Lives of women USSR
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- Created by: cjjl
- Created on: 13-02-17 13:31
1917
- Before the revolution male attitudes to women were poor - Russian proverb 'the more you beat your wife the better your soup will taste'
- On seizing power the Communists established a womens branch of the central committe to promote the status of women in accordance with socialist equality.
- Series of decrees passed by party feminists to promote this - divorce made easier so women wouldn't be trapped in abusive relationships/abortion legalised/law that women had to obey her husband abolished now only had to live with him and take his name/permission from husband no longer needed to take a job or study
- Effects - rise in divorce left children unsupported/few received financial support/70% divorces initiated by men/attitudes slow to change so equal rights had no impact
- Radicals thought that communal organisation of child care would liberate women
- 1917 - equal pay law passed 1918 constitution declared men and women equal - legally but not socially
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1918-21 Civil War
- Women in the workforce increased as a neccessity not because of equality
- BUT employment opportunities changed lives for the worse
- 70 000 in the army but low ranks and millions in factories
- Inadequate childcare
- Jobs taken from them as the war ended as they were as a rule more unskilled workers
- Traditional attitude that they were unsuitable for heavy work remained
- The subsequent famine left many homeless and destitute
- Prostitution rose
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Islamic Women
- This was a community resistant to change - polygamous/male-dominated families
- Women were sheiled from public view - veiled and denied an education
- 1927 Female activists attempted to break trends by encouraging unveiling, teaching basic contraception, personal hygeine and childcare
- successful to an extent - opportunities for them increased and female leaders celebrated
- But resistance rife- violent meetings and women killed for refusing to wear traditional dress
- 1930 - womens department - Zhenotdel - closed claiming all issues surrounding women had been sold
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Women in Politics
- Women given the right to vote in 1917 by provisional gov but their active role remained very limited - declarations of sexual equality but women still majorly under-represented
- Only 7 members in central committee - Lenin's wife and Alexandra Kollontai the most prominent
- Fluctuated over time
- 1932 - women 16% of party membership
- 1939 - only here that female delegates at the congress exceeded 10%
- 1957 - Furtseva first woman in the Politburo - a favourite of Kruschev so left with his dismissal in 1964
- 1988 - only here the next woman made the top - Birayukova
- Politcal power overwhelmingly in hands of men
- As womens influence in politics remained low they could do little to change their unequal situation
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Female Role Models
- Included: Ballerinas/Actresses/Figure skaters/Gymnasts
- Propaganda always put the industiral worker as a male whilst the subsidary peasant was always female - reflected their position in society
- Example - Valentina Tereshkova - impeccable proletarian background - became first woman in space in 1963 - revered as hero becoming a prominent party member
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Collectivisation and Industrialisation - rural
- Many men left for towns - some sent back money but many women deserted
- Womens labour was relied on at lower wages with fewer extra services
- Attitudes in the countryside more entrenched and slower to change
- 1930's the internal passport system gave women freedom to move to townns - but males took this opportunity before the women could so they mostly remained wiht the low-status agricultural work
- WW2 - able bodied men leave and women made up the bulk of the workforce
- Red army requistioned machinery and animals
- Post War - soldiers tried to find employment in the cities leading to a major imblance in sexes, by 1950 some villages were entirley made up of women and children - women shackled themselves to ploughs due to lack of machinery
- During Krushchev/Brezhnev years womens status slowly improved - healthcare/maternity benefits
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Collectivisation and Industrialisation - urban
- 5 year plans gave women the impresssion they had to work as it was a socialist duty - also economic hardships made it a neccessity for survival
- Higher education places start to be reserved for women which gave a route upwarssd in society but top levels still dominated by men
- 1930's emergence of soviet elites wives doing social/charitable work
- WW2 women in industry increased. Some joined the Red Army but were not thought suitable for active combat- this changed when heavy losses forced the gov to allow them to become pilots and machine gunners
- Post - War women reverted to unskilled roles and lost jobs with status
- But - 89 received the highest ' hero of the USSR' award
- The line between male and female roles was still there but blurred - women now expected to do a double duty with an job and domestic duties - double burden
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