Fascinating study of link between political philosophy and sexual pleasure

Equality and orgasms are at the centre of American academic Kristen R Ghodsee’s curiously titled book

THIS catchily titled critique of capitalism began as an op-ed piece that American academic Kristen R. Ghodsee wrote for the New York Times last year.

In it she argued that capitalism is bad for women, citing a comparative sociological study of East and West Germans conducted after reunification in 1990 which found that Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as Western women.

Ghodsee wrote: “Post-war West German women had stayed home and enjoyed all the labour-saving devices produced by the roaring capitalist economy. But they had less sex, and less satisfying sex, than women who had to line up for toilet paper.”

The column went viral. Its theme clearly struck a chord with what any women around the world had experienced, but until then hadn’t quite been able to pin down and articulate.

Even so, there was criticism levelled that Ghodsee, a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, didn’t provide enough proof in her New York Times piece to substantiate her claims.

Writing a book has allowed the author to respond to such gripes and flesh out her theories, drawing upon Ghodsee’s years of research into what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism.

The subject matter first piqued her interest after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Ghodsee, travelling around Europe during the summer of 1990, found herself immersed within the initial wave of hope and euphoria that followed the collapse of the former Eastern Bloc.

It led to her subsequent academic career, studying how the lives of ordinary people – in particular, women – changed against this shifting political and economic landscape. Ghodsee has been a regular visitor to the region and spent time living in Bulgaria and both sides of a reunified Germany.

Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism is a clever and eye-catching title. I deliberately left it in view on my desk and have lost count of the number of colleagues who did a doubletake or swift U-turn to take a closer look. It has sparked some interesting discussions.

The book delves into work, motherhood, sex and relationships, citizenship and leadership. At its heart, Ghodsee asserts that “unregulated capitalism is bad for women”. It is her belief that we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and vastly improve our standard of living.

“If done properly, socialism leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance, and yes, even better sex,” she writes.

It makes for fascinating, thoughtprovoking and often jarring reading. There are times that – as a woman – you may become so enraged that you will need to close its pages and seethe angrily at the lack of parity it exposes. At others, you will laugh out loud in solidarity.

The chapter entitled Women: Like Men, But Cheaper examines issues including the gender pay gap and workplace discrimination. Perhaps most illuminating is the section on “Lisa”, a successful human resources executive who gave up work after getting married and starting a family.

Ghodsee describes her initial feelings of envy when comparing Lisa’s seemingly care-free life as a stay-at-home mum who “read novels, worked out and cooked lavish meals” to her own “crushing routine of harried days” juggling a full-time career with her duties as a parent.

We learn that Lisa is, in fact, in an unspoken but galling predicament: she is at the economic mercy of her husband. “All of the labour she performs caring for their children, organising their lives