Status of Women

1. Status of Women Janese & Vica

2. Role of Women Stalin's 5 year plans aimed to drastically expand the production levels and output of the Soviet economy. It created more jobs These 5 year plans brought about a big change in women's roles in society, though it was not deliberate on Stalin's part: He needed to satisfy the high demand for labor which he needed to strengthen the economy at such a fast rate Many women were forced to find work to supplement their husband's wages

3. Earliest Views • Household responsibilities • Preparation of food, completing mundane tasks • Marriage • Bearing/ raising children • Few opportunities for independent life (outside the family) Kasimir Malevich, "The Reaper" 1913

4. Early Views • The Bolsheviks, in theory stood for women’s liberation • Promised full sexual equality and ending gender-biased social institutions • Rights for divorce, abortion and equal employment opportunities • These advances led to a more active participation from women in government and society

5. Women in Politics • Only 3 women had been members in the highest committees before the revolution • After the revolution they were outnumbered 50:1 in the Central Committee • None were in the Politburo

6. Alexandra Kollontai • Appointed to the high post of commissar of public welfare in the first Bolshevik government • Alexandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand convinced the party to establish a women's department (Zhenotdel) to provide the organizational and theoretical framework for women's emancipation

7. Zhenotdel(The Women’s Section of the Communist Party) • Zhenotdel theorists believed that under socialism women would achieve equality with men by participating equally in the sphere of productive public labor • Addressed issues of abortion and motherhood, prostitution, child care, labor conscription, female unemployment, labor regulation, and famine relief • Work carried out by a permanently staffed headquarters in Moscow • Regular publications, including Rabotnitsa (The Female Worker), • Propaganda campaigns

8. Getting Rights By 1925 , the government saw the need to protect women, “the weaker” party in marriage. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee in October 1925 proposed a new family code- make unregistered marriages legal. Added 1918 law-a destitute wife “unable to work” was entitled to her husband’s support.

9. Established Rights • Maternity leave • Eight-hour work days • State-supported day care • Higher education (availability) • Easy divorce (in principle)

10. Industrialization • Most crucial agent for increasing rights: process of industrialization • Women were compelled to join the work force • They became an economic necessity • Able to join the “lower” professional positions

11. In the Labor Force The traditional women’s jobs or lower level positions 73% worked in education, 98% in nursery, kindergarten, boarding schools. In elementary schools, 80% of women are principals. 99% as typists and stenographers 95% office workers 94% cashiers The higher the managerial rank the fewer the women.

12. Evaluation Even though women worked, nothing changed at home All of the child rearing and household duties women had always performed remained for them to take care of when they were not on the job. Social services to women were not in great supply Very limited amounts of adoption and foster care were allowed as well Induced Abortion banned in 1936.

13. Discussion What does this poster represent? What kind of emotions or feelings is it meant to stir?

14. Discussion Which aspects of Soviet women’s experiences in the 1930s were most difficult, and most constructive?

15. Discussion How did the Soviet government try to shape women’s lives and attitudes during the 1930s?

16. Sources Chatterjee, Choi. Celebrating Women. Gender, Festival Culture, and Bolshevik Ideology, 1910-1939. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002. A cultural history of international woman’s day in the socialist movement, revolutionary Russia, and the Stalinist political system. Goldman, Wendy Z. Women at the Gates. Gender and Industry in Stalin’s Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. A social history of working women during the late 1920s and early 1930s showing how economic transformation depended on women’s labor. On the History of the Movement of Women Workers in Russia - Alexandra Kollontai http://libcom.org/library/history-movement-women-workers-russia-alexandra-kollontai Alexandra Kollontai http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Alexandra_Kollontai.jpg&imgrefurl Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://stickersanddonuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/kalman-bolsheviks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://stickersanddonuts.com/tag/painting/&usg Kasimir Malevich, "The Reaper" 1913 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.history.neu.edu/women/Image32.jpg&imgrefurl Unit 6: The New Soviet Woman http://web.uvic.ca/geru/Russ%20161/unit6.html Dorothy Atkinson and others, eds., Women in Russia (Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1977).