4- Women

Question 1

Lenin had written of the “bourgeois’ nature of marriage as

Answer 1

a form of slavery, tying the woman to the male-dominated institution of family. A woman’s role
as a housewife was perceived as suppression into a life of drudgery.

Question 2

What meant that the position

of women within society did not always improve

Answer 2

The circumstances of war and industrialisation and where policies did attempt to bring positive
changes, attitudes were often resistant to change.

Question 3

A return to more traditional attitudes to the family

after

Answer 3

1935 meant that the liberation of women that radicals had hoped for did not materialise. It
marked a move away from the ideals of Lenin.

Question 4

Saying that is typical
of male attitudes to women at the start of the 20th century, gives
an indication of traditional views towards women in Russia.

Answer 4

There is an old Russian proverb that says The more you beat
your wife the better the soup will taste’. It was
against this ingrained sexism that feminists within the Bolshevik
Party tried to improve the status of women.

Question 5

On seizing power in
1917, the Bolsheviks established a women’s branch of the Central
Committee, Zhenotdel, why

Answer 5

to promote the status of women within

socialist notions of equality.

Question 6

INITIALLY Measures aimed at improving the position of women were
driven partly by

Answer 6

ideological considerations, communist ideas of
equality between the sexes. Radical communists argued that the
communal organisation of household chores and childcare would
liberate women from domestic drudgery.

Question 7

On seizing power in
1917, the Bolsheviks rushed through a series of decrees that gave
women greater status and freedom within marriage:

Answer 7

divorce was
made easier and abortion was legalised. The laws that made a
woman obey her husband, live with him and take his name were
abolished. Women no longer needed their husband’s permission
to take a job or study in further education. Lenin addressed a
women’s congress in 1918, where he was cheered for suggesting
that baba, the derogatory term for a woman, be banned. The
principle of equal pay for men and women was passed into law in
December 1917 and maternity leave arrangements were granted.
When the Soviet constitution of 1918 declared that men and
women were equal, the legal status of women had been put on an
equal footing to that of men.

Question 8

1917 But this should not be taken to mean that the status of women in society had automatically improved.
These attempts to change the role and status of women also
gave rise to some worrying features.

Answer 8

The rise in the divorce
rate did little to help women support children: few received
financial support from the father of their child. Feminists in
the Party had hoped that easier divorce would prevent women
becoming trapped in abusive relationships, but the reality was that
70 percent of divorces were initiated by men, often abandoning
women who had become pregnant. The laws giving women equal
rights in employment and equal pay were slow to have an impact.
Attitudes of the male population were slow to change.

Question 9

The impact of the civil war summary

Answer 9

The increase in the number of women
in the workforce was driven less by ideological notions of equality
than the reality of needing industrial workers during the war. The
result was that, despite increasing employment opportunities,
women’s lives often changed for the worse.

Question 10

Key features women’s life civil war

Answer 10

. Over 70,000 women fought in the Red Army during the war, but
few held high rank.
• Millions of women were recruited into factories, but social
provision for childcare was inadequate.
Despite the desire of the regime to provide crèches for all
young children, the government lacked the resources to implement this

Question 11

the long-term impact of the civil war on women in the

workforce was to be limited. Why

Answer 11

Women generally were more likely to be unskilled and many lost
their jobs when soldiers returned to civilian life after the war was won
• Traditional attitudes that women were unsuitable for heavy
manual work persisted, as did the attitude that women were less
likely to stay in a post due to pregnancy and maternity leave.
The disruption of war and the subsequent famine of 1921-22
left many women homeless and destitute. A rise in prostitution
reflected the desperation of large numbers of urban women.

Question 12

Particularly resistant to change were

Answer 12

the Muslim areas of Central Asia,
where the polygamous, male-dominated family was well entrenched.
In these areas women were shielded from public view, often veiled and
denied an education.

Question 13

Islamic women- The Bolsheviks attempted to break down these

traditional attitudes by

Answer 13

using young female activists who encouraged
unveiling, while explaining basic contraception, personal hygiene and
childcare. The campaign against the veiling of women in 1927 met
with some success. Opportunities for Islamic women increased and
female brigade leaders and tractor drivers were celebrated through
films and posters.

Question 14

Did the status of Islamic women improve?

Answer 14

Despite these changes, traditional Islamic attitudes
were slow to change and resistance was often violent. At Baku, a
Zhenotdel meeting was attacked by Muslim men with dogs and boiling
water. Women who refused to wear traditional dress were sometimes
killed by members of their own family in honour killings.

Question 15

Approach towards Islamic women after 1930s

Answer 15

By the
1930s, the Soviet government took a softer, more gradual approach to
changing the Muslim population’s attitude to women.

Question 16

In 1930, what did the Party do that shows it was half-hearted

Answer 16

In 1930, the Party closed down Zhenotdel, claiming that womens
issues had been solved. This was a reflection of the attitudes of the
male-dominated Party, which had always been half-hearted in its
support for women’s issues.

Question 17

The policy of forced collectivisation in the countryside resulted in…

Answer 17

many men departing for the towns in search of better jobs.
Some sent money back to their wives; others deserted them
Collectivisation came to rely more and more on the labours
of women. Agricultural work offered low wages, and life in the
countryside meant fewer services; both were a reflection of the
lower status attached to agriculture over industry. The status of
women in rural areas reflected this general pattern. In addition, it
was in rural areas that traditional attitudes to women were more
entrenched and slower to change.

Question 18

The impact of the Second World War

Answer 18

The impact of the Second World War accelerated these trends.
The most able-bodied men from the collectives were conscripted
into the armed forces and women provided the bulk of the
agricultural workforce. Conditions were made worse by the Red
Army’s requisitioning of machinery and draft animals.

