The Research Factors and Their Importance for the Historical Analysis of Women's part in World Revolutions
Since the first world revolutions, women's participation and achievement in their processes has increased greatly. For centuries, women had to fight for their rights, equality, and security. In most cases, women played a very important role in the development of a revolutionary process. Many studies have shown that women were the ideological leaders of the various uprisings, which used to end with success. By analyzing these questions, a particular attention should be paid to the specifics and methods of research of women's participation and role in the revolutionary processes. "Throughout the history, women have marched, demonstrated, and fought alongside men for social justice." It is crucial to use all the necessary factors in their analysis, since the importance of these factors determines accuracy and correctness of historical analysis. Hence, determination of the relevant factors leads to the more detailed and reliable analysis of women's participation in world revolutions. This paper aims at revealing the factors and reasons of their importance for the world history.
The definition of "revolution" and the main factors of historical analysis. To identify the factors and their importance for the study of the question of women's belonging to revolutions, it is necessary to define the concept of "revolution". Hence, there are two main viewpoints on revolution; some believe that revolution is a necessary political phenomenon that leads to important reforms and improves the living conditions in country, because all the existing transformations are "at least partly the result". On the other hand, some researchers state that revolution is only an act of aggression, which exacerbates all government processes, "leading to chaos". At first glance, the theories of revolutions' causes in the contemporary American sociology are now highly diversified and difficult to analyze. In addition to the diverse terminology, there is also a very diverse set of evaluations, opinions, and approaches - from the ideological and psychological, up to the political and economic. This diversity is justified methodologically: criticizing the "one-way" concept, sociology of revolution argues that there is a need for a synthesis of different points of view. That is, the first and one of the most important factors in the study of women in revolutions is to collect and evaluate all existing theories and views on the revolutionary process. After collecting and comparing data, it is necessary to determine the most objective theories. With all possible data on the occurrence of rebels, it is possible to build a more extensive analysis of women's involvement in revolutionary process. Revolution is a kind of way to a fundamental change in the political system, which is carried out in the course of armed struggle between a powerful one classes against the other classes that wish to conquest political domination.
Ultimately, the political revolution is aimed at the creation of a "Public Integrity", which corresponds to the interests of the ruling class historically. Every revolution begins in the minds of ideologists who aim to provide people with a "broader understanding of ideology". The ideologists tend to formulate new social and political values, which are perceived by their contemporaries as fantasies. This ideologues' product can be called utopia. At the same time, the development of social relations leads to the actualization of these ideas over time. The contents of these utopias turn into ideology. According to John Foran, "ideology is not "a system of ideas"; rather it is a "social process" involving "knowledgeable actors" which invokes larger cultural systems rather than "consciously held political beliefs."
There are many followers of revolutionary ideas. Thus, the possible reasons for uprising represent another crucial factor of the research. If one considers a cause of a revolution as a factor of historical analysis, thus determination of the cause can be considered an important stage of is study. Moreover, "recent scholarship is just beginning to theorize and study other central dimensions of social structure such as gender, ethnicity, and region." For example, in the history of the suffragists' movement, women could get some ideological, legal benefits in the process of revolution and after its successful implementation. Therefore, there arises an opposition to the existing government, which bases its political activities on ideology. When these social processes had enough spread, a majority of population realized them as "the dominant motive of social psychology". This powerful impetus to social consciousness becomes the driving force of natural revolutions. They arise spontaneously and naturally. For example, "in a few cases women have emerged from revolutions as the leaders of their nation – such as Indira Gandhi in India, Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua, and Corazon Aquino in the Philippines – they have been unable to shift the dominant patriarchal character for their societies."
Nevertheless, some researchers "seek to incorporate gender into the sociology of revolution in terms of cultural and ideological struggles over the family and sex roles, noting how gender issues surface recurrently during revolutions to provide revealing insights into revolutionaries' intentions." Hence, any coincidence grows into a mass outrage that flashes as a fire of revolution. That is why Jack Goldstone commented that the dominant model in the study of revolution is no longer simple class analysis, but "a constellation of factors and interaction among those factors". For instance, spontaneous revolutions, as a rule, have a pronounced religious coloring.
The other factors of historical analysis and their importance. Exploring women's role in revolutionary processes, one should take into account the gender issue and the question of women's history. "By 1986, feminists had already adopted the term "gender" to refer to the social construction of sex differences, and theorists had already posed "gender" as an analytic category, akin to class and race." Thus, to make the analysis women's belonging to the revolutionary processes more accurate and detailed, it is necessary to identify a factor of women's history. "Historians also began to suggest that discourses of gender had promoted and sustained American military interventions". In addition to the sexual factor, historians should also turn their attention to the study of this issue in terms of national factors, race, and mentality. In addition, Joan Scott states that "“gender” as a substitute for “women” is also used to suggest that information about women is necessarily information about men, that one implies the study of the other." The factors are related to gender, ethnic, and cultural minorities are very important categories of analysis. Exploring these factors, women's historians can determine the number of problems associated with inequality, which often becomes a cause of rebellions and revolutions. Goldstone provides a vivid example of this thesis: ""In 1789 the women of Paris marched on Versailles to demand food and dignity for their families and children, while in 1791 Marie Gouze published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman." Precisely, a problem of inequality has also been relevant for many centuries. In addition, these factors can be considered important because they are able to detail the historical analysis, thus making it more reliable. Hence, Scott gives an accurate example of the three suffragists' manifest that states, "it is not too much to suggest that however hesitant the actual beginnings, such a methodology implies not only a new history of women, but also a new history." The works of Marx can be considered as a separate category in the analysis of any problems associated with revolutions. Attitude to Marxism has overcome a significant evolution in the contemporary American sociology – it changed from sharply negative to very fruitful for the construction of a general theory. The study of feminist Marxist theory is a very important factor, as if historians ignore Marx's works, it would mean that they would ignore the socio-economic character of revolution that might give rise to various theoretical contradictions. It means that there is a mixture of different types of revolutions, an inability to distinguish revolution from counter-revolution.
In conclusion, historians should take into account many factors for the analysis of women's belonging to the world revolutions. The main ones consist in the correct definition of the concept "revolution", as well as in the main causes of revolutionary processes. In addition, it is necessary to take into account factors associated with inequality and gender, which have always played an important role in the development of any uprising. All these factors are very important categories of historical analysis, as they make the present research detailed and thus reliable.
Bibliography
Foran, John. "Theories of Revolution Revisited: Toward a Fourth Generation?" Sociological Theory 11, no. 1 (March 1993): 1-20. SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed February 15, 2016).
Goldstone, Jack A. 2014. Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Goodwin, Jeff. 1994. “Old Regimes and Revolutions in the Second and Third Worlds: A Comparative Perspective”. Social Science History 18 (4). Cambridge University Press: 575–604. doi:10.2307/1171255.
Meyerowitz, Joanne. 2008. “A History of "gender”. The American Historical Review 113 (5). Oxford University Press, American Historical Association: 1346–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30223445.
Scott, Joan W. 1986. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”. The American Historical Review 91 (5). Oxford University Press, American Historical Association: 1053–75. doi:10.2307/1864376.
