Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope

by Francine du Plessix Gray

Book Overview

A terrific book, probably the most sensitive and intelligent written on the subject to date. And it is not just about Soviet women, it's about all women--and men.--The New York Times Book Review.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385417330
• Release Date: May 1991
• Publisher: Anchor
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

book reviews

The Observer, December 8 1991 Though written from interviews held only three years ago, this fascinating book's pro-Gorbachov/perestroika enthusiasm already has a fugitive feel. But the freshness and strength of these voices from a culture in which 'women can do everything; men can do the rest' easily withstand change. The Boston Globe, March 8, 1993 ...Francine du Plessix Gray, in her book "Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope," notes a long tradition in Russian culture, "marked by men's ambivalent awe and resentment of forceful females" - a trait reflected in literature by an "idealization of women's moral virtues" and a "negative, ascetic attitude toward women's sensuality and intellect." Gray attributes this pattern to centuries of domination by the Russian Orthodox Church, which emphasized a fear of women's sexual powers, to the point where, for many years, women were forbidden to attend services during their menstrual periods and only those past childbearing age could bake Communion bread. The Washington Times, July 1, 1991 The Soviet Union has the highest abortion rate in the world (between five and eight abortions for every birth), and the nation's ignorance relating to sexual matters is equaled only in the most backward countries, according to Francine Du Plessix Gray in Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope. Motivated by memories of her own Russian mother, the novelist traveled from Riga to Irkutsk, questioning women from all walks of life. Author of six other books, including "Lovers and Tyrants" and "World Without End," she doesn't mince words and paints a painful picture of repression. Most fascinating of all the sexual issues she explores is the paradox of the Russian women's liberation movement compared with its U.S. counterpart. Embittered by years of deprivation and overwork, Russian women are fighting to get out of the work force and back home to domesticity. New & Noteworthy The New York Times May 19, 1991 Traveling through the Soviet Union, an American novelist of Russian descent finds that oppression has hardened the women to the point that the country "might be as much in need of a men's movement as of a women's movement." Last year our reviewer, Ruth Daniloff, said, "The portraits are drawn with humor and warmth, interspersed with history and social observation." Notable Books of the Year The New York Times December 2, 1990 Brilliant, sympathetic portraits of overworked, frustrated women whose men have neither the authority of patriarchs nor the utility of househusbands. USA TODAY, October 22, 1990 Lenin promised Soviet women liberation and equality. Instead, Soviet women are overburdened by policies that deny them birth control, proper health care and day-care centers yet encourage full-time careers and child- bearing, the author says. The result: a matriarchy of self-sacrificing women, passive men, frequently abandoned infants and as many as five to eight abortions for each live birth. The average female wor