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The Woman’s Role in Propaganda Newspapers in the Romanian Socialist Era
| My analysis is primarily concerned with the conception of the model socialist woman in Romania during the communist period and is mainly based (besides the official gender politics of the communist party) upon propaganda newspapers such as “Femeia” ("The woman"), “Muncitoarea” ("The working woman") and “Săteanca” ("The female villager"). It doesn’t need to be mentioned that these newspapers, published exclusively for a female audience, are only a pretext for the communist doctrine. The differences between communist ideology and reality are considered in my analysis, as well as the change from “forced emancipation” to a more conservative point of view, especially in the late 1970’s and 80’s during Nicolae Ceauşescu’s unchallenged dominance and the permanent presence of his wife Elena. It is obvious that the three roles for women: being a good comrade, worker and wife/mother are considered to be the one and only goal for every socialist woman, although one must not forget to see the distinction between the influence of the socialist way of life and the preexisting traditional role Romanian women had before the rise of communism. Nevertheless the newspapers mentioned above show a much more differentiated, deeper picture of how the totalitarian Romanian government suppressed individual female subjectivity and aimed to influence every single part of the public and private life.
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