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Women and the Family
How the October 1917 Russian Revolution, the first victorious socialist revolution, transformed the fight for women's emancipation. Trotsky explains the Bolshevik government's steps to wipe out illiteracy, establish equality in economic and political life, set up child-care centers and public kitchens, guarantee the right to abortion and divorce, and more. Notes.
104 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1970
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223 people want to read
About the author
Leon Trotsky
1,090 books800 followersSee also Лев Троцкий
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
Russian theoretician Leon Trotsky or Leon Trotski, originally Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, led the Bolshevik of 1917, wrote Literature and Revolution in 1924, opposed the authoritarianism of Joseph Stalin, and emphasized world; therefore later, the Communist party in 1927 expelled him and in 1929 banished him, but he included the autobiographical My Life in 1930, and the behest murdered him in exile in Mexico.
The exile of Leon Trotsky in 1929 marked rule of Joseph Stalin.
People better know this Marxist. In October 1917, he ranked second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as commissar of people for foreign affairs and as the founder and commander of the Red Army and of war. He also ranked among the first members of the Politburo.
After a failed struggle of the left against the policies and rise in the 1920s, the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union deported Trotsky. An early advocate of intervention of Army of Red against European fascism, Trotsky also agreed on peace with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the fourth International, Trotsky continued to the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, eventually assassinated him. From Marxism, his separate ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term, coined as early as 1905. Ideas of Trotsky constitute a major school of Marxist. The Soviet administration never rehabilitated him and few other political figures.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 21, 2014
Really useful pamphlet to read, for several reasons. Perhaps people often wonder why the formative years of post-1917 Russia became the first place in Europe to legalise abortion and divorce on demand, one of the first to legalize homosexuality, and had one of the first governing bodies to recognise the crushing effect the implementation and ideology the nuclear family had on women. Reading these snippets of history makes that much easier to understand: the vast social change precipitated by the revolutions of 1917 were started and led by women and only brought forward with the participation of women. It was a time when the day to day lived experience of struggle confirmed the equal importance of women and men. It was a time where moving forward towards what many believed to be a socialist future necessarily demanded the emancipation of women from the family and their involvement in the depths of social life. This text brings to life the ol' saying "no socialism without women's liberation and no women's liberation without socialism".
That said, it's worth maintaining a critical appreciation of Trotsky's writing on women at this historical time. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see some of his ideas and positions were a product of their time. He often writes in praise of 'mothers' as opposed to 'women' - often seeing them both as synonymous - and there's still the implicit suggestion in some of his writings that motherhood and reproduction define in large part the female sex. We understand, living in the slipstream of gay and women's liberation movements, this kind of thinking to have been thoroughly superseded. The mere ability for the female sex to reproduce does not (and should not) imply that that should define their social positioning and role. In the language of post-Beauvoir feminist scholars this is to say, one's biological sex - and what one's sex is capable of - bares no necessary connection to one's gender.
Trotsky was writing in a completely different period - and with hindsight we can also see his work on women is very far ahead of its time. While at times he seems to suggest that simply replacing the family (and thus the material conditions of oppression) will liberate all women from oppression, this would be to ignore the intricacies of what he argues. He does put serious emphasis on the need for cultural change amongst the working class (which I read as needing to have a battle of ideas and attitudes). Trotsky's writing's on women are hands down a middle finger to this crude "things will automatically be fine after the revolution" argument some make. Trotsky recognised that even after the explosion of revolutionary social change, oppressive ideas had to be actively challenged and smashed with a "battering ram". The process of change for women will never be automatic.
This, for me, is a stark reminder that overcoming oppression is not going to be only a matter of destroying it's material base (although, obviously, that's utterly central and crucial). But we also need to fight for ideas in the here and now and beyond, be against oppression at every turn, and maybe then we can take advantage of the fruits of our struggles and build a better future.
