Wherever they ruled, communists engineered cultural change by dethroning religious authorities, educating women, and harnessing them as workhorses. Today, ex-communist countries lead the world for gender parity in education, employment, and management roles. Yet it is my contention that the status of women would have been higher without communism. To the extent that communism suffocated civil society, it choked off strong independent women’s movements and stifled further progress for women that did take place in western societies. One major exception is tribalised or Muslim societies, where female emancipation either would have been severely delayed or never would have happened without communism.

If you'd rather read or want the references, here's the blog link: https://www.draliceevans.com/post/did-communism-smash-the-patriarchy