Neither of those were in the USSR now were they ?
> even if the USSR achieved some measure of gender equality: was it worth the cost?
No... but I certainly never suggested it was. I just think that rationality requires honesty about the facts, to reflexively act as if the USSR had no positive achievements whatsoever and never could have - is to be irrational as they most certainly DID have some, pioneering space travel was another, the AK-47 yet another, whats more, it denies us the opportunity to learn from their successes. Why should we ONLY learn from their failures ? 
In the same vein - if one is proposing a better system than capitalism - it would be disingenuous to pretend nothing good came out of it, even if (like me) you feel the amount of terrible outcomes are not at all worth the cost.
I would want to replicate the good things that came from it, while avoiding the bad things.

Currently the social democracies appear to have come the closest to doing so.