published in Germany in 1903 and five years later reprinted in Russian. Otto Weininger proposed a theory of «bisexuality» according to which different proportions of «male» and «female» are present inside every personality and it causes a huge number of transitional stages between a man and a woman. Therefore, all people are bisexual and have a different representation of male and female qualities. However, the «male» and «female» according to Weininger - is unequal binary opposition, which determines the priority of the male over the female. The main qualities of an ideal human are male, an ideal woman is deprived of her «self», she is unable to create, so she only has two areas of self-fulfillment and they are motherhood and sexuality in the complete absence of morality. Women who succeed in male spheres of life belong to the intermediate gender, they are women with a «masculine» intellectual and spiritual potential [9]. Weininger's ideas found their followers in Russia but domestic misogynist discourse was not eventually shaped [7, p. 233].
Note that at those times domestic feminists also tried to find the origins of women's movement for equality, which is clearly indicated by the analysis of texts published in the feminist magazines of the early twentieth century. Thus, one of full-time journalists for «Women's Union», an active figure of Women Equality Union and a member of the Russian League for Women's Equality K.M.Shchepkina compiled a historical reference named «Women's issue and constitutionalism», where she attempted to reflect the allocation of «women's issue» as a particular social problem. She gave the palm of supremacy to a French philosopher and Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences Marquis J.A. Condorcet, who responded to the events of the Great French Revolution with an article « On admission of women to civil rights», where he required to remove all the prejudices that created inequality between men and women, explaining this phenomenon by historical reasons [10]. Later on Condorcet's article translation appeared on the pages of "Women's bulletin» [11].
Among other really symbolic figures in the Great French Revolution, whose heritage was vital for Russian feminists, there was a writer and journalist Olympe de Gouges (Marie Gouze), who submitted «Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen» to the National Convention in 1791. This declaration was an alternative to the «Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen» and argued that «a woman is born free and with equal rights of a man» so she can use all social, economic and political rights on a par with a man. Her ideas were widely cited in the Russian feminist and democratic periodicals, and her argument for equality in struggle and on the political arena ("If a woman has a right to ascend the scaffold, she should have a right to mount the rostrum «)
actually became feminists' national slogan. According to K.D. Kuskova, «Olympe de Gouges died on the scaffold, but her will has been executed by women of all countries fighting for equal access to all public positions, awards, professions and rights» [12].
In the feminist discourse men's power was considered as the basis for women's absence of rights. All the responsibility for injustice and imperfection of the world rested exclusively upon men: «Nowadays abusing their dominance men strive for organizing everything as they want, following their ideas about the common good, the ideas that are often selfish and one-sided» [13]. Only in rare cases the blame could be imputed to women: «It is us who gave the men a stick and bent down, waiting for a strike... We instilled in them the contempt for women because of our passivity» [14, p.15].
Women, who were often compared to slaves and serfs, would have to receive freedom by equalizing rights between men and women. The most complete program of activities needed to achieve equality was stated by M.I. Pokrovska who posted it in an address to the State Duma of the 4th convocation. In particular, this program included the following requirements: political (universal suffrage for men and women on the same basis), general democratic (freedom of speech, press, assembly and unions, inviolability of the person, abolition of capital punishment), moral and ethical (struggle against prostitution and alcoholism, liberating wives from subordination to men, introduction of the civil marriage along with the church one, increasing the reasons for divorce), economic (8-hour working day, equalizing payments between men's and women's labor, the introduction of factory female inspectors, equalizing rights to land between men and women, the settlement of house workers' labor), social (equal access to the service in state and public institutions, the right of women to be jurors and judges, maternity protection, maternity and old age insurance, equalization between illegitimate children and children born in wedlock; joint training of both sexes in all schools - lower, middle and higher; free education in all educational institutions; equalization of female education with men; organization of nurseries at all institutions that use female labor; installation of kindergartens by state and public institutions, homes for juvenile delinquents and prostitutes) [15]. Electoral rights to the State Duma were recognized the most important for women [15, p. 2]. According to M.I. Pokrovska, «only gaining equal political rights with men will give them equality with the latter in everything: in justice, education, property, family and employment» [16, p. 324]. Note that the main points of the action program proposed by M.I. Pokrovska coincide with the program of the Women's Progressive Party, whose founder she was. [17].
The publishers of another feminist magazine «Women's Union» did not offer such an extended program but identified themselves with the general women's movement «on the broad democratic platform of universal suffrage without distinction of sex, nationality and religion» [18, p. 1]. This suffrage was not defined as the ultimate goal of the women's movement; it was considered as «the closest target, means and instrument to achieve the main goal» - «with the participation of women in social and public life to bring justice to human relations... » [19, p. 2]. Imposing the responsibility for improving social
organization on women, feminists directly linked «women's issue» solution to the progress of mankind. The interests of women's community and public interest were often used in their writings as synonyms [7, p. 270].
Under the influence of socialist ideas the majority of feminists associated the desired justice with the new social system. M. O. Chekhova directly mentioned «the ideal of socialism», which can be only achieved «by politically equal women's participation» [20, p. 2].
