“We must root out the old slave-owner’s point of view.” - Lenin
“Unfortunately, we may still say of many of our comrades, ‘Scratch
the Communist and a Philistine appears.’ To be sure, you have to scratch
the sensitive spots, such as their mentality regarding women. Could
there be any more palpable proof than the common sight of a man calmly watching
a woman wear herself out with trivial, monotonous, strength- and time-consuming
work, such as her housework, and watching her spirit shrinking, her mind
growing dull, her heartbeat growing faint, and her will growing slack? It goes
without saying that I am not referring to the bourgeois ladies who dump all
housework and the care for their children on the hired help. What I say applies
to the vast majority of women, including the wives of workers, even if these
spend the day at the factory and earn money.”
“Very few husbands, not even the
proletarians, think of how much they could lighten the burdens and
worries of their wives, or relieve them entirely, if they lent a hand in this
‘women’s work’. But no, that would go against the ‘privilege and dignity
of the husband’. He demands that he have rest and comfort. The domestic life of
the woman is a daily sacrifice of self to a thousand insignificant trifles. The ancient rights of her husband, her lord and master,
survive unnoticed. Objectively, his slave takes her revenge. Also in
concealed form. Her backwardness and her lack of understanding for her
husband’s revolutionary ideals act as a drag on his fighting spirit, on his
determination to fight. They are like tiny worms, gnawing and
undermining imperceptibly, slowly but surely. I know the life of the workers,
and not only from books. . . We must
root out the old slave-owner’s point of view. That is one of our political tasks, a task just as urgently
necessary as the formation of a staff composed of comrades, men and women, with
thorough theoretical and practical training for Party work among working
women.”
"We
are enlisting women to work in the economy, the administration, legislation and
government. All courses and educational institutions are open to them, so that
they can improve their professional and social training. We are organizing
community kitchens and public dining-rooms, laundries and repair shops, crèches,
kindergartens, children’s homes and educational institutions of every kind. In
brief, we are quite in earnest about carrying out the requirements of our
program to shift the functions of housekeeping and education from the
individual household to society. Woman is thus being relieved from her old
domestic slavery and all dependence on her husband. She is enabled to give her
capabilities and inclinations full play in society. Children are offered better
opportunities for their development than at home. We have the most progressive female
labor legislation in the world, and it is enforced by authorized representatives
of organized labor. We are establishing maternity homes, mother-and-child
homes, mothers’ health centers, courses for infant and child care, exhibitions
of mother and child care, and the like. We are making every effort to provide
for needy and unemployed women.”
Reference: Lenin
on the Women’s Question, Clara Zetkin,(An Interview with Lenin on the Woman
Question)
