Communism: How It Tried to Help Women

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Constitutional patriarchy instilled by the government in Central Europe greatly affected women during the time period following World War I. Communism attempted to give women more rights and promote their equality among men, but it failed to do so often. As a regime, patriarchy favored masculine gender roles throughout numerous aspects of society. Loves of a Blonde, Man is Not a Bird, Daisies, and A Woman Alone display the effect of patriarchy on women and how women could be successful or unsuccessful on attempting to go against it. The women in the films showed how women were pressured by society to accept relationships and a role in family, which were repressive. However, not all women conformed to the pressure and attempted to change their lives by taking different attitudes and actions toward the situation. By observing these films, a viewer can receive a viewpoint on how patriarchal society affected women and how women acted on their positions.
Patriarchal societies had common effects across Central European countries. Women were often treated as citizens in a third-world country (Katarzyna 4). In the Czech Republic, women were seen as equal to men under the Communist regime. Despite this, women’s still received jobs that were inferior to men with men working political and government jobs and women expected to remain in a sphere within the home. Women were seen as equal to men, yet they were socially looked down upon if they were not married or being housewives (Heitlinger 90). Similar to the Czech Republic, women in Yugoslavia had equality legally but were unable to practice their rights as citizens, mainly political, outside of the work atmosphere. Women worked jobs in fields such as education, medicine, banks, or post off...

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...reedom by going out with other men without being fearful on what the repercussions would be. The filmmaker of Daisies did the best to show change by their film that showed Jarmila and Jezinka rebelling against the society that entrapped them. The movie was successful and displays how women can participate in important work and move forward in careers that were unseen at the time such as expressing themselves creatively. Ultimately, the films show how women were living in unsatisfactory conditions that were contradictory by declaring to be equal when women were seen as inferior to men. The women who took action towards society by leaving a relationship or rebelling against how society wanted them to act shows the lesson that women should not be subjected to abuse or inferiority in relationships or any other aspects of life that was suggested by patriarchal societies.

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