prep RC _Query

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prep RC _Query

by czarczar » Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:02 pm
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 is primarily concerned with

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

OA:[spoiler]A but why not C ?[[/spoiler]

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by rishimaharaj » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:28 am
Hi Czarczar,

The first paragraph seems to be a background on the issue at hand. The second paragraph contains the main idea, which I think is the second part of the first sentence:
...the two movements shared certain underlying beliefs
The rest of the second paragraph goes on to show the overlapping points of agreement.

The first group (Bourgeois feminism) is interested in legal equality whereas the second group (Socialist feminists) is not interested in legal reform as the means to equality. I think that even though there are differences and some of it has to do with legal issues, this does not have to do with a "political problem" which is what C says. Also, aside from parts of the first paragraph, there are not many differences or approaches listed.

Instead, the bulk of the passage is dealing with the agreement points between the groups, which is what A says (see the underlined portions below).
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.
Hope this helps!
--Rishi

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by force5 » Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:25 pm
well said. should be A.