The need for urgent struggle for women's rights was constantly emphasized by the activists of women's movement. After the proclamation of the October Manifesto of 1905 M.I. Pokrovska, in her article on the activities of the State Duma, stated: «Russian men can celebrate. They have received political rights. But Russian women have to say bitterly to themselves: we were deprived of civil rights and remain deprived of civil rights in rejuvenated Russia ... This situation has been intolerable for Russian women ... Therefore they need to concentrate all efforts on the acquisition of political rights in the nearest future»[16, p. 323]. Critics of the women's movement consistently pointed out the impertinence of women's demands, making reference to the difficult political conditions, they talked about the narrowness of the «women's issue» as opposed to the «universal issues», but the feminists' response was the same: « women's struggle for their rights and for their freedom is a fight for happiness of both genders» and it is a priority [14, p. 16]. Moreover, the struggle for women's right was recognized as women's moral duty [21] as «slavery corrupts a slave as much as it corrupts a slave owner» [22].
Among the other arguments of women's emancipation opponents there was an evidence of physical and mental advantages of male over female, indications of the special status of women because of their sexual functions such as pregnancy, birth, nursing, their fears of losing womanhood and the destruction of family values and so on. Even if these arguments attracted any attention of feminists at all they were criticized within the classical feminist discourse of the nineteenth century. Men's professional progress was explained by better conditions of education and training. Maternity function and women's close relationships with a child were recognized as an important factor in their spiritual growth but the existence of family values was doubted due to the rule of double morality and wives' total dependence on their husbands.
Thus the advocates of the equality ideas did not see serious arguments that would justify women's powerless and oppressed position.
Paying tribute to the ideas of women's special way to their development, domestic feminists were well aware of European feminists' ideas. Thus, a Swedish feminist E. Kay called for abolishing double standards in morality and suggested providing unmarried women with the right to love, sexual experience and children. In her view, the genius of women will take place in feelings as opposed to men who reach their genius in intellect [23; 24]. This Swedish writer formulated the «right to motherhood» that was immediately perceived in Germany, where the leader of the movement for motherhood R. Bray demanded an unlimited right for every woman to have a child and material support for his or her education. R. Bray believed that open marriage and the right to motherhood would be the
final solution of «women's issue». [25]
Recognizing E. Kay and R. Bray's contribution into development of sexual ethics, protection of motherhood and parenting, domestic feminists, however, tried to rethink their theories in more conventional categories of «equality.» Thus, concerning R. Bray's views, P. Dubovska, the correspondent of "Women's bulletin», found them quite fantastic. In her view, the "perfect marriage» as a free union and the «right to motherhood», proposed by the German feminist, can be realized only on the assumption of full rights and economic independence of women, i.e. «admission of women armed with knowledge to all areas of work on the same principles with men. «[25, p. 300].
It should be noted that similar thoughts conciliated liberal feminists with socialists, who emphasized the economic aspect of the «women's issue». The works by representatives of the German Socialist Party L. Brown and M. Lyshnevska attracted the most attention of domestic feminists. The main argument of their articles was the idea that women's emancipation is primarily economic emancipation. [26]
Solving the «women's issue» members of Russian women's movement were generally inclined to the ideology of liberal feminism aimed to equalize the rights of women and men in all spheres. At the same time on the pages of women's magazines we can find materials written under the influence of «Marxist», «radical» and «social» feminism ideas, which indicate both the domestic feminists' familiarity with the European tradition of feminism and the search for their own ideology that would best meet the realities of the Russian women's movement. [27].
It is not coincidentally that most of the participants of the Russian women's movement called themselves «ravnopravki» (women campaigning for equal rights with men) being wary of the concepts of «feminism» and «women's suffrage» which were associated with the European and American movement in the defense of women's emancipation. And the concept of «women's movement» was often considered as a synonym for «women's issue», which stipulated for joint action of women of all social classes, strata and groups.
Nevertheless, there were some discrepancies: «liberal» feminists were opposed by «Marxists» headed by E.Kollontay who deprecated the union of «burzhuazki' (women from wealthy circles) and female workers and called for joint action with the male proletariat. M.I.Pokrovskaya being inclined to «radical» feminism considered the struggle for equality as only women's affair. However, in any case, all participants in the debate around the «women's issue» agreed on one thing: as a result of the struggle for equality the «new» women will appear who will be free from the traditional gender stereotypes in their minds. Later this idea was accepted by the Bolsheviks, who proclaimed the solution of the «women's issue» and appearance of the «new» woman although they filled this concept with entirely different meaning.
Conclusion: The analysis of materials published in the feminist women's magazines of the early twentieth century suggests that, despite some differences in the approach to the struggle for women's equality, the Russian feminists belonged to a common feminist discourse within which the ideology of the Russian women's movement was formed and approved. This ideology became the most apparent in the interpretation
of «women's issue» and the related definitions: «feminism,» «women's suffrage» and «women's movement». Russian feminists of the early twentieth century understood «women's issue» much broader than the activists of the second half of the nineteenth century. The demands of equal access to the profession, payment and labor protection, electoral rights and regulation of marital relations etc. were made alongside with the demands of equality in the field of education (primary, secondary, higher) but the «new» woman appearance had to be the main purpose of solving the «women's issue».
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