AT the end of the first part of this article, we presented in barest outline the Marxist notion that gender, class and state oppression emerged almost simultaneously, as three dimensions of a single process, and so will they end together in course of the transition from capitalism to socialism to communism. This is a scientific abstraction, which constitutes a key element of the Marxist method that unfolds through the constant emergence and resolution of the contradiction between the abstract and the concrete. In the actual conditions of real-life socialism, of course, things were not expected to be, nor did they prove to be, so simple. In both the Soviet Union and China, initial gains on the women’s front were truly remarkable but they suffered partial — and in some instances severe — setbacks later. That however should not be seen in isolation as something especially anti- women. These were parts of the many shortcomings or mistakes of the primary phase of socialism that emerged in a few backward countries — mistakes or limitations which often militated against the immediate interests of workers and/or peasants too. Moreover, it is but natural that just as classes and class struggle continue under socialism and the state cannot be abolished in one stroke, more or less complete elimination of the remnants of male domination also would require a very protracted, very painstaking struggle spanning perhaps centuries.

So what do we mean when we say women can free themselves from bondage only under socialism? That with radical transformation of material and cultural conditions of life including transformation of family from an economic to an emotional unit of free partnership, the situation will arise for the first time in history to carry the struggle for women’s liberation through to the end. Nothing more, but nothing less. Comrade VM put this very eloquently at the end of the article “The Question of Women’s Liberation in the Perspective of Marxism” and we find no better words for concluding our whole discussion:

“Save the natural division between man and woman, all other divisions are artificial. A specific phase of historical development had institutionalised these divisions, and another phase of historical development, which has already been ushered in, will put an end to them, and only when the relationship between man and woman, the two forms of human species will grow frank, spontaneous and fraternal the humankind shall be able to regain its lost oneness. The path towards this destiny will route through a revolution bearing the banner with inscriptions “socialism and women’s liberation” on it.”