The Women's International Democratic Federation, the Global South and the Cold War

Defending the Rights of Women of the 'Whole World'?

Yulia Gradskova

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000294941
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Women in History
• Index: History

This book examines the role of the Women's International Defense Federation (WIDF) in transnational women's activism in the context of the Cold War, and in connection to the rights of women from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Combining a global history and postcolonial theory approach, this monograph shines light on an underrepresented organisation and its important role in the Cold War, Twentieth Century women's rights and Soviet history. Questioning whether the organization acted for women's causes or whether it was merely a Cold War political instrument, the book analyzes and problematizes the place that the WIDF had in the politics of the Soviet Union, examining the ideology and politics of the WIDF and state socialist propaganda regarding women's equality and rights. Using Soviet archival documents of the organizations, the book offers a new perspective on the complexities of the development of global women's rights movement divided by the Cold War confrontations.

This is an important study suitable for students and researchers in Women's and Gender History, Eastern European History and Gender Studies.

1 A forgotten women’s organization? The WIDF, in between women’s history and Cold War studies

This book scrutinizes the activities of a transnational women’s organization, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), which campaigned for women’s rights in countries beyond Europe and North America during the Cold War. The WIDF was founded in 1945, and declared the protection of peace and the rights of women and children to be its main goals. It played an important role in the declaration of 1975 as the International Women’s Year (de Haan 2018), and during the succeeding United Nations Decade for Women (1975–1985). Its work was also crucial in terms of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. Yet the WIDF was frequently referred to as a “communist organization” and a “Soviet front”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), and the end of the Cold War, the WIDF lost most of its international visibility and members and, it seems, it has also disappeared from history. Even though this organization was one of the biggest and most important transnational women’s organizations during this period, this book is the first account of the WIDF’s activities during the whole period of the Cold War.

Why was this organization ignored? Why was such a large organization, whose period of activity corresponded with the lifetimes of many people still living, forgotten? In order to understand this strange “memory loss” and the general lack of interest from feminist historians in the WIDF, it is necessary to learn more not only about this organization per se, but also about the historical context in which it was established, and the context surrounding its demise. This context includes the Cold War and its ending (1989), and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the step-by-step recognition of the equality of rights between women and men in international law. (The UN’s CEDAW convention of 1979 was the most important achievement in this regard.) The context also includes the fundamental transformation of world geopolitics – from a planet divided between imperial masters and the colonized majority, towards the contemporary political map of more than 200 independent states – and also from a world divided into three (First, Second and Third Worlds) to one divided between the Global North and the Global South. What were the relations between the global women’s rights movement, the Cold War confrontation, and the anti-colonial struggle? How did the WIDF navigate through Cold War “hot” conflicts and cultural battles?

In order to understand why this organization was “forgotten”, it is also important to explore how the history of the state socialist vision of gender equality, and the women’s movement in the Soviet Bloc, was, and continues to be, written. For example, how are global issues, ranging from public childcare to anti-racism, presented? Or, how did the mass involvement of women in the productive economic sectors of the Eastern Bloc countries change global attitudes towards women’s right to work? In her 2011 article, Jennifer Suchland suggested that “experiences and voices from the former second world” find almost no place in post-Cold War transnational feminist discourses or, at least in US academia (2011, 838).

However, as a person born in the Soviet Union, I consider the reasons for the “forgetting” of the WIDF, as well as the nature of the organization itself, to be more complex. Indeed, if the WIDF was “forgotten” by the majority of feminist and women’s history researchers merely on account of the dominance of the post-Cold War American/Western perspective, according to which the former “Second World” is “no region” (Suchland 2011, 843), why is it equally forgotten in Russia and the other formerly state socialist countries? Understanding the “lack of memory” with regard to this organization, known internationally as a “Soviet front”, demands attention be paid to the striking contrast of the state socialist construction of rights, and the practice of the “rights” (such as declarations on the equality of citizens versus the realities of the GULAG). It also demands discussing the contrast of the state socialist interpretation of a “woman” – recognized as an equal member of the society – but, together with the majority of the society, mostly lacking the possibility of influencing the most important decisions concerning her body, wellbeing, and life itself.