Question 19

The imbalance between the sexes in the countryside was even

more pronounced after the war.

Answer 19

Returning soldiers preferred to try
their luck by moving to the cities for work. Rural areas lacked able-
bodied men, adding to the shortage of males caused by losses
in the war. Even as late as 1950, it was possible to find villages
entirely populated by women and children. The shortage of
livestock added to the problem and women often had little choice
but to shackle themselves to ploughs in order to till the soil.

Question 20

In the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years, the status of rural

women

Answer 20

In the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years, the status of rural
women improved slowly as social provision, such as health care
and maternity benefits, was extended to the countryside. The
extension of the internal passport system to collective workers
in 1974 provided the freedom for women to move to towns in
search of jobs that commanded greater status and pay.

Question 21

Khrushchev and Brezhnev years reality

Answer 21

the reality was that the opportunity to move was more likely to be
taken by young males, exacerbating the trend of leaving low-status
agricultural work to females.

Question 22

The impact of collectivisation and industrialisation on

women in the towns

Answer 22

The pressure for labour in industry under the Five-Year Plans
meant that women were given little choice but to work. Work
was no longer a symbol of female liberation, but a socialist duty.
The economic hardships of the 1930s forced many women to
work out of economic necessity.

Question 23

The number of female workers

rose substantially in the 1930s,

Answer 23

from three million in 1928 to

over 13 million in 1940.

Question 24

Positive of industrial women

Answer 24

Women dominated the workforce in
light industry, especially textiles, but were increasingly found in
occupations previously considered to be the preserve of male
workers. Women entered the construction industry and worked
in lumbering and engineering, Parts of the Moscow underground
were built by brigades of female workers

Question 25

In the towns women were better placed to take advantage of the
expansion in higher education.

Answer 25

In 1929, the government reserved
20 percent of higher education places for women. modest increase on the 14 percent already occupied by women,
but by 1940 over 40 percent of engineering students were female.
Gaining a higher-level education was often a passport to
improving the status of an individual woman, as was becoming
a Party activist. Both improved the chances of promotion
and provided a route for upward mobility in society.

Question 26

The

number of women in skilled jobs and management

Answer 26

remained

disproportionately low

Question 27

Women started to make up a high percentage of jobs in the

expanding areas of

Answer 27

health care and education, although neither
sector offered high wages and the top levels of these sectors were
still dominated by men.

Question 28

WW2 women in industry

Answer 28

The importance of women in industry continued to increase during the Second World War with
women taking over jobs previously held by men who had been conscripted into the Red Army.

Question 29

In WW2 Women could also improve their status by… but this shows government attitudes did not change and only liberated out of necessity

Answer 29

by joining the Red Army themselves. An initial wave of
female volunteers in 1941 was turned away. Despite its claims of promoting equality of the sexes, the
Soviet government did not consider women to be suitable for active combat. Heavy losses caused
the government to reluctantly change its mind. Some 800,000 women served in the armed forces
during the Second World War, most in medical units but also as pilots, machine-gunners and tank
crews. Eighty-nine women received the Soviet Union’s highest military award, Hero of the Sovier
Union.

Question 30

What happened after WW2 for urban women

Answer 30

As with the situation after the civil war, many women either lost their jobs or reverted to
unskilled roles after the war was won and the men returned to civilian life.

Question 31

Success of industrialisation needing more women workers

Answer 31

the line
between what was considered to be male work and what was considered female work was blurred
far more so than in the developed capitalist countries of the West.

Question 32

double burden that put considerable

pressure on women and made career progression difficult.

Answer 32

By the 1950s, the attitde that women were expected to work and could do so in a wide range of
Occupations was widespread. Unfortunately, women were still expected to play the key role in looking
after the home and providing for their husband and children.

Question 33

Women in politics- The Provisional Government of 1917 had given women what

Answer 33

the vote for the first time. Despite this, the

number of women who played an active role in politics remained limited.

Question 34

Even in the Communist
Partv, with its declarations of sexual equality, women were seriously under-represented at all levels, figure to show this

Answer 34

In 1932, women made up 16 percent of Party membership. Female delegates at Party congresses
did not exceed ten percent before 1939.

Question 35

This under-representation was particularly noticeable at

the higher levels of the Party organisation:

Answer 35

Only seven women
were members of the Central Committee before the Second World War: the two most prominent
being Kollontai and Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife. Political power was
still overwhelmingly in the hands of men.

Question 36

Role models

Answer 36

Posters, statues and other propaganda material presented images of the ideal socialist woman playg
her part in the development of socialism. There is no doubt that these images encouraged many
women to play an active part in the Soviet state. Sport was given high status by the Soviet government and this included pulting resources into the
development of women’s sport. Perhaps the most notable examole of a Soviet role model for women was Valentina Tereshkora
Who in 1963 became the first woman in Space. Treated as a Soviet hero

Question 37

There was no doubt that Soviet women could excel, but often this was within a field that was
efricted The Soviet propaganda image of the industrial worker and peasant, which was widespread
in the USSR is perhaps more representative of the status of women in reality;

Answer 37

the industrial
worker was always male and it was the peasant who was female, a reflection of the subsidiary role
agriculture, and women, took compared with industry and men.

Question 38

Conc

Answer 38

Despite gaining equality under the law as early as 1918, the status of women in Soviet society lagged
behind that of men. Improvements in employment and social provision had helped raise the material
well-being of women, especially in towns, but they were expected to do the majority of household
chores, take the dominant role in bringing up children, queue for food and hold down a full-time job.
Crucially, their influence in politics remained low and policies affecting women, especially in matters
of the family, were largely decided by men in the Party.