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FEMINISM IN UKRAINIAN HISTORY (The first part of this artickle which appeared in the July-August 1984 issue of our magazine dealt with the emergence of feminism in the Ukrainian culture. The author underlined the similarities between Ukrainian nationalism and feminism in our history. "Both Ukrain ians and women have had to justify their quest for auto nomy within political and social systems that relegate them to subordinate positions." The author discussed the traditional role of women within the various strata of Ukrainian society, the impact education had on the concept of sexual equality and the birth of an organized "voice” speaking out for women’s equality.) The major theoretician of Ukrainian feminism, how ever, oepnly claimed to be both a socialist and a femi nist. Natalia Ozarkevych Kobrynska (1851-1920) was probably the first woman to point out the threat of the “double burden” of women that would come about when economic necessity forced them into the labor market while unchanged family roles left them with all the tradi tional household and child-rearing tasks. This is the major issue raised by women still today. In her debates with Klara Zetkin, the official specialist on women’s affairs in the social-democratic movement, as well as with all the Ukrainian socialists, Kobrynska argued that socialism without feminism would be, at best, the libera tion of only half of humanity. The socialists outside Galicia ignored her, while the Ukrainian socialists socffed at her and sought out younger women who had not yet come to realize that the issue was not the nature of the economy, but woman’s position as a person. Like othe socialists, the Ukrainian socialist men were very doctrinaire on the issue of women. Although they formally supported women’s liberation, they insisted that women’s inequality was inherent in the capitalist structure. It could be remedied solely through a social ist transformation of the system, and only through the labor movement. They considered feminism as such to be a bourgeois whim of spoiled ladies. Kobrynska clashed with the socialists on doctrinal and tactical questions. She argued that change could be effective only if it was gradual and encompassed broad masses of the population. She saw the priests, their wives, and the first generation of the secual intelligent sia in Galicia as the natural transmission belts of new ideas to the village. These poeple, she stated, should not be alienated by useless rhetoric about class warfare, proletarian liberation, and free love. In Galicia, she quipped, the proletariat was made up of the widows of priests. Free love in the conditions of women’s eco nomic dependence would only be another means of male domination. As partial means for accomplishing women’s emancipation, she advocated the establishment of communal kitchens and child-care facilities. The latter—community child-care facilities, which Kobrynska saw as the kernels of the newly emerging communal society—became a standard desideratum of all women’s organizations. The fact that mothers had to work in the field had led all too frequently to the tragic neglect of children for anyone to question the utility of day-care centres. Criticism by Ukrainian socialists, compounded by their personal animosity toward this self-educated widow of one priest and daughter of another, goaded Kobrynska to stress her socialism. This deprived her of the support of the vast majority of women, who were non-socialist. At the same time, her insistence on feminism cost her the support of the young women socialists. In 1884, Kobrynska organized the first women’s rally and the first non-church-oriented women’s society in Western Ukraine. She worked for woman suffrage. She was in the forefront of attempts at gaining access to secondary and higher education for women. She re peatedly and unsuccessfully tried to create a central organization of Ukrainian women. She also sought to establish a women’s press and promoted women’s liter ature to help women become fully participating mem bers of their communities. Generally, she ended up running and financing the publication ventures herself. The exception was the first women’s almanac, Per- shyi vinok (the First Garland), published in 1887. It con tained contributions by Ukrainian women from both the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires and demons trated their solidarity. Ivan Franko and, more impor tantly, Olena Pchilka gave it their active support. Unfor tunately the almanac’s planned second volume, which was to include the work of the young Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913) and the memoirs of Uliana Kravchenko (1860-1947), never appeared. It would have been impossible for Kobrynska to publish the First Garland (she would have preferred a more prosaic title, such as the “Ukrainian Women’s Alamanac”) without the financial support of Olena Pchilka. Olena Pchilka was a strong-willed and inde pendent woman who was accustomed to working in adverse conditions; lacking Kobrynska’s brooding na ture and sensitivity, she did not care that she was con sidered an assertive, even pushy woman. An author, ethnographer and publisher in her own right, she did not involve herself in purely feminist work until 1905. A closer look at Olena Pchilka brings to light the ■ less tangible means by which the seemingly equal par ticipation of eastern-Ukrainian women in the national movement was tempered. Her husband, a shy and retir- 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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