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Social Policy in the USSR - Coggle Diagram
Social Policy in the USSR
Women
Women in propaganda
1917-1941
Women were often depicted in a supporting role.
For example the Statue 'Worker and Kolkhoz Woman' which showed a man with a hammer as industry and a women with a sickle as agriculture.
This suggested several things
The role of men and women were different
Men had the leading role in society because according to Lenin, workers played the leading and decisive role
Fairly common for the propaganda for the time
Women often depicted as Mothers or children which showed that they were expected to play a maternal role in society
1941-64
During the war
Women depicted as people who needed protection with an example of this being Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya or Tanya who was enslaved, tortured, mutilated and hanged by German Soldier with pictures of he being published in Pravda
Women were much more prevalent in propaganda during this time but were linked with defending the motherland as protecting Soviet Women
After the war
heroic women were presented as symbols of sexual equality that was claimed to have been created
Women who served on the front line and Girl warriors (?) were featured heavily in Soviet propoganda
The first women in space Valentina Tereshkova also was a big part of propaganda as she had grown up on collective farm and had been able to get education and work in Soviet Industry
Also official campaigns against women who adopted Western Fashion
1964-1985
Propaganda became far more conservative and got steadily more conservative over the time period
Three steps
initially emphasise on women being exemplary workers and caring wives and mothers
1970s after a falling birth rate there was a push for women to have children by pushing 'the natural differences' between the sexes and women's 'natural' ability to nurture
Finally by late 1970s women were criticised if they went to work for neglecting their children
Women at work
Working in the Towns
The Civil war and the NEP
Jobs in industry was limited and women were expected to take on nurturing roles like nursing
Female sex work was also widespread during the NEP as it was a way of making money
The five year plans and the war
there was a large amount of women working in industry and by 1940 41% of workers were women
However women were only paid about 60% of what men received and were treated very poorly, being subject to verbal and physical abuse
during the war more women worked in industry
the amount of places for women in higher and technical education went from 20% to 40%
Khrushchev
Women tended to be restricted to production line work in light industry hwich required low level skill and heavy manausl labout
Senior position in light industry also went to men
Women were paid less because they were restricted to low skill jobs
1960s
Clerical work was also another area of work that was open to women and by the mid 1960s 74% of people in clerical positions were women and half of women worked in industry and the other half in clerical work
90% of the able bodied population who only worked in the home were women
Education
Education was widely available to women and so women dominated some professions. By 1985 75% of doctors were women. However the pay scale for these industry was much lower than factory management which was dominated by men
BAM recruitment
A major recruitment campaign in 1970s for the BAM rail line for construction
Women were recruited because Brezhnev was aware that the male workers would want female company
the Campaign suggested that it was great opportunity to make homes in the North and for liberation through work
Shows the soviet attitude to urban women that they were supposed to be independant and equal but for the benefit of men
Working in the countryside
The triple shift
Women in the country was expected to do a triple shift
working on the farms
Household work
made handicrafts to supplement family income
Women also did the worse jobs and very few were tractor divers
Women in the Virgin Lands
There was a campaign to encourage women to join the Virgin Lands scheme to start families and work as milkmaid and gardeners
The campaign was aimed at young women under the age of 25 to entice men to go to the Virgin Lands
Women did the worst jobs on the farms with most working as hay makers and milmaids which were paid 15% of male tractor drivers
Women were also subject to sexual abuse and rape which was common in the Virgin Lands
Farming in the 1970s and 1980s
Women continued to work the lowest paid jobs on the farms and as industry expanded men left to join leaving over 72% of the lowest paid farmers in 1970 as women
Mechanisation also was very slow and did not tend to benefit women as the priority for machinery was given to men
The jobs of women reflected the prejudice that women worked in nurting role and not leadership roles
Women in the army
Women were part of the army in WW2 with 800,000 women serving in combat roles
there were three flying regiments
However the war women were demobilised and denied entry to military academies whereas many men went on to have long military careers
Women in the Party
Women consistently played a very small role in the party
After the revolution women were normally getting jobs in stereotypical jobs e.g commissariat of social welfare and education and health but they did not play a significant role in the Senior Committess
After 1930s they were expected to play a homemaking role and were supposed to dedicated to creating and managing a well ordered communist home
From 1953 their role increase slightly again but was very similar to their role in the 1920s
More women also joined the party but women never made up more than 4% of the central committee
Women rarely got senior positions especially at high levels
1920s
Zhenotdel
Education
Worked to introduce co-education
Established education schemes for women in factories and set quotas so women were represented at all levels of education
Legal Rights
Women were given a legal right to equal pay for equal work
Equal votes
Abortions and contraception were both legalised
Postcard divorces introduced to allow for easy divorce
Lesbianism not criminalised and sex work was also legalised
In reality many of these policies failed or backfired as democracy became a farse and soviet courts had very little authority. An example is postcard divorces where most men used it to divorce their pregnant wives
Marriage also made a comeback in the soviet System
The Great Retreat 1936-53
Much more conservative values were put in place for Stalin in order to increase the USSR's ability to industrialise
this meant there were a lot of changes to women's rights
Abortion was criminalised
Contraception was banned
Male homosexuality was banned
Lesbianism treated as a disease with hypnotherapy being employed
Sex outside of marriage was stigmatised
Divorce made expensive and difficult to obtain
Policies
incentives for women to have more children with 7 children being 2000 roubles a year for five years
women were expected to perform domestic tasks
1953-85
Traditional family still emphasised but aim to make it easier for women to do
Part was addressing problems and acknowledging them
Soviet magazines were women could write in letters about their lives and expose the problems in Soviet Society
Policies
Abortion legalised
Paid maternity leave went from 77 to 112 days
Sixth FYP pledged to increase creches childcare facilities and communal laundries
the Seven year plan aimed to stop the double shift by introducing convencine foods and mass produced clothing as well as introduce refrigerators
Ultimately these policies did not really work and did not emlimnate the double shift
Brezhnev
Did very little to improve anything and mostly claimed sexual equality had succeeded
Information about women's campaigns were suppressed
Sexual morality eas strict