Status of Women (Lenin)

• • Postcard Divorces
  • Kollontai criticised nuclear family as oppressive
  • Women given nurturing roles during Civil War
• • Under Lenin, 28% of University graduates were women, versus 20% in the UK
  • In 1918, 5% of Communist Party delegates were women
• Status of women under Lenin overview

  • Playing a supporting role.
  • Women at work.
  • Families and women in the 1920s.
• Playing a supporting role

  • According to Lenin's writings, industrial workers and peasants both played important roles however industrial workers played the leading and decisive role versus peasants who played a supporting role.
  • Men routinely depicted as leading industrial workers and women portrayed in a supporting role as peasants.
  • This demonstrated that Soviet Government viewed society as being led by men, and supported by women.
• Women at work

  • During civil war; Zhenotdel recruited women as nurses and food distributors.
  • Reflected the views of Zhenotdel leader, Alexandra Kollontai; she advocated for a natural division of labour with men fighting and rebuilding industry once the civil war ended - and women leading the way in nurturing roles.
  • After the end of the civil war, women were sacked from their jobs to make way for returning men.
• Families and women in the 1920s

  • No consistent government view on women; Kollontai advocates replacing monogamy with free love and encourages selfishness and individualism; Lenin and Trotsky were move conservative, Lenin argued against 'free love'; however, Lenin recognised the abuses of marriage so engaged in divorce reform.
  • Education; Zhenotdel set up women's reading rooms; ensured gender quotas for high education.
  • Legal Rights; from 1919 women had equal pay and voting rights.
  • Reproductive rights; abortion and contraception legal.
  • Postcard divorces; however 70% initiated by men.
• Zhenotdel unwilling to help female victims of sexual harassment; in 1928, Leningrad women workers organised walk-outs but senior party officials viewed this as 'troublemaking' and refused to create change.
• During NEP; government did not fund creches or daycare facilities. Forced women to marry to provide a degree of security; orphaned children created street gangs to survive.