Finally, the historical role of this organization, and its “disappearance” from history, cannot be studied without bringing in questions concerning the status and role of women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the organization. The WIDF used to issue declarations in the name of “women of the whole world”, claiming to speak on behalf of women from different countries and continents. Speaking for women “of the whole world”, particularly in that historical period, meant speaking about women experiencing transformation from colonial subjects into citizens of independent countries. It also entails speaking about the intersections of women’s rights activism with national liberation and anti-racist movements, as well as leftist ideas on redistribution of national wealth, social equality, and the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Did the WIDF really overcome the Eurocentric conception of rights and women’s activism and become a political instrument for women from Latin America, Africa, and Asia?

The main aim of this book is to explore the WIDF’s work for, and in the name of, women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the context of the Cold War, and the participation of women from these parts of the world in the work of the WIDF on different levels. In order to explore this, several questions will be of particular importance.

The first concerns the WIDF’s self-positioning with respect to the Cold War confrontation between “East” and “West”, a confrontation that was significant in the development of both the transnational discussion of women’s rights, and the political process in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (see Westad 2005; Olcott 2017). Benefitting from the use of materials from Soviet archives, I try to find answers to questions about the Soviet state’s role in the federation: How much, and in which way, can we speak about the WIDF as a “Soviet front”? How much did the Soviet Bloc influence the political agenda aimed at women from the Global South? I explore what Soviet and Communist influence meant for the everyday work of the federation, if and how it changed during different periods of the Cold War, and what importance it had for the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The second question concerns the role that women, and organizations, from Latin America, Africa, and Asia played in setting the WIDF’s political agenda, and in managing the organization. I am particularly interested in how the agenda, internal power relationships, and decision-making processes of the federation, as it concerned the Global South, changed over time.

Thirdly, I explore the federation’s internal life, and conflicts between women who had different (and sometimes, multiple) worldviews: female Communists from different parts of the world, female activists from the Global South, and European women of different political orientations. What were their thoughts on women’s rights? How did they perceive decolonization, political independence, and the social rights of women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America? While I assume that women who were members of the Communist parties of their respective countries played special role in the WIDF, I consider it important to explore not only the similarities, but also the differences in their opinions and priorities. I am particularly interested in individual female leaders from the Global South in the WIDF. What can we learn about their motivation, successes, and failures during their time at the WIDF, and how did their participation impact the federation?

The book focuses mainly on the period between 1955 and 1985. 1955 was the year of the Bandung conference, which first showed the importance of the “Third World” countries as a new political force, and questioned the then-dominant system of international law (Eslava et al. 2017); 1985 was the year Perestroika began, leading to the development of new geopolitical visions in the Soviet Union, and to growth of the mass anti-government uprisings in other countries of the “Eastern Bloc”, beginning with Poland in the early 1980s. However, the WIDF was founded in 1945 and, even if the first years of its activities were touched upon in previous research, the WIDF’s politics with respect to women from the Global South before 1955 were analysed mainly using examples of certain countries and regions (Drew 2014; McGregor 2013, , Armstrong 2016; Valobra 2017). Most of this scholarship did not look at the WIDF’s policies towards the colonial world from the perspective of the broader context of the WIDF’s ideology and work. Therefore, some parts of the book will also explore the WIDF’s activities in the Global South before 1955. My study explores the WIDF’s ideas and practical activities for, and relationships with, women’s organizations from these countries. By doing so, it contributes to research on decolonization, and on the role of transnational and national women’s organizations in the Global South in terms of political and social change.

Theoretical perspective: The book combines the transnational approach to the study of organizations and Cold War history with a postcolonial approach to women’s rights and feminism.

The transnational approach draws the focus away from nation-states, or relationships among them, and pays special attention to the role of organizations, movements, and ideas that are “not contained by national borders” (Snyder 2013, 102; see more on transnational approach in Iriye 2013, 28–30; Scholte 2005; Sluga & Clavin 2017). Following Maud Bracke and James Mark, I see transnationalization as complex processes “in which locally acting agents adapt, re-interpret and re-contextualize” and in some cases “betray” the ideas found elsewhere (2015, 413). Consequently, I study how the WIDF’s ideas on the defence of peace, and on the rights of mothers and children, travelled through and subverted national borders and the “Iron Curtain”. I also explore how national organizations and the local context (in this case, women’s organizations from the Global South doing work to transform women’s status in the context of anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and development) may have influenced the WIDF as an organization, and its transnational women’s activism. I also explore the impact that women’s rights leaders and organizations from the Global South had on the WIDF after their visits to the state socialist countries, both on their work locally, and on cooperation between the respective organizations.

