Dbq Gender Equality Analysis

The principle of communism was developed by Karl Marx during the 19th century in hopes of trying to create a society whereby the gap between the working class and upper class was nonexistent, hence a classless society. Overall, the goal of communism was to achieve equality; however, keeping that in mind, communism originally was targeted to ending the gap between the working class and bourgeoisie, not really genders. In light of this, the communist movement that occurred throughout nations during the 20th century encouraged individuals to acknowledge the discrimination against women, and gave them an incentive to bring about change. The Industrial Revolution, that occurred decades before helped to define this gender gap, as women were paid

For starters in document 3, the Communist North Vietnamese Constitution of 1960, states all the rights women were provided with. As an example, now women could “enjoy equal rights” in a political, economic, cultural, social and domestic sense. They now had equal work, pay and were given paid leave for birthing babies, and now had maternity hospitals, day care centers and kindergartens. This source was most likely directed towards the public, and the author did a good job of convincing the audience that women were indeed equal; if it’s coming from the government it probably is exaggerated, but somewhat accurate. Like today in America, even though women are given equal jobs/ opportunities, the wage gap still exists. And if there’s a gap in the 21st century in one of the most “liberating” countries, there probably was still a gap in Vietnam during the 20th century. Furthermore, the positive effects of communism is also represented in a Chinese propaganda poster entitled “Encourage Late Marriage, Plan for Birth, Work hard for the New Age” (document 5). The image portrays an eager woman embracing all of her career choices in the stem, industrial and other fields. The purpose being to encourage women in China to become more involved in the world, and stray away from simple domestic tasks; made in favor and support of women. This was potentially created to help with the cultural and economic modernization of china, and to shed light on a new appreciation for equality. This womanly encouragement was also done by Chinese rulers such as Mao Zedong, who made speeches glorifying women. To summarize, it can be observed that communist movements helped to end women’s struggle in some nations by establishing