Reading 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.


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

OE B

Please explain how is this inferred.

Let's also look at why the others cannot be inferred.

A) Nowhere is representation mentioned, and actually the passage says, "participation in the workplace and economic self-sufficiency, they believed, would make women socially useful and therefore deserving of equality with men."

B) The last sentence of the passage is, "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." In other words, they felt that large political aims of liberating the entire population from those things should take precedence over women's emancipation. So that choice is perfect.

C) This is in a way a trap answer. Emancipation of women and liberation of the entire population are mentioned together, but actually what is said in the last sentence indicates that the women felt that the latter was an aim that would be achieved separately from the former.

D) Neither are situations in other countries mentioned nor is there anything in the passage that implies what this answer choice says.

E) Neither are situations in other countries mentioned nor is there anything in the passage that implies what this answer choice says.

So B it is.

Hello Marty,

so can we rephrase the last sentence as below ?:

"Finally. socialist feminists and bourgeois feminists agreed on casting the emancipation aside and concentrate on the more important goal which is to liberate the entire Russian population from...."

if my rephrasing is correct then answer C) would what is called a " Shell game"

i've chosen answer C) initially , i think i misunderstood the meaning of the last sentence; it's a bit tricky for a non native English speaker

Please correct me if am wrong.

Thanks.

regards,

Joe

joealam1 wrote:Hello Marty,

so can we rephrase the last sentence as below ?:

"Finally. socialist feminists and bourgeois feminists agreed on casting the emancipation aside and concentrate on the more important goal which is to liberate the entire Russian population from...."

if my rephrasing is correct then answer C) would what is called a " Shell game"

i've chosen answer C) initially , i think i misunderstood the meaning of the last sentence; it's a bit tricky for a non native English speaker

Please correct me if am wrong.

Thanks.

regards,

Joe

That's basically correct, Joe, though I think "casting aside" conveys something slightly different from what they did, which is more like "temporarily putting aside".

Clearly the answer of the question would be inferred from the second paragraph as the opening line clearly states "the two movements shared some underlying beliefs". We can make it easier with a quick summary in 3 short points:
1. Participation in the workplace and economic self-sufficiency was very important
2. Advocacy of maternity insurance and paid maternity leave
3. Subordination of women's emancipation to political liberation of entire Russian population

Now, let's start looking at the options:
A. Political representation is not mentioned by the author
B. This point is a rephrasing of point 3 in our summary. Correct
C. This is meant to confuse as the passage mentions that political liberation of entire Russian population was more important and not vice versa
D. While economic self-sufficiency was an important aspect, no comparison to any other country is mentioned
E. Again, while the ideological divide is a fact, there is no comparison given with respect to other countries

So, the best option out of the lot is B