''Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism'' is a 2018 book by anthropologist
Kristen Ghodsee
Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee (born April 26, 1970) is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as ...
.
In the book, Ghodsee argues that socialism creates a fairer and better society for women. She uses case studies drawn from Eastern Europe to illustrate that capitalism creates an increased dependency on men, by women.
Publication
''Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence'' is a 2018 book by anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee, and published by
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random ...
.
Ghodsee is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
The book has also been translated into multiple foreign languages, including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Indonesian, Thai, Korean, and Japanese.
Synopsis
In the book, Ghodsee argues that socialist societies are better for women. She presents the reader with a view of motherhood from an economic and political perspective.
She is critical of the sexualised images that frequently appear in western magazines and television, which she describes as capitalism commodifying women.
She presents a series of case studies from Eastern Europe and illustrates that compared to capitalist societies, women are more liberated and have more control of their lives in socialist societies.
She points out how women tend to earn less than men in capitalist societies, thus making women more dependant on men, and receiving more pressure to get married.
Two chapters of the book are about
sexual economics, and are critical of
puritanical
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
tendencies in western societies while praising the normalisation of sex in socialist societies.
The book quotes studies showing greater sexual satisfaction among women in
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
compared to those in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
.
Ghodsee advocates for a
Universal Basic Income
Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...
which she argues would balance inequity resulting from unpaid labour that women undertake.
Critical reception
Rebecca Mead, writing in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' describes the book as smart and accessible.
Suzanne Moore
Suzanne Lynn Moore (born 17 July 1958) is an English journalist.
Early life and education
Moore is the daughter of an American father and a working-class British mother, who split up during her childhood. As a child, she was told that her mo ...
writing in
''The Guardian'' called it a "joyous read."
Amber Edwards writing in
''Philosophy Now'' described the book as enjoyable, short, and snappy and credits Ghodsee for her nuance, and recognition of the flaws in every example she presents.
Edwards also lamented the lack of
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...
in the book.
See also
* ''
Do Communists Have Better Sex?
''Do Communists Have Better Sex?'' is a 2006 German documentary film directed by André Meier. It compares the sexuality manifested by Germans during the period being divided into a Western and an Eastern part. The hypothesis manifested by scho ...
'', a 2006 German documentary
*
Socialist feminism
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...
References
External links
Official website* 2017 New York Times opinion piece by Kristen Ghodsee:
'
2021 interview with the author on France24
{{Authority Control
2018 non-fiction books
Works about sex
Works about sexism
Works about sexual repression
Books about socialism
Vintage Books books