Women Deserve a Greater Role in Politics, Gorbachev Asserts

It shouldn’t have come as news to most Soviet people that the status of women in their country leaves much to be desired.

But President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s sharp denunciation of the overwork and under-appreciation accorded the female population curiously created the biggest stir during his three-hour address to the 28th Communist Party Congress on Monday.

“I think we should be ashamed of ourselves now that we see women take an active part in big politics in many countries,” Gorbachev lamented toward the end of his all-encompassing report on Soviet life. “Just take a look at this assembly--how many women are there among the delegates?”

No official statistics were released Monday on the composition of the congress, but women appeared to make up far less than 10% of the nearly 4,700 delegates.

“It is a matter of men’s honor to do their utmost to ease the situation of women, though much can be done by the women themselves, if they manage to organize themselves,” Gorbachev said.

Nearly all Soviet women work at full-time jobs, and a tenaciously traditional social atmosphere compels them to carry the burden of child-rearing, shopping and housework as well.

About 30% of the party’s 18 million members are women, but the leading ranks are dominated by men.

“Perhaps we should take real steps at this very congress to have women represented in the Central Committee, at the Politburo and the Central Committee Secretariat,” the Kremlin leader suggested.

But one female delegate complained that the party gets too bogged down in numbers.

“It’s not a question of more women, but more clever women,” said Tamara Alaiba, a medical institute director from Sverdlovsk. “It’s not a resolution of the women’s question simply to change the numbers.”