Status of Women (Brezhnev, Andropov)

• • Conservative attitudes to women dominated.
  • Pro-Natal Campaign launched to improve birthrate, women discouraged from work.
  • Emphasis of ideal feminine traits and characteristics
• • In 1970s, Brezhnev declared 'Sexual Equality has been achieved in Russia'.
  • Working women blamed for increase in male alcoholism rates increasing by 10% in 1970s.
• Status of women under Brezhnev overview

  • Stagnation in women's lives.
  • Traditional roles of women.
• Stagnation in women's lives

  • Under Brezhnev, much less was done to improve the status fo women.
  • Brezhnev declared that 'sexual equality had been achieved'.
  • Lack of women in senior jobs; women's 'natural' desire to look after family was the reason given for the lack of women in high-ranking industrial and political jobs.
  • Western feminism; government banned information about women's campaigns in the West; aimed to suppress debates around women's roles.
  • Women spent twice as much time as men doing domestic chores.
• Traditional roles of women

  • Official view; Brezhnev viewed women as unskilled workers; the prime goal of women was to have children.
  • Strict sexual morality; male homosexuality was a crime; lesbianism was a psychiatric disorder; sex was for function rather than pleasure.
  • Viewed housekeeping role of women as part of 'natural order'.
  • Pro-Natal Campaign; wanted women to raise babies and look after them.
  • Pension age for women lowered from 60 to 55.