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Women in the USSR - Coggle Diagram
Women in the USSR
Workplace under Lenin
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Zhenotdel recruited women from towns to fill in jobs. When the Civil War ended, women were sacked to make way for returning men. Under NEP, jobs became more limited for women.
Agriculture
throughout 1920s, women played a key role in agriculture. They often worked the 'triple shift'- provide labour on farms, responsible for household chores and engaged in additional hadnicrafts
Under Lenin, women worked in unskilled agricultural labour, there were only 8 female tractor drivers
Military
During Civil War, 70,000 women fought in the Red Army but were first to be demobilised afterwards- never high rank
Politics
despite the Marx philosophy, women often filled stereotypical roles- working in Social welfare, Health or Education
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Under Lenin, some women occupied political roles and employed nannies so they could continue their work in politics
Family code 1918- separated marriage from the church, allowed a couple to chose a surname, gave illegitimate children the same rights as legitimate and gave women the rights to divorce on extended grounds
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1926 marriage law- granted registered and unregistered marriages equal right and emphasised the obligations that came with marriage- was to solve men leaving their de facto wife & having no legal ties to them after & creating inequality
Workplace under Stalin
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1930, Zhenotdel was closed as Stalin declared women's issues were solved
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In 1928, 3 million women worked in the Soviet Industry. By 1940, this was 13 million. 40% of heavy industry workers were women
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women were still underpaid and only received 60% of wages men did for the same job and received extensive abuse
Military
women played a key role, especially in besieged cities like Leningrad
in some towns, women made up 75% of workers
by 1945, 800,000 women were in combat roles and there were 3 flying regiments
Lydia Litvyak became a famous pilot as she shot down 12 German planes before being killed
- became known as the 'Night Witches'
despite their key role, their jobs were first to be demobilised as their role did not remain the same in peacetime
Khrushchev
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more social benefits- housing, maternity arrangements, healthcare & childcare
positives< negatives >
women were encouraged to care for the family and look after the household & undertake paid employment
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Brezhnev
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More awareness of social problems- family code in 1968- couples had to give 1 months notice of their wedding and divorce was illegal if the women was pregnant or within a year of the birth of the child
Attempted to solve housing problems but still overcrowding within flats, high level of domestic abuse and divorce
The 1977 Soviet Consitution supported women's rights both in public life (article 35) and in family life (article 53)
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Workplace
Industry- women tended to be restricted to low skilled manual labour in the light industry- change from Stalin where they did the same job for less pay- now just more restricted
90% of adults who did not work and stayed at home were women and 75% of health & education jobs went to women
Agriculture- women were targeted by K for the Virgin Lands Scheme. 'Your caring hands are needed everywhere'
Party- women increased their role, especially in local Soviets, making up a third of the members
Workplace
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Female BAM workers (bamvoka's) remained in low-paid and low skilled work, chosen to keep the men happy
Agriculture- remained in low paid & low status jobs throughout B. 65% of work on farms was still manual over mechanised
as men left for industrialisation ,women were expected to do low skill jobs on collective farms (72%) but only 2% of managers were women
Party- B returned to a Stalinist ideology on women and encouraged large families to combat falling fertility rates. Women remained no more than 4% of the central committee in this period
Agriculture
By 1945, 80% of collective farm workers were women but would spend 5 times longer on domestic duties than men
with collectivisation, women increased their social status under Stalin- by 1940, there were 50,000 female tractor drivers who earned a relatively high wage
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Politics
female party members were expected to return to the home to maintain a 'well-ordered communist home'
also expected to become 'wife activists' who organised nurseries, engaged in charity work nd supervised canteens
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1928- 1936 Great retreat- wedding rings reintroduced in 1536, wedding certificates were printed on high quality paper and divorce was expensive. In 1937, 91% of men between 30&39 were married
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Repealed the ban on abortion in 1955- after almost 20 years of prohibition, abortion became legal again
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Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to fly in spce- selected from more than 400 applicants to pilot the Vostok 6 mission in 1963