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UKRAINIAN WOMAN OUR ENGLISH COLUMN Another 'Pilgrimage' to USSR Numerous delegations have been lately visiting- USSR. There had been among them various parliam entarians, churc hmen, students, sportsm en —■ and the latest were the organized women. L ast September there was held in Moscow a seminar on “Equal ity of W omen in USSR” for rep resentatives of member countries of the Commission on the Status of W omen of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and representatives of non-govern m ental organizations Although this sojourn, in U S S R was called a “sem inar,” it differed very little from the guided excursions just ^mentioned. This “sem inar” continued for two weeks, from Septem ber 15 to October 1 last. The first week filled the lectures on varied sub jects. The delegates listened to talks on equal political and civic rights of women in US,SR, on their influential position in the economy of the country, their so cial security and protection of their1 health, their right of admis sion to education, their achieve m ents in sciences, culture and art of USjSR. The lecturers were, for the most part, prom inent poli tical figures, like members of the Supreme Council and women members of the cabinet. A t in tervals the delegates visited re spective establishments, like fac tories, clubs, polyclinics and schools. In the second week the p arti cipants were divided into two groups which were flown to L e ningrad and Stalingrad. In those cities they were again viewing va rious institutions. Subsequently they w ere brought in small -groups to the capitals of the uni on republics — Kiev, Minsk, Tbi lisi, Erivan, Tashkent. They were shown there collective farm s, fac tories, and were even perm itted to converse with the women in leading positions. As we note from this program , the excursion had been well pre pared and organized as well as carefully directed. It may seem that the participants had the op portunity to examine all phases of women’s way of life and to see different parts of USSR. They were presented, everywhere they went, with statistical inform ation and were readily given, extensive answers to their queries. However, this planned and guided jaunting had likewise its serious shortcomings. All printed m aterial apportion ed to the delegates (every lecture was printed in foreign languag es), all prettified institutions, as well as all statistical m aterials are of no avail if their function ing in real life cannot be exam in ed. For w hat could the official equality of women am ount to if they are unable to represent and defend their rights through free organizations of their own? W e know that it is very far from of ficial equality to factual equali zation. W hat m eaning woull have the women’s influence over the eco nomic life of the country if all economic difficulties are patched up at the expense of women’s en ergy? ! Of w hat good is their su periority in numbers' in some branches of industry while at the same time they can have no faci lities as homemakers, and three or four families are bound to use one common kitchen? Of w hat use is carefully a r ranged and regulated social care for working women if at the same time thousands of young girls are forced to go to rem ote Asian virgin steppes with no housing facilities and sanitary care? C er tainly, the women political prison ers in concentration camps in northern woods, which is a Rus sian social feature extraordinary, are incomparably worse off. But the delegates w ere not per m itted to probe these conditions. They were able to view merely the things th e bolsheviki wished to show them, as has always been their custom while guiding vari ous excursions through the lands of USSR. They were not able to observe even the things th at had been noted many times bv separ ate travelers. E.g. Lydia K irk ex pressed her surprise that the w o men had been paving the streets of Moscow; Perle M esta noted that the women were perform ing the dirtiest work in the steel mills of D njpropetrovske; and McDuffie confirmed that there were very few women in leading positions of USSR although there are many of them in the admini strative machinery and the eco nomy of the country. U nfortunately, the representa tives of the Commission on H u man Rights' and of non-official organizations did not take this motive into consideration. They did not even stop to consider why this “sem inar” was arranged at the expense of the bolshevik gov ernm ent. (Surely, it was pursuing its own interest if it incurred such considerable expenditure. Through the guided excursion the bolsheviki showed the atten dants of the “sem inar” the m ere attractive side of the medal, hid ing the dark side of the picture. And it is rather astonishing that these experienced social and patriotic w orkers returned hom e pleased and contented. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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