Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism - New feminist library

Marc Notes: Includes index.; Bibliography: p. 371-381. Publisher Marketing: Revolutionary socialist movements have held out the promise, in both theory and practice, that women can achieve liberation through their participation in the revolutionary process. But many women in post-revolutionary societies have watched in frustration as this promise has been pushed into the future or dropped from the agenda altogether. The essays in Promissory Notes renew the debate about the connections between feminism and socialism by examining the position of women in socialist thought from the time of Marx to the present. The book looks at the central theoretical formulations of the Woman Question in classical Marxist thought, then explores their applications first in the Soviet Union and China, then in a series of third world regimes and contemporary Eastern European countries. The volume ends with a roundtable debate in which a number of scholars and activists take up the central theoretical issues raised throughout the book. Contributors include Joan B. Landes, Elizabeth Waters, Wendy Zeva Goldman, Christina Gilmartin, Muriel Nazzari, Maxine D. Molyneux, Sonia Kurks and Ben Wisner, Christine Pelzer White, Amrita Basu, Marilyn B. Young, Mary Buckley, Barbara Einhorn, Martha Lampland, Lourdes Beneria, Zillah Eisenstein, Delia D. Aguilar, Delia Davin, Kumari Jayawardena, and Rayna Rapp. Contributor Bio:  Kruks, Sonia Kruks is Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics at Oberlin College. Contributor Bio:  Rapp, Rayna Rapp is Professor of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research. She has been involved in movements to establish reproductive rights and active in women's studies for over 25 years. Contributor Bio:  Young, Marilyn B Marilyn B. Young is a professor of history at New York University. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is the author of numerous books, including "The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990", and co-editor of "Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam". She lives in New York City. Yuki Tanaka is Research Professor at Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University. Since the mid-1980s he has been concentrating his research on war crimes and is the author of several books, including "Japan's Comfort Women" and "Hidden Horrors".