The Women’s International Democratic Federation, the Global South and the Cold War

Yulia Gradskova is Associate Professor in History and works at the Department of History, Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research interests include Soviet and post-Soviet social and gender history, decolonial perspective on Soviet politics on emancipation of “woman of the East” and gender equality. Gradskova is the author of Soviet Politics of Emancipation of Ethnic Minority Women. Natsionalka (Springer, 2018) and co-editor of several books, including Gendering Postsocialism. Old Legacies and New Hierarchies (Routledge 2018, with Ildiko Asztalos Morell); Gender Equality on a Grand Tour. Politics and Institutions – the Nordic Council, Sweden, Lithuania and Russia (Brill, 2017 – with E. Blomberg, Y. Waldemarson and A. Zvinkliene).

Chapter 1. A Forgotten Women’s Organization? The WIDF, in Between Women’s History and Cold War Studies; Chapter 2. The WIDF, the Soviet State, and Cold War Battles ; Chapter 3. Protecting Peace, Mothers, and Children - WIDF’s Ideology and Activities in its First Decades ; Chapter 4. Anti-Colonialism, Anti-Racism and Social Rights – the WIDF Defends Women in the Global South ; Chapter 5. The State Socialist Model of Women’s Emancipation as an Example to Follow for the "Whole World" ; Chapter 6. Women from Asia, Africa and Latin America Make Themselves Visible in the WIDF ; Chapter 7. Activists from the Global South and the WIDF – A Biographical Perspective; Chapter 8. The WIDF on the Eve of IWY and During the UN Decade for Women ; Chapter 9. The WIDF and the End of the Three Worlds: Concluding Remarks;