Differences Between Communist and Social-Democratic Views on Women's Rights

The main difference between the communist and social-democratic views on women’s rights was not about the end goal, which was to liberate women from both material and moral authority and to create better living conditions for them. Both sides wanted the same ultimate goal, but they had different ideas on how to achieve it.

Different Methods of Achieving the Goal

Julia Sultanova, a key figure, explained the split between the two groups in the newspaper Blagodenstvie (Prosperity). She wrote that the communist women’s union believed in the idea of destroying the existing system and building a new life from its ruins. In contrast, the social-democratic women’s organizations wanted to transform society consciously by improving the current system and sharing its benefits with everyone Bulgaria Holidays.

Social-Democratic Women’s Union in 1922

In 1922, the Women’s Social-Democratic Union had 26 local groups and about 1,000 members from various backgrounds. Half of the members were housewives, a quarter were workers, and the rest were teachers, employees, craftswomen, saleswomen, and some doctors and pharmacists. One of the main goals of this union was to oppose both the communist women’s union and the bourgeois women’s union.

Advocating for Women’s Rights

The union’s newspapers, Blagodenstvie and later Nedovolnata (Unsatisfied), supported women’s civic and political rights. They believed that achieving these rights was crucial for the larger social-democratic goal of human liberation and global prosperity. They also insisted on equal pay for equal work, better health and hygiene measures, government support for the unemployed and poor, and good education and cultural facilities for everyone in Bulgaria.

The social-democrats were against some parts of the Civil Code and wanted to protect children and abolish prostitution.

Similar Goals to the “Bourgeois” Women’s Union

Although the social-democratic women’s group tried to separate themselves from the “separatist feminist organization”, it was clear that their goals and priorities were quite similar to those of the “bourgeois” Bulgarian Women’s Union.