Second World, Second Sex

Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War

Kristen Ghodsee

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781478001812
  9781478001393
• eBook ISBN:
  9781478003274
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Historia del siglo XX

Women from the state socialist countries in Eastern Europe—what used to be called the Second World—once dominated women's activism at the United Nations, but their contributions have been largely forgotten or deemed insignificant in comparison with those of Western feminists. In Second World, Second Sex Kristen Ghodsee rescues some of this lost history by tracing the activism of Eastern European and African women during the 1975 United Nations International Year of Women and the subsequent Decade for Women (1976-1985). Focusing on case studies of state socialist Bulgaria and nonaligned but socialist-leaning Zambia, Ghodsee examines the feminist networks that developed between the Second and Third Worlds and shows how alliances between socialist women challenged American women's leadership of the global women's movement. Drawing on interviews and archival research across three continents, Ghodsee argues that international ideological competition between capitalism and socialism profoundly shaped the world women inhabit today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Note on Translation and Transliteration
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction. Erasing the Past
• Part I. Organizing Women under Socialism and Capitalism
• Part II. The Women’s Cold War
• Conclusion. Phantom Herstories
• Appendix. A Few Reflections on the Challenges of Socialist Feminist Historiography
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index