Gender Equality, Difference, Capitalism, and Socialism

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

The equality (equal treatment of men and women) vs. difference (special treatment of women as potential mothers) debate has accompanied women’s struggle for inclusion. It resurrected itself in the social laboratory of transition to capitalism in the post-socialist region, where the social contract changed drastically. Special treatment and welfare provisions, as well as gender and class relations, are being reconsidered and negotiated. By treating transition to capitalism as a real-life casestudy, this paper bespeaks a broader orientation to provide a model for understanding the “equality vs. difference” conundrum, and to demonstrate how equality and difference are bound with the capitalist or socialist contract. Debates of gender can displace those of class and serve to express class concerns to argue for or against capitalism.