Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism summary

The idea that the USSR and Eastern Bloc did anything positive runs directly counter to the narratives most of us have grown up with. If there’s one message we’ve received about them from our history teachers, politicians, and countless books, tv shows, and movies, it’s that state socialism was bad. Really bad. End of story. 

But in reality, that’s only part of the story. In this blink, we’re going to look at the other side of it: some of the good things that happened under state socialism – particularly for women. The point isn’t to deny or excuse the bad things; it’s simply to round out the picture that most of us have formed about the USSR and Eastern Bloc. 

Of course, not all women have heterosexual partnerships, and many women don’t become mothers. As for those who fit both bills, many of them find ways of returning to work shortly after childbirth, even in the most capitalistic societies. Some of them can afford private childcare, and others have family members who can look after their kids. 

However, the fact remains that the demands of motherhood lead many women to drop out of the workforce and become economically dependent on men to one degree or another. And due to a phenomenon called statistical discrimination, this has important consequences for all women, regardless of whether they have children or live in heterosexual relationships.

The more you study any social phenomenon, the more you usually end up coming to the same conclusion: it’s complicated. Reality is complex, and there’s usually not a single, simple explanation for anything. Instead, there’s a bunch of overlapping explanations that you have to piece together. 

The same is true of the economic situation of women living in capitalist societies. To round out our account of this, let’s take a look at some more explanations as to why women get the short end of the economic stick. 

In the previous blink, our hypothetical mother was “lucky” enough to be able to afford private daycare for her child, which enabled her to go back to work. The word “lucky” is ironic here, because paying for private daycare can end up being a pretty raw deal for working mothers. 

Unfortunately, the alternative is to stop working, which leads to yet another raw deal. The end result is that mothers end up between a rock and a hard place after giving birth. And the reason for this boils down to two words: résumé gap. 

What would you do if you were Leslie? Work for 70 cents of take-home pay per month? Or quit your job and suffer the consequences of losing momentum in your career, having a gap in your résumé, and perhaps becoming economically dependent on your partner? 

It’s a pretty tough choice. Both of the options are unfair. And that’s precisely the point: this isn’t a choice that women should have to make. But under capitalism, it’s one that women routinely face. And this time, the reason boils down to one word: neoliberalism. 

If you remember anything from your high school or college economics classes, one phrase is probably lodged in your brain more than any other: the law of supply and demand. As advocates of capitalism never get tired of telling us, this is one of the central features of a free-market economy. 

Now, when we’re talking about everyday commodities, the law of supply and demand can seem rather innocuous. For example, if the demand for hats goes down and the supply stays constant, the price of hats will tend to go down as well, leading to a decrease in supply. The market adjusts, and everyone lives happily ever after. 

Whatever else you want to say about them, you can’t deny that the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries made a lot of progress in terms of integrating women into their workforces. The statistics speak for themselves.

 In 1975, for example, women accounted for 49.7 percent of the Soviet workforce. By contrast, in North America, that percentage was only 37.4. Drilling down into specific industries, the numbers get even more impressive. For instance, by 1989, 50 percent of all engineering and technical specialists in the USSR were women. 

Imagine living in a democratic socialist society where all your basic needs are guaranteed to be met. Your government makes sure you have access to things like healthcare, higher education, and decently paid jobs. It can also help you out with things like housing, transportation, and food. And if you have a child, you can enjoy paid parental leave or state-funded childcare. 

Now take all of those things away. Welcome to neoliberalism. Unless you’re rich, it stinks in a lot of ways – especially if you’re a woman, and particularly if you’re a mother. And unfortunately, this is a feature of the system, not a bug. 

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking. “I thought these blinks were going to be about women having better sex. But now we’re on the second-to-last blink, and I haven’t heard anything about it yet. What’s all of this stuff got to do with sex?” 

Well, a lot. In a healthy relationship, partners meet each other as equals. But under neoliberalism, that’s a hard thing to do if you’re a heterosexual woman in a relationship with a man. Chances are, you won’t be equals. And that will have negative consequences on many aspects of your relationship, including your sex life. 

Okay, that was just a hypothetical example that we analyzed in the previous blink. But for many women, it’s a real experience. And there’s empirical data to back up the basic claim at issue, which is that inequality between men and women has negative impacts on their romantic relationships. 

Some of this data comes from some surprising sources – and, as you’ll see, they’re a fitting topic on which to end these blinks.