women under stalin

• Abortion was criminalised unless the life of the pregnant woman was in danger
• Male homosexuality was criminalised - consensual sex between men was punishable by 5 years in a labour camp
• Lesbianism was treated as a disease - lesbians could be subjected to hypnotherapy
• Sex outside of marriage was stigmatised
• Divorce was made expensive and difficult to obtain
• Following divorce, fathers were required to pay a minimum of ⅓ of their income to their former wives as child support (60% if they had let 3 or more children)
• Women encouraged to have children - 2000 roubles a year for those with 7 children, to 5000 for those with 11
• Emphasised the importance of stable families based on monogamous heterosexual relationships
• Women spent 5 times longer on their domestic responsibilities than men during the 1930s
• number of female tractors by 1940 was 50,000
• worker and kolkhoz woman : a statue depicting a male industrial worker holding a hammer and female farm worker holding a sickle
• soviet posters of this period often included a male industrial worker and female farm worker : Distinction between the two different types of worker emphasised the difference in role between women and men
• during the first five year plan , men were the focus of posters
• women in posters during the five year plans tended to be mothers or children