Changing Status Of Women Flashcards
1
Q
Who was head of Zhenotdel
A
Alexandra Kollontai
2
Q
What was the women’s department of the communist party?
A
Zhenotdel
3
Q
What did Alexandra kollontai believe about men and women?
A
- they had innate differences
- different roles
4
Q
What did Zhenotdel do during the civil war?
A
- recruited women to work in crèches and orphanages
- fulfil natural mothering role
- some worked in factories to combat labour shortages
5
Q
Did status of women improve or decline in civil war?
A
- decline
- lost employment opportunities
6
Q
Decline in female employment in NEP
A
- crèches closed
- those in industry sacked to fill up jobs for returning men
7
Q
What did the decline in employment mean for many women
A
- increase in prostitution
- limited benefits from govt - need to provide for family
8
Q
Percentage of men who used prostitutes in 1920s
A
39%
9
Q
Did number of women in industrial labour increase or decrease under Stalin?
A
Increase
10
Q
Why did female employment in industrial labour go up under Stalin?
A
- 5 year plans
- demands due to huge targets
11
Q
1940 number of women in industrial workforce?
A
10 million - over 300% increase
12
Q
In WWII what percentage of women made up URBAN labour force?
A
75%
13
Q
Downsides of female employment under 5YPs?
A
- paid 65% of men’s wages
- verbal and physical abuse in factories
- rarely promoted
14
Q
Percentage of women in industrial jobs in 1960s?
A
45%
15
Q
What were women mainly restricted to doing in INDUSTRY in the 1960s?
A
- light industry - production lines
- heavy manual labour
- low skilled jobs
16
Q
What type of female employment was on the rise in the 1960s? Percentage?
A
- clerical jobs and admin
- 74% of these jobs given to women
17
Q
1970s
A
Women finally dominated certain professions!
18
Q
What professions did women dominate in the 1970s?
A
- 70% of doctors
- 75% of university employees
- 65% of those in arts and culture
(By 1985)
However pay still not on par with men
19
Q
Proportion of women working in agriculture 20s, 30s, 40s?
A
High
20
Q
What is the ‘triple shift’?
A
- agricultural labour
- household chores
- handicrafts to supplement income
21
Q
Kruschevs view on women working in agriculture:
A
- wanted more women in agriculture
- especially for VLS
22
Q
What roles did Khrushchev want women to play in VLS?
A
- milkmaids
- gardeners
- family makers
23
Q
Jobs not given to women under VLS:
A
- operating heavy machinery
- tractor drivers
Low pay and MOST DEMANDING jobs
Emphasis mainly on caring abilities and low-skill manual labour
24
Q
Women farmers up until the 1980s
A
- low status, low paid
- 1970 - 72% of lowest paid soviet farmers women!
25
What was common throughout professional opportunities given to women?
- most had features of caring, nurturing, family making
- general prejudice
Eg: 1980 - 80% of rural teachers, only 2% of farm managers
26
What was Lenin’s view on marriage
- it was a bourgeoise institution
- slavery to me
27
Overview of women’s changes
- radical communists initially wanted to liberate women, conservatives didn’t really care
- war and industrialisation meant status of women wasn’t a priority
- policies were put in place to improve status
- attitudes resistant to change
- by 1935, return to traditional attitudes surrounding women
28
Old Russian proverb on women:
‘ the more you beat your wife the better the soup will taste’
- shows engrained sexism of traditional views
29
What did bolsheviks do ‘on seizing power’?
- created women’s branch of central committee ~Zhenotdel
- rushed series of status improving decrees
30
Ideologically what was the party’s view on women?
Equality of the sexes
31
Initial Bolshevik decrees to improve the status of women:
- divorce easier
- abortion legalised
- women didn’t need husbands permission to stify or have a job
32
Women’s congres of 1918
- Lenin suggest ‘baba’ be banned
33
What did the soviet constitution declare?
Men and women are equal
34
December 1917
- equal pay put into law
- maternity leave granted
35
What were the consequences of these initial decrees?
- rise in divorces, but no institution to support newly single mothers
- 70% of divorces initiated by men - pregnant women
- equal rights to pay and employment slow to have impact
- attitudes of men slow to change
36
Why was there an increase of working women during the civil war?
- lack of male workers - conscripted into red army
- not from ideology/equality
- women joining red army!
37
Hw many women joined the red army in 1918
70,000
Few held high rank though
38
Who was Alexandra kollonrai
- leading Bolshevik- member of CC
- first women to become member of European government
- feminist
- head of Zhenotdel
- influence waned after 1921 - Stalin disliked her ideas and many of her measures were reversed in 1930s
39
What was life like before the Communists for women in Central Asia?
- polygamous, male dominated family views
- shielded from public view and denied education
40
How did the bolsheviks try to break down traditional attitudes in Central Asia?
- young female activists
- explained contraception, hygiene, childcare
- 1927 campaign against veiling
41
Opportunities increasing for women in Central Asia:
- female brigade leaders
- tractor drivers
- celebrated in films and in posters
42
Traditional Islamic views prevailing:
- slow to change
- resistance is violent
- Baku Zehnotdel meeting attacked by Muslim men - dogs and water
- women refusing to dress traditionally sometimes killed in honour killings
- after 1930s = change in approach - softer and more gradual
43
What happened in 1930
Closed down Zhenotdel!
- claimed women’s issues solved
- male dominated party attitudes prevailed
44
How did forced collectivisation in the countryside?
- many men left women in search of better jobs - abandoning them
- low wage, hard work on farms, agriculture associated with low status
- exacerbated in the war, men being conscripted
45
State of towns and farms after the war:
- imbalance of the sexes even more pronounced after the war
- returning soldiers moved to cities instead of farms
- = shortage of males
- even in 1950s entire villages of women and children
- women shackled themselves to plough the feilds - animals requisitioned too
46
Slow improvement in the countryside under Khrushchev and Brezhnev
- healthcare and maternity benefits extended to countryside
- internal passports extended to countryside 1974
- women could move to towns for greater status and pay
- though men would after take these jobs
47
Which industrial industry did women dominate?
Light industry - textile
- 13 million female workers (in general) by 1940
48
Women in the construction industry in the 5YPs
- construction industry
- lumber and engineering
- Moscow underground built by brigades of female workers
49
Praskovia Angelina
- female tractor driver
- made into role model
- encourage female workforce
50
Expansion to higher education
- 1929 - 20% of higher education reserved for women (40%) already occupied by women
- 1940 - 40% of engineering students female
- higher education improved status and provided upwards societal mobility
- though women in management in 1930s low
51
Women joining red army in WWII
- 1941 initial volunteers turned away
- changed mind due to loss of battlefields
- 800000 served
- 89 received the Hero of the Soviet Union
- reverted to unskilled roles after the war
52
1950s expectations:
- women must work
- could wok in wide range of occupations
- still expected to do domestic role
53
Women in politics
- 1917 - women given vote
- underrepresented at all levels of government
- 1932 = 16% of party membership
- first women in praesidium Ekaterina Furtseva 1957 - dismissed after Khrushchev fell
- not another women in politburo till 1988
54
Natalia Bessmertnova
Role Model
- famous ballerina
- Bolshoi Ballet company
55
Ludmilla Savelyva
Role model
- fab=mous actress
- war and peace 1967
56
Irina Rodina
Role model
- developments put in place to improve women’s support
- won 10 successive world championships in figure skating
- 3 successive Olympic titles
57
Venetian Tereshkova
Role Model
- first woman in space
- impeccable proletarian background
- prominent party member
- very high status