That said, it's worth maintaining a critical appreciation of Trotsky's writing on women at this historical time. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see some of his ideas and positions were a product of their time. He often writes in praise of 'mothers' as opposed to 'women' - often seeing them both as synonymous - and there's still the implicit suggestion in some of his writings that motherhood and reproduction define in large part the female sex. We understand, living in the slipstream of gay and women's liberation movements, this kind of thinking to have been thoroughly superseded. The mere ability for the female sex to reproduce does not (and should not) imply that that should define their social positioning and role. In the language of post-Beauvoir feminist scholars this is to say, one's biological sex - and what one's sex is capable of - bares no necessary connection to one's gender.
Trotsky was writing in a completely different period - and with hindsight we can also see his work on women is very far ahead of its time. While at times he seems to suggest that simply replacing the family (and thus the material conditions of oppression) will liberate all women from oppression, this would be to ignore the intricacies of what he argues. He does put serious emphasis on the need for cultural change amongst the working class (which I read as needing to have a battle of ideas and attitudes). Trotsky's writing's on women are hands down a middle finger to this crude "things will automatically be fine after the revolution" argument some make. Trotsky recognised that even after the explosion of revolutionary social change, oppressive ideas had to be actively challenged and smashed with a "battering ram". The process of change for women will never be automatic.
This, for me, is a stark reminder that overcoming oppression is not going to be only a matter of destroying it's material base (although, obviously, that's utterly central and crucial). But we also need to fight for ideas in the here and now and beyond, be against oppression at every turn, and maybe then we can take advantage of the fruits of our struggles and build a better future.
August 29, 2012
This is a brief introduction to the state of women's rights in early Soviet Russia, well-contextualised by Lund. Trotsky is persuasive and masterful in his command of language, and his views are - even by today's standards - quite liberal. At times the essays can be meandering, but overall this is a short book which is quite easy to understand.
March 5, 2025
Some quotes:
It may be said that probably for many decades to come it will be possible to evaluate a human society by the attitude it has towards woman, toward the mother, and toward the child -- and this is true not only for evaluating society, but also the individual.
Vladimir Ilyich taught us to value the working-class parties according to their attitude, in particular and in general, towards the oppressed nations, toward the colonies. Why? Because if you take, say, the English worker, it is much easier to arouse in him the feeling of solidarity with his whole class -- he will take part in strikes and will even arrive at revolution -- but to make him raise himself to solidarity with a yellow-skinned Chinese coolie, to treat him as a brother in exploitation, will prove much more difficult, since here it is necessary to break through a shell of national arrogance which has been built up over centuries.
Historical experience shows that even the proleteriat, already strugging with the oppressors, is far from prompt in concentrating the necessary attention on the oppressed position of woman as housewife, mother, and wife. Such is the terrible force of being accustomed to the family slavery of woman!
The view of women held by many working men is still not socialist, but conservative, peasant, essentially medieval.
Freeing the mother means cutting the last umbilical cord linking the people with the dark and superstitious past.
St. Paul was one of the greatest of propagandists.
The church considers itself persecuted when it is not supported by the budget and the police force and when its opponents are not subject to the reprisals of persecution.
August 1, 2020
مجموعه مقالات و سخنرانیهای تروتسکی درباره ی روند تغییرات برخورداری زنان از حقوق مدنی و اجتماعی برابر از اغاز انقلاب اکتبر تا دوران دیوانسالاری استالین. تروتسکی در این مجموعه مقاله ها بیان میکنه که انقلاب اکتبر با مطالبه ی حقوق زنان کارگر و مشارکت اونها شروع شد و انقلاب هم در اغاز نوید بهره مندی زنان از حقوقی مثل طلاق، سقط جنین و غیره رو میداده اما طبق نظر تروتسکی بخاطر عواملی مثل فقر ناشی از جنگ و مناسبات بازموناقتصادی جدید، سنت، و عقب ماندگی فرهنگی و اجتماعی این ایده ی جامعه ی سوسیالیستی به درستی محقق نشد و در ادامه دولت هم از تامین زندگی اشتراکی که کار خانه رو از دوش زنها برمیداشت مانند اشپزی رختشویی و بچه داری بازموند در نتیجه عمده زنان کارگر و دهقان بازهم نتونستند وقت کافی برای فعالیت اجتماعی و اعتلای شخصیت فردی داشته باشند و در نهایت دیوانسالاری استالین به زعم تروتسکی در خدمت ارتجاع به سرمایه داری تمامی ارمانها و حقوق مطالبه شده توسط زنان رو برای برگشت به نهاد خانواده ی گذشته زیر پا میذاره
June 25, 2020
Pretty difficult read and certainly not the “beginner’s book to socialism” that I would recommend, but Trotsky did give some helpful insights into one of the main goals of the socialist agenda. Hence, the title of the book.
