Kristen Ghodsee reads a 21 January 1923 piece from the New York Times.  A labor leader from Seattle gives his impressions of women in Russia, including his attendance at the World Congress of Women held in Moscow.

Discussed in this episode are the current protests against mandatory headscarves for women in Iran in the context of the Soviet campaign to "emancipate" Central Asian and Caucasian women in the 1920s.

The audio book of Red Valkyries is now available on Audible and Spotify or wherever you get your audiobooks. 

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Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this episode Kristen Ghodsee reads a newspaper article from the periodical Current Opinion from 18 January 1918, just months after the Russian Revolution. The article, "Madame Kollontay: Heroine of the Bolsheviki Upheaval In Petrograd," is a profile of Kollontai by an American newspaper using Swiss  sources. Much of the information is incorrect, and the article draws on many negative stereotypes about women in positions of power.

This is the first episode of Season 5 as the podcast prepares to celebrate its fourth anniversary in January. 

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Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee finally finishes the second essay in the 1919 pamphlet, "Women Worker's Struggle for Their Rights," where Kollontai implicitly acknowledges the important work of bourgeois feminists in ensuring that socialist men took women's issues seriously.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

After a three-month hiatus while she dealt with the aftermath of a nasty bout of COVID-19,  Kristen Ghodsee returns for a two-part conversation with her daughter, who is now a junior at her university. These episodes explore questions of contemporary sexual politics on college campuses and whether Kollontai's work on "winged" and "wingless" eros can help to make better sense of the role that "hook-up" culture may or may not play in perpetuating the interests of capital.

Mentioned in these episodes is an infamous 2014 column by a Princeton University mother and the responses it elicited.

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

After a three-month hiatus while she dealt with the aftermath of a nasty bout of COVID-19,  Kristen Ghodsee returns for a two-part conversation with her daughter, who is now a junior at her university. These episodes explore questions of contemporary sexual politics on college campuses and whether Kollontai's work on "winged" and "wingless" eros can help to make better sense of the role that "hook-up" culture may or may not play in perpetuating the interests of capital.

Mentioned in these episodes is an infamous 2014 column by a Princeton University mother and the responses it elicited.

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristen Ghodsee (now dealing with long Covid) reads the second part of the essay, "Forms of Organization of Women Workers in the West ," which is the second essay in the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1919.

Mentioned in this episode is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women. (Only valid until July 30, 2022)

You can also subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristen Ghodsee (recovering from Covid) reads the first part of the essay, "Forms of Organization of Women Workers in the West ," which is the second essay in the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1919.

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Also, here is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristen Ghodsee (with Covid) reads the fourth part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918.

Mentioned in this episode is the run-off election for the French National Assembly. President Emmanuel Macron's coalition did lose their parliamentary majority.  The left coalition NUPES (New Ecological and Social Popular Union), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, could now be the second largest power in the National Assembly.

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Also, here is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristen Ghodsee reads the third part of the essay, "The Socialist Movement of Women Workers in Different Countries," part of the pamphlet, "Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights" published in 1918.

Mentioned in this episode is the article about August Bebel, "Socialists Have Long Fought for Women’s Liberation," in Jacobin Magazine.

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee's (very occasional) free newsletter. You'll get maybe one newsletter every 2 to 3 months.

Also, here is a 50% discount code for the new book from Verso: Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women.

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

In response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that guaranteed all American women autonomy over their own bodies, Kristen Ghodsee reflects on the Romanian experience as well as a 1936 interview with Kollontai on the reversal of the 1920 Soviet law that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to grant women access to abortion. In this interview Kollontai explains:

"As long as women or men live under the pressure of unemployment, as long as the level of wages is not sufficient for a family, as long as housing conditions are unfavourable, and as long as the state does not make motherhood easier for every woman in various ways and does not provide social services for mother and child, it is clear that the women must stand up for free abortions."

Also mentioned in this article are:

Gail Kligman, The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's Romania. Berkeley: UC Press, 1998

Maria Bucur and Kristen Ghodsee, "How Banning Abortion Will Transform America" Project Syndicate,  May 15, 2019

Send us a text

Thanks so much for listening. This podcast has no Patreon-type account and receives no funding. There are no ads and there is no monetization.

If you would like to support the work being done here, please spread the word, share with your friends and networks, and consider exploring the following links.

Check out Kristen Ghodsee's recent books:

• Everyday Utopia
• Red Valkyries
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
• Second World, Second Sex

Subscribe to Kristen Ghodsee’s free, episodic newsletter at: https://kristenghodsee.substack.com

Learn more about Kristen Ghodsee's work: www.kristenghodsee.com

Kristen R. Ghodsee is the award-winning author of twelve books and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.