Role of Women

• Pre communism


  Women tended not to have jobs

  • weren't seen as powerful
  • weren't respected
  • difficult place to be a woman
  • not supposed to voice their opinion
  • domestic violence was common and normalised
  • weren't expected to be educated

  Common role = uncomplaining housewife and mother
• Communists came into power and set up an organisation called Zhenotdel to promote women issues

  By 1937 it claimed that women were now completely equal to men, however this was only true for some..
• Many thought that women became property of their husbands after marriage, and so laws were changed around marriage.

  Women did not have to take their husbands name, divorce was made easier, abortion was legalised and the marriage ceremony was made civil rather than religious in hopes to remove the status of marriage.
• These laws had some negative effects, as the USSR suddenly had the highest divorce rate in all of Europe.

  However this was mainly used by husbands to abandon women to bring up families alone and so actually wasn't benefiting women

  gangs of abandoned children lived in cities and towns

  The abortion rate also sky rocketed at a time when Stalin needed more workers (In 1920s Moscow abortions outnumbered births 3 to 1)
• Women were now able to pursue careers beyond being housewives, more women attended university as consequence of their increasing influence in industry.

  By 1940, 40% of engineering students were female
• To combat issues that the early communist reforms of marriage had caused, Stalin issued the new family code - a return to how it was before. It stated

  1. Family was the cornerstone of the USSR
  2. Unregistered marriages were no longer allowed
  3. Abortion was made illegal
  4. Being gay was illegal
  5. Divorce was more expensive and men had to send money to their families if they were to leave
  6. Mothers with more than 6 children were given money by the state
• Result of Stalin's new family code made it appear successful:

  • The birth rate rose from 25 births per 1000 people in 1935 to 31 per 1000 in 1940, and the divorce rate slowed
• Laws passed which stated women should earn the same amount as men, and should be given the same promotion prospects.

  However, this was slow to have an impact, as in 1928 there were only 3 million women in work, which was similar to during the Tsarist times and the majority were in badly paid, low skill jobs, such as domestic services, farming and textiles
• Rapid industrialisation changed things, females became a key part of the work force under the 5 year plans.

  By 1940 there were female engineers, train drivers, construction workers and steel makers.

  By 1940, 41% of workers in heavy industry were women.
• There were female Stackhanovites such as Pasha Angelina. Her tractor team achieved 129% of its quota, beating all other teams in its region. Pasha became an official soviet celebrity
• Women still faced discrimination in the workplace, some men refused to work with women.

  Despite the official policy, women were paid only 60-65% of what men were.

  Most of the high skilled, management positions were taken by men. Rising unemployment under NEP also meant many lost their jobs.
• Many women had to deal with the double burden of work and caring for children, putting them under intense pressure. The state offered free childcare to help but this was never in the right places.
• Stalin's "Great Retreat" started in the 1930s and Zhenotdel ended.

  In 1936 Stalin created the 'housewives movement'. It centred around the wives of the party members carrying out charitable acts. The message was clear; Politics was for men, looking after children was for women.