Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

September 17, 2018
Eastern European studies professor Ghodsee (Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism) expands her viral New York Times op-ed into a passionate but reasoned feminist socialist manifesto for the 21st century. Drawing lessons from the history of women’s experiences under mid-20th-century state socialism and then under the capitalism that followed its collapse, she argues that “unregulated capitalism is bad for women, and if we adopt some ideas from socialism, women will have better lives.” Ghodsee devotes the most space to sexuality, arguing that in societies that have economic equality by gender, reproductive freedom, and social safety nets, women are freer to pursue their own desires. She also posits that the depression caused by living in a sexist society can squash heterosexual couples’ libido and male-female emotional connection, supporting this idea with data from studies of women in East and West Germany, Hungary, and Poland. And she delves into the benefits of full participation of women in the work force, especially in the public sector, supported by childcare and freedom from “statistical discrimination”; visible presence of women at top levels of government and business; and women’s participation in the political sphere. Pointing to successes not only in Communist countries but also in Scandinavian social democracies, Ghodsee’s treatise will be of interest to women becoming disillusioned with the capitalism under which they were raised.

October 1, 2018
From paid maternity leave to employment assurances, an argument for the benefits of socialism for women.Ghodsee (Russian and East European Studies/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism, 2017, etc.) sums up her thesis in the introduction: "Unregulated capitalism is bad for women, and if we adopt some ideas from socialism, women will have better lives." And if you disagree with the author, she clearly doesn't care. "If you don't give a whit about women's lives because you're a gynophobic right-wing internet troll," she writes, "save your money and get back to your parents' basement right now; this isn't the book for you." Ghodsee's in-your-face tone sets the stage for a book that takes readers on a pointed examination of the Soviet experiment. Using her years living in Bulgaria as fodder for the narrative, along with decades of research, she makes the case that there are lessons capitalist countries can and should learn from socialism--e.g., how socialists pushed for equity between men and women and the benefits of collective forms of support for child-rearing. At the same time, the author isn't blind to the failures of socialist regimes. "Hungarians never managed to redefine traditional gender roles," she writes, "and domestic patriarchy was strengthened by pro-natalist family policies." Still, she points to examples of Scandinavian countries where socialist ideas are working to improve women's lives: "A wider social safety net," she writes, "like those in the contemporary Northern European countries, will increase rather than decrease personal freedom...no one should have to stay in a job she hates for health insurance, or stick with a partner who beats her because she's not sure how she'll feed the kids, or have sex with some sugar elder because she can't afford textbooks." Ghodsee makes a convincing case, though she fails to investigate how socialism addresses LGBTQ and people of color. Perhaps she's saving that for another book.While the title is the literary version of click-bait, the book is chock-full of hard-hitting real talk.

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Expanding on her 2017 New York Times essay of the same name, Ghodsee (Red Hangover) explores the benefits of socialist societies for women and aims for a balanced assessment of socialist regimes that acknowledges their horrors but also celebrates their benefits in order to suss out future improvements. Specifically, the author argues that socialism's practice of guaranteeing women's employment and providing social services gave women income and flexibility that allowed for opportunity that improved their lives. Themes explored include work, motherhood, leadership, and sex, with each chapter introducing a particular subject and describing it under both capitalism and socialism, explaining how the latter's practices could be adapted to fit modern society without succumbing to authoritarianism. The work ends by asking American women to advocate for socialist policies. Ghodsee's analysis is accessible to a general audience but by design lacks the depth of her previous scholarly works. Additionally, the author acknowledges the shortcomings in her sources with regards to race and sexual orientation. VERDICT Overall, Ghodsee provides a provocative argument for democratic socialism. Recommended for readers interested in socialism and politics.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill