Women and Communal Strikes in the Crisis of 1917 - 1922

An interesting fact concerning the protests by working class in the period

during and succeeding WWI was not initial demands for revolutionary
change or workers rights, but instead forcing government to provide
basic life necessities of food and shelter during times of rationing.
Though there were differences in geography and outcomes, the goal was
the same in demanding survival over social and economic change. The
politicization of these movements did not occur until their male
counterparts, who did hold memberships in unions and radical political
groups, sympathized with their female equivalents and participated in
these marches did violence or government crackdowns occur. It was
because of politics that these women avoided the idea in order to elicit
sympathy and avoid ferocious reprisals against them.
The organization of these marches ties into the community structure of
working-class women. Though these events seemed to occur at random,
they shared a few common characteristics. The communities these
women resided were usually near their or
husbands/fathers/brothers/male companions workplaces and also
government facilities. Another was the close bonds formed amongst them
through interactions in work, markets, churches, and other public areas
of gathering Whether it was babysitting for neighbors children or each
other, working-class omen held more deeper solidarity than women of
higher class standings. Though food shortages were frequent
occurrences, when women sought to march for better access to feed
themselves outside communities gave sympathy that they deserved these
privileges. Men did form groups to gain attention on working-class rights
and political reform; sometimes they seldom paid much attention to the
needs of their female counterparts who upheld community values.
An important march was the one in Petrograd on February 1917, in the
Julian calendar which corresponds to our Gregorian March, in imperialist
Russia during the wave of losses that hindered the nation in the
onslaught of WWI. What originally began as a demand for food to feed
themselves eventually became a catalyst for the later Russian Revolution.
The price of food, housing, and life commodities rose dramatically along
with employment layoffs led certain officials to deem the area ripe for
mass discontent. Purposely selecting International Womens Day on
February 23 to stage a strike, women rallied around the idea of
upholding their role in feeding their loved ones. Not only did they gain
support from fellow working class men, but also from students and lowmiddle class women in order to save their communities of dying from
hunger. Though along the way they freed their politically and unionactive men from prisons, political parties withheld from engaging in the
strike in fears that women were insufficient to carry out a revolution
against the Tsarist regime. Two days after the Czar Nicholas II ordered
the military to gun down the strike, yet they were abhorred by this
course of action and abstained from it. With continuing defeats on the
Eastern Front, many soldiers joined the ranks of the strikers. Eventually
male revolutionaries managed to gain hold of the movement and
politicized it into forcing the overthrow of the Tsar and its supporters.

Similar strikes in regards of their goals occurred in Turin, Malaga, and

Veracruz though the results differed. The events that transpired in Turin
during August 1917 were similar to Petrograd in that working-class
women seek to gain access to food due to high prices, in particular bread
which was a staple in their diet. As with the militarization of the
industrial north, members of unions or radical political groups were
prohibited from organizing strikes. Since many men were off fighting in
WWI, women filled-in their vacancies. Acting on as the author Temma
Kaplan termed female consciousness, women demanded local
authorities to resolve the food shortage crisis that occurred. With
difficulties in trying to follow rations for troops along with feeding the
local populations, local authorities attempted to bring flour from
neighboring areas despite moments of discrediting by national
authorities which embittered the women. Finally after days passed and
attempts to appease them, women fed up along with male workers
managed to put the city on hold due to massive walkouts. The initial goal
of obtaining food morphed into anti-war demonstrations that caused the
government to send in military to violently subdued the crowd. While it
maintained neutrality from the war, Spanish economy still relied on
feeding foreign armies which distraught the women of Malaga. They
lacked political aspirations and knowledge, yet in January 1918 acted
upon female consciousness to counter the unfair economic policies on
food. Seizing the port, the food stored there was distributed it amongst
themselves. These women actually spoke out against the involvement of
men due to fears of violent crackdowns. Eventually women of all social
classes joined in as they saw the march as a demonstration for womens
right. Like the outcome of the events in Turin, military from different
regions of the nation were called in to suppress the strike. The main
reason behind it was if local troops were used their familiarity and
common cultural background would elicit sympathy for the women.
Finally five years later in Veracruz, Mexico, women protested against
unfair housing prices, which was already a limited commodity in the
coastal port city. A strike was called in and the women unlike the other
strikes had conjured up some political conations in wearing red, the color
of radical left-wing politics, in these demonstrations. Violence did break
out between them and authorities and continued infrequently the rest of
the year. Though the high rents were finally renegotiated with tenants
unions formed. Yet they lack female membership since they argued by
the author, made no attempts to secure themselves in these groups.
The Fascist Solution to the Women Question in Italy and Germany
Despite the similarities in the political ideologies of Italian Fascism and
German Nazism, there were different approaches by each on the
perception and treatment of the female population. Not only were the
roles of women from different ethnic and political backgrounds
marginalized, but also mixed results occurred for women who accepted
and followed the totalitarian regimes. Divisions also occurred amongst
feminists on regards to the political oversight both Italian Fascism and

