Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Comprehension 

Historians have identified two dominant currents in the Russian women's movement of the late tsarist period. "Bourgeois" feminism, so called by its more radical opponents, emphasized "individualist" feminist goals such as access to education, career opportunities, and legal equality. "Socialist" feminists, by contrast, emphasized class, rather than gender, as the principal source of women's inequality and oppression, and socialist revolution, not legal reform, as the only road to emancipation and equality.

However, despite antagonism between bourgeois feminists and socialist feminists, the two movements shared certain underlying beliefs. Both regarded paid labor as the principal means by which women might attain emancipation: participation in the workplace and economic self-sufficiency, they believed, would make women socially useful and therefore deserving of equality with men. Both groups also recognized the enormous difficulties women faced when they combined paid labor with motherhood. In fact, at the First All-Russian Women's Congress in 1908, most participants advocated maternity insurance and paid maternity leave, although the intense hostility between some socialists and bourgeois feminists at the Congress made it difficult for them to recognize these areas of agreement. Finally, socialist feminists and most bourgeois feminists concurred in subordinating women's emancipation to what they considered the more important goal of liberating the entire Russian population from political oppression, economic backwardness, and social injustice.

“Historians have identified two dominant currents in the Russian women's movement”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 questions and answers. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions check the candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions

Solution and Explanation

  1. The passage is primarily concerned with

(A) identifying points of agreement between two groups
(B) advocating one approach to social reform over another
(C) contrasting two approaches to solving a political problem
(D) arguing that the views espoused by one political group were more radical than those espoused by another group
(E) criticizing historians for overlooking similarities between the views espoused by two superficially dissimilar groups

Correct Answer: A
Explanation
: The author's primary purpose is to identify the "points of agreement" between the two groups. So (A) is the best answer.

  1. The passage suggests that socialists within the Russian women's movement and most bourgeois feminists believed that in Russia

(A) women would not achieve economic equality until they had political representation within the government
(B) the achievement of larger political aims should take precedence over the achievement of women's rights
(C) the emancipation of women would ultimately bring about the liberation of the entire Russian population from political oppression
(D) women's oppression was more rooted in economic inequality than was the case in other countries
(E) the women's movement was more ideologically divided than were women's movements in other countries

Correct Answer: B
Explanation
: The two groups agreed that liberating Russians from political oppression, economic backwardness, and social injustice. The larger political aims was a more important goal than emancipating women achievement of women's rights. So option B is correct.

  1. According to the passage, Russian socialists within the women's movement and most bourgeois feminists disagreed about which of the following?

(A) Whether legal reform was central to the achievement of feminist goals
(B) Whether paid employment was important for the achievement of equality
(C) Whether maternity insurance was desirable for working mothers
(D) Whether working mothers faced obstacles
(E) Whether women's emancipation should be subordinated to the liberation of the Russian population

Correct Answer: A
Explanation
: BFs wanted legal equality (i.e. legal reform), while the SFs did NOT emphasize legal reform. Thus, the two groups disagreed about whether legal reform was central to achievement of feminists goals.

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