November 7, 2023
متن جالب و خوبی بود. هرچند که مانور بیش از حد رو بحث زن = مادر داشت عصبیم میکرد
January 25, 2025
This Trotsky fellow was pretty smart
October 29, 2025
This is a short collection of Trotsky's essays on women's liberation. The 1917 revolution began with a demonstration on International Women's Day.This book explains how the October 1917 Russian Revolution, the first victorious socialist revolution, transformed the fight for women's emancipation
Trotsky explains the Bolshevik government's steps to wipe out illiteracy, establish equality in economic and political life, set up child-care centers and public kitchens, guarantee the right to abortion and divorce, and more.
It's final chapter is taken from The Revolution Betrayed: What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going?, on the huge setbacks to women's rights under the Stalinist bureaucracy.
Other must reading: Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution within the Revolution and The Emancipation of Women; From the Writings of V. I. Lenin.
Trotsky explains the Bolshevik government's steps to wipe out illiteracy, establish equality in economic and political life, set up child-care centers and public kitchens, guarantee the right to abortion and divorce, and more.
It's final chapter is taken from The Revolution Betrayed: What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going?, on the huge setbacks to women's rights under the Stalinist bureaucracy.
Other must reading: Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution within the Revolution and The Emancipation of Women; From the Writings of V. I. Lenin.
February 6, 2017
This is an excellent book that deals with a fundamental critique of the bourgeois nuclear family. The book shows how it is used by both the capitalist and stalinist ruling classes as a means to strangle revolutionary thought among the youth.
The rise of the stalinist bureaucracy was reflected in the ossification and stagnation of relations. Verily, the Thermidor (counter-revolution) rose and wiped out much of the revolutionary gains that had been reflected in family relations.
What is also uplifting about the book is the introduction by Caroline Lund, a Fourth Internationalist. This shows that the revolutionary spirit was alive in 1970 when the Introduction was done. Revolutionary women like her and many others are to be saluted.
Trotsky explained that the huge lack of economic progress would be a fetter on the liberation of women and the youth.
This book is still a vibrant and dynamic contribution to the necessity to challenge the current capitalist system; without a Socialist revolution the liberation of women is impossible. The seizing of power by the working class opens the door for the completion of the struggle for real equality in human relations.
The rise of the stalinist bureaucracy was reflected in the ossification and stagnation of relations. Verily, the Thermidor (counter-revolution) rose and wiped out much of the revolutionary gains that had been reflected in family relations.
What is also uplifting about the book is the introduction by Caroline Lund, a Fourth Internationalist. This shows that the revolutionary spirit was alive in 1970 when the Introduction was done. Revolutionary women like her and many others are to be saluted.
Trotsky explained that the huge lack of economic progress would be a fetter on the liberation of women and the youth.
This book is still a vibrant and dynamic contribution to the necessity to challenge the current capitalist system; without a Socialist revolution the liberation of women is impossible. The seizing of power by the working class opens the door for the completion of the struggle for real equality in human relations.
December 28, 2025
An interesting compendium of the ideas that, according to the Soviet Union leader, should constitute the core of the proletarians' view towards the challenge of the USSR on gender equality and overcoming of patriarchy.
March 8, 2008
More thesis reading. I'll let you know.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews