IDEALLY, there should be no such thing as women’s question inside the party, which transcends all differences in class, caste, creed and sex. In reality, this is more or less true in the other cases but not quite in the case of gender. As the Fifth All India Congress (1992) observed, “Within the Party, we still face the problem of downgrading the importance of women cadres. There have also been recurring incidents of violation of the dignity of our women members and supporters. Several of our promising women cadres, especially in rural areas, failed to advance beyond a point and got embroiled in various complications. Feudal and male chauvinist tendencies continue to prevail among a good section of members and cadres. To say the least, the environment in the Party is still not conducive to the emergence of large number of women cadres and their taking up responsible party positions.”

How do matters stand now? Generally speaking, comrades everywhere recognize the special obstacles and hardships women comrades have to overcome in joining and working in the party and they are eager to help the latter. Especially since the Diphu conference we are paying much attention to recruiting women party members and promoting women cadres to leading party positions. While affirming all this as the principal aspect, we must concede that despite best intentions our actual efforts in this regard often remain rather formalistic and superficial. Party committees find it easy, for example, to nominate more women comrades to party conferences and schools and to award (and renew) party memberships to women activists on a more considerate basis. But do they make any special arrangements for their education and training? It is of course wrong to say that recruitment of women members should be put on hold till such arrangements are in place, but it is equally incorrect to leave these to spontaneity. Recruit, train and organise in party branches large number of women; take special care to develop women cadres; boldly promote them to responsible party positions — such should be our motto and much remains to be done in this respect.

Moreover, we often fail to take concrete steps for solving the typical problems faced by women comrades. Think of a situation when a woman cadre finds herself politically/organisationally/emotionally in a tight corner and perhaps commits some mistakes too, inviting further criticism from others. What is needed at such moments — and not only at such moments — is not just sympathy and certainly not ‘protection’ offered by benevolent patriarchy, but comradely discussion that is sensitive, accommodative, yet firm on principles; constructive criticism to help the comrade see and overcome her own mistakes /gaps, if any; and prompt organisational steps, whenever required, to sort out the practical problems. How often do we find party committees coming forward with such care and support?

In our semi-feudal society there is a deep discomfort with the idea of women having an affair, marrying in disregard of parental advice, divorcing, remarrying, etc; and such retrograde values tend to penetrate the party. The worst insensitivity and outright gender-prejudice manifest themselves when women comrades happen to violate the prevalent feudal/ petit-bourgeois notions of sexual morality. The principle of non-interference in personal life including choice of partners is crudely violated and this is justified by saying that communists must not cause a scandal in society, that they should sacrifice their personal likings because they have a larger responsibility to society and so on. There have been cases where we have managed to isolate a forward-looking comrade with patriarchal sermonising and restrictions — so much so that the party ends up losing her, especially if she is not yet that much integrated with the party.

Similar problems were — and are — to be found in other communist parties too. Historically, gender sensitiveness has grown in socialist/communist parties only gradually and slowly, and the struggle for that continues to this day. At the end of Part II of this article we saw Lenin frowning on what he called “equality of women reversed” (or “feminism upside down” —according to another version of translation from the original German) and an “underestimation of women and of their accomplishments”. He also remarked, “Scratch a Communist (male) and find a Philistine. Of course, you must scratch the sensitive spot, their mentality as regards women.” In other words, even hardcore communists often cherish highly retrograde, male chauvinist notions about women and their role in society and in the party. Lenin further says, “Could there be a more damning proof of this than the callous acquiescence of men who see how women grow worn-out in the petty, monotonous household work, their strength and time dissipated and wasted, their minds growing narrow and stale, their hearts beating slowly, their will weakened?”

“... don’t let us deceive ourselves. Our national  sections ... don’t understand that the development and  management of such a mass movement is an important  part of entire Party activity, indeed, a half of general Party  work. Their occasional recognition of the necessity and value of a powerful, clear-headed communist women’s movement is a platonic verbal recognition, not the constant care and obligation of the Party.”

— Clara Zetkin, [Lenin on the Women’s Question]

“Our Communist work among women, our political work”, Lenin goes uninterruptedly on, “embraces a great deal of educational work among men. We must root out the old ‘master’ idea to its last and smallest root, in the party and among the masses. That is one of our political tasks, just like the urgent and necessary task of forming a staff of men and women comrades, well- trained in theory and practice, to carry on party activity among working women.”

Here, as well as in the accompanying box, we have italicized the words and phrases that deserve special attention.

First, “educational work among men” — and “a great deal” of that — constitutes a part and parcel (note the word “embraces”) of the party’s work among women. It is not sufficient to recognize that in addition to women comrades, male comrades also need education; it is the latter who stand in greater need for education and remoulding.

Second, “the old ‘master’ idea “ resides not only in the upper strata of society but also among the proletarian masses, and in the proletarian party. The ideological struggle to eradicate it constitutes one of our major tasks.

Third, the party’s leading bodies — district and state committees in particular — should distinguish between what Lenin called “verbal recognition” and “constant care and obligation of the Party”; they should consistently try and proceed from the former to the latter.

Fourth, to help the party carry forward such tasks and advance our work in all its dimensions, it is necessary to form specialised party groups (departments/commissions, as the CI would call them), with male as well as female comrades. Unable to grasp this communist approach and often infected with notions of gender equality that are extremely hollow and mechanical, some intellectuals discover ‘signs of male domination in the communist party’ when we follow this guideline in running our women’s department. Much wiser, our women comrades however see this as a most realistic and beneficial arrangement.

To promote communist moral values within the party and a modern democratic attitude in our mass base — don’t forget that the two are organically integrated — we must fight against certain erroneous ideas and feudal practices. We must oppose dowry, child-marriage, forced arranged marriage, the purdah etc. and uphold women’s right to choose their partners cutting across caste/ religious/ financial divides even in the face of familial/social opposition and their right to be fully consulted in all family matters. We must oppose confinement of women within four walls and encourage their participation in productive activities as well as social and political affairs.

Inside the party, which in its internal relations anticipates and abides by mature communist values, there must be no “second sex”; absolute equality of the sexes and not just dignity but full democratic rights of women in personal affairs must be demanded and fought for. In both cases — in society and in the party — the struggle has to be firm, patient and long-drawn out.