Soviet Feminist Speaks on Rights Of Russian Women

"The women's movement has the greatest potential of any movement in the Soviet Union," Soviet feminist Tatyana Mamonova last night told a mostly female audience of about 150 at the Cronkhite Center.

Speaking through a translator, Mamonova cited the populous majority of women in the Soviet Union and the existence of equal rights provisions in the U.S.S.R. constitution as reasons for this potential, but warned that "the movement is very young and the patriarchal tradition is still ingrained in Soviet society."

Mamonova, a painter and poet, last year conceived and edited the first Soviet feminist journal, "Women and Russia." Despite her forced exile from the USSR last July, she hopes to continue writing about Soviet feminist issues for a Soviet audience.

Responding to questions about the extent of the Soviet feminist movement, she said, "Communication among women is still very hard, very conspiratorial. We are taught in school that we are already emancipated, and so there isn't really any sense of feminist consciousness." She added, "this makes it very difficult for us to make any demands on society."

There is also a great disparity between laws protecting women and the extent to which they are carried out, she said, adding that although prostitution, wife-abuse, rape, and job discrimination are real problems in the USSR, "officially" they do not exist.

Feminist author Robin Morgan accompanied Mamonova, whose visit to the United States is being sponsored by Ms. Magazine.