German Nazism were laid down. Though personal freedoms were strip
away, some women saw these ideologies give them more economic
freedoms. For the most part, both viewed women as mere contributions
to the state.
At first the Italian Fascists included on their 1919 platform to enfranchise
the female population, but eventually reduced due to low support at first.
In regards to women, members of the urban bourgeoisie were the
targeted audience. They frowned upon obtaining careers, instead
preferring volunteering in community activities. Fascism ironically
provided a third way from the equality of feminism or traditional roles. It
provided escapism in the form of organized recreational events. Fascists
argued they shielded women from the disappointment of the male realm
in justifying stripping away access to higher education or professional
jobs. Being a predominately Catholic nation, Fascist Italy formed closer
ties with the Church in upholding patriarchal society by allowing
religious authorities greater involvement in individuals lives, restriction
of birth control, and harsher discipline corrections via honor killings.
The latter lead to a decrease in murder rates. With the disappointing
results of WWI combined with high unemployment and economic
recession, Mussolini sought to resolve this by cutting female employment
rates whether it was by reduction of wages or blaming them for stealing
jobs. Instead he encouraged women to seek motherhood at a young age
by increasing social welfare programs. The reasoning was to provide not
only future armies and settlers for newly conquered territories, but as an
excuse by Mussolini to avert a demographic crisis. Yet women felt they
managed to gain the attention by the government.
Nazi Germany implemented similar policies with their female population
though certain differences occurred. One difference from the beginning
was the large support of female voters, which was a guaranteed right
after WWI. Though female membership in the Nazi Party was low, half of
the vote they gained in the elections during the Great Depression came
from women. Since party leaders held indifferent and misogynistic views
of womens roles in the party, it ironically allowed Nazi women to
organize without resistance from party higher ups. While male members
were the visible faces of the party, female members worked behind the
scenes in attempting to gain traction for the party. Unlike their Italian
Fascists counterparts, Nazi women were abhorred by feminine ideals.
Also in connection with religion, Germany never shared a common
religion beside Christianity, yet was divided by northern Protestantism
and southern Catholicism. The former immediately accepted Nazi rule
while the latter delayed their allegiance until orders came from the
Vatican. Finally, though womens rights took a back seat Nazi Germany
allowed women to continue to seek employment and actually faced a
temporary backlash when they attempted to reduce their role. The
exception came as long as they were loyal to the regime were they
provided with jobs and did hold Jewish ancestry. Were as birth control
methods were frowned upon in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany held double
standards. Aryan women were disallowed from obtaining an abortion or
other forms of birth control, but sterilization programs were

implemented towards undesirable elements such as Jews, the

handicapped and similar peoples. Also they tried to impose social welfare
programs like the Fascists in order to divert a population crisis though it
also failed. Finally the regime created physical fitness events to promote
racial ideas of German superiority. Young girls actually enjoyed these
activities as it emphasized nature, companionship, and had what seemed
like strong female leaders. Yet as they grew into young adulthood, older
youth groups forced the idea of submission onto women.
Though the female followers of these reactionary regimes felt they
gained new freedoms, cracks of disillusionment began to surface.
Indoctrination programs geared at younger females received less funding
and as a result found difficulty in securing resources to brainwash them
and relied on older educational material from the previous Weimar
government or religious institutions. Returning back to religion, Catholic
groups managed to maintain some autonomy from Nazi control and
deplored the use of eugenics as it violated traditional beliefs on birth
control. Eventually as WWII broke out, Hitler instead of seeking popular
support increased his racist policies. Himmler introduced a breeding plan
that gave preference towards single, unwed racially fit women to have
more children without male supervision which distraught many people.
Even the violent persecutions of Jews caused feelings of disgust amongst
some loyal Nazi women. To the disappointment of female followers, the
regimes attention in regards to women focused on military wives and
widows and seeking employment than staying home honing traditional
roles.
Though it seemed for some segments of the female population felt these
regimes gave prominence towards them, vast majorities of women lost
civil rights they had only recently gained. In particular with Germany
prior to Nazisms rise to power; the previous government of the Weimar
Republic saw a flourishing of not womens rights, but also a break away
for some women from traditional roles. The cultural vibrancy and
hedonist attitudes of this era have a connection to the temporary
liberation of womens roles. Not only were the allowed to vote and hold
down professional careers in certain fields, women could assume
previously masculine roles in clothing and recreational activities like
shorten fashions, taking up smoking, and independent living. A specific
case is Sylvia von Harden, noted journalist and subject of an Otto Dix
painting. It was these generalized stereotypes of New Women that Nazi
regime justified taking away rights of women and reintroducing
traditionalistic female roles of motherhood and submissive attitudes
towards men. Finally in connection with the textbook, it does mention the
lives of women under Fascist Italy while for German women in the Nazi
regime fails to mention their political contributions to the party and
focuses only on Nazi economic policies that affected women.
Works Cited
Kaplan, Temma. "16 - Women and Communal Strikes in the Crisis of 1917

- 1922." Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Ed. Renate

Bridenthal, Claudia Koonz, and Susan Mosher. Stuard. 2nd ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 428-49. Print.
Koonz, Claudia. "19 - The Fascist Solution to the Women Question in Italy
and Germany." Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Ed.
Renate Bridenthal, Claudia Koonz, and Susan Mosher. Stuard. 2nd ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 498-533. Print.