women under Khrushchev

• Several women's magazines (woman worker, peasant women, soviet woman) that carried articles by women exposing inequalities in soviet society

  1956
• War lead to the death of over 10 million men
• Abortion was legalised


  1955
• State paid maternity leave increased from 77 to 112 days

  1956
• The 6th 5YP (1956) led to expansion of creches, childcare facilities and communal laundries
• 7YP introduced convenience foods and mass produced clothing
• Refrigerators made widely available
• As a result of the war, the proportion of women in soviet society grew from 52% (1939) to 55% (1959)
• The war had led to many lone-parent families - stalinist family style no longer worked
• Women were able to do less cooking and sewing themselves
• Contraception remained hard to acquire
• Failed to end the 'double shift' domestic appliances were either less helpful or less widely available
• Creches opened late and closed early so women were still unable to do full work days
• Women still spent more time doing household chores than men