The transnational perspective of the cultural Cold War approaches the history of the period after the Second World War as not just a political and economic confrontation between the USSR and the USA. However, it also pays special attention to the permeability of the Iron Curtain, as well as to confrontations and interactions between norms, beliefs, values, and identities (Saunders 2000; Scott-Smith & Krabbendam 2003, 3–4; Autio-Sarasmo & Miklossy 2011; Devinatz 2013; Scott-Smith et al. 2014; Bechmann Pedersen & Noack 2020). Hence, I explore how Cold War divisions and politics impacted the interactions and confrontations on gender norms, rights, and equality.

Following Arne Westad (2005), I am interested in the Cold War’s global effects. More specifically, I focus here on the effects of the WIDF’s pro-Moscow and pro-Communist leadership on the federation’s discourses with respect to the Global South, and its politics of alliances there. I am also interested in the effects the Cold War confrontation had on the positions women’s organizations and leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America took towards the WIDF.

Furthermore, my interest in the cultural Cold War allows me to explore what “Moscow” actually denoted, how “Moscow” acted with respect to the WIDF and the rights of women in the Global South, and what were the limits of its influence. Thus, I do not see the actions of “Moscow” as somehow obvious per se, but rather explore how and through which channels and forms these actions were practiced, and what kinds of internal conflicts and discussions they provoked within the federation.

On the other hand, by giving attention to the role of “Moscow” in the WIDF’s activities for, and in the name of, women from the Global South, I can pose a broader question about the nature of relationships between the transnational women’s movement during the Cold War, and the Cold War pressures, developments, and turning points. In particular, I explore the possibilities and limitations of independent women’s rights activism, with a focus on the newly independent countries of Africa and Asia, as well as on women’s organizations in Latin America.

The postcolonial approach to women’s movements and feminism criticizes the domination of Western interpretations of the “Third World” woman, gender inequality, sexism, and the aims and tactics of women’s political mobilizations (Mohanty 2003, 40–41; bell hooks 1989). Postcolonial feminism questions the subject of feminism itself. For example, according to bell hooks, the assumption “that resisting patriarchal domination is a more legitimate feminist action than resisting racism and other forms of domination” is an assumption made by “the White feminist movement in the West” and it is criticized by the “Black women and women of color” (hooks 1989, 19–20).

In spite of my focus on the “Global South”, the title of this book may appear to be an attempt to homogenize “women” outside of Europe – what Mohanty warned against – my use of this problematic (see below) concept is connected with my questioning of the WIDF’s self-presentation. The WIDF declared itself to be an organization that represented the interests of women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America better than the pro-Western transnational organizations. Thus, taking the “Global South” as a starting point allows me to find similarities and differences in the politics of a transnational organization created by the “West’s” Cold War opponents with the women’ organizations that originated in the “West” – the subject of Mohanty’s criticism.

Employing Mohanty’s critique of the way “feminism” is used as a term to define activism in the “West” (while “Third Word” feminisms are mainly ignored) helps me to address the history of the WIDF, an alternative to “Western” transnational organizations that was usually associated with the “Second” and the “Third” Worlds, as a variation of the “conflictual histories” of feminisms outside of the “First World” (Mohanty 2003, 46). Indeed, while WIDF members usually did not call themselves “feminists” (they understood the term as denoting the women’s movement of its Cold War adversary), using Mohanty’s and bell hooks’ approach¹ allows me to see the WIDF, an organization advocating women’s rights, as a part of the women’s movement, and as a variant of feminist organization.²

Furthermore, following Mohanty’s claim regarding the importance of deconstructing the image of the uniform and dominated “Third World” woman (2003), I pay attention to the diversity of problems and demands of the different organizations and groups from the Global South that were cooperating with the WIDF. I differentiate between those emphasizing anti-racism, and their countries’ independence,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: A forgotten women’s organization? The WIDF, in between women’s history and Cold War studies
• Chapter 2: The WIDF, the Soviet state, and Cold War battles
• Chapter 3: Protecting peace, mothers, and children: WIDF’s ideology and activities in its first decades
• Chapter 4: Anti-colonialism, anti-racism and social rights
• Chapter 5: The state socialist model of women’s emancipation as an example to follow for the “Whole World”
• Chapter 6: Women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America make themselves visible in the WIDF
• Chapter 7: Activists from the Global South and the WIDF: A biographical perspective
• Chapter 8: The WIDF on the eve of the IWY and during the UN decade for women
• Chapter 9: The WIDF and the end of the three worlds: Concluding remarks
• Appendix
• List of Literature
• Index