Women

Question 1

why did many women give up their jobs after the civil war

Answer 1

returning men were often better trained
seen as more important for men to provide for their family
discrimination in the workforce, 70% of those who were fired were female

Question 2

early decrees made with the intention of gender equality

Answer 2

1917

divorce made easier, abortion legalised, marital permission laws abolished, equal pay, maternity leave

Question 3

What is the department of women called

Answer 3

Zhenotdel

Question 4

What made divorce easier in 1917?

Answer 4

Post card divorces - all you had to do was send a letter to get divorced

Question 5

1926 Marriage Code

Answer 5

made it so women and men would equally divide property/ money in event of a divorce - the 1918 act did not have this

Question 6

Stalin’s great retreat

Answer 6

1936 - 53
- Abotion criminalised unless the life of the pregnant woman was in danger
- contraception banned
- male homosexuality criminalised

Question 7

Khrushchev’s legal reforms

Question 8

Brezhnev’s beliefs about women

Answer 8

Reinforced that women should be in a maternal role

Question 9

what was the name of the famous statue depicting a man holding a hammer and woman holding a sickle?

Answer 9

worker and kolkhoz woman (1937) - showed how women tended to play a supportive role in soviet art

Question 10

how were women depicting in soviet art compared to men?

Answer 10

women were depicted as peasants and men were depicted and industrial workers

lenin said industrial + peasant workers both played an important role in the overthrowing of capitalism. however, industrial workers played the decisive and leading role whereas peasants were only supporting. therefore, the impression that men are the leading role in society.

Question 11

how did propaganda depict women typically from 1917 - 1940?

Answer 11

• women much less visible
• during the first 5YP, men were the focus
• women depicted as mothers and children

Question 12

overview of women at work?

Answer 12

• working women became a key feature for society in 1930’s
• by the 1955, 49% of the soviet workforce were women
• promotions for women were rare with significant inequalities for women
• women in towns had more opportunities than those in the countryside
• women had a minor role in government throughout the whole
  period

Question 13

what was the women’s department of the communist party during the civil war called?

Answer 13

Zhenotdel

Question 14

what was the aim of the Zhenotdel during the civil war

Answer 14

to recruit women from towns to fill jobs in nursing and food distribution - women in nurturing roles men in to fight and rebuild

Question 15

how did the NEP effect women?

Answer 15

• womens opportunities in factories limited
• widespread unemployment made female prostitution widespread, legal way of making money (during the 1920’s, 39% of men used prostitutes)

Question 16

how did employment rates differ from 1928 (last year of NEP) compared to 1940? and why?

Answer 16

• 1928 ; only 3 million women
• 1940 ; 13 million women + 41% of heavy industry workers were women

this was due to the demands of the FYP’s needing more employees

Question 17

how bad was the pay gap through 1920 - 1940?

Answer 17

women were paid 60% of men’s wages

Question 18

what was the environment like for women at work?

Answer 18

• women were subjected to verbal and physical abuse in factories
• men refused to work on teams with women as ‘women bought bad luck’

Question 19

how did women’s work change after the second world war in the 60’s?

Answer 19

• during the 60’s, around 45% of industrial jobs went to women
• they tended to be restricted to production line in light industry (textile industry
• low skilled heavy manual labour
• women were paid less due to doing less skilled work
• senior jobs went to men (only 1% of factory foremen positions went to women)
• clerical work opened
• in towns, 50% of working women worked in clerical positions and the rest in industry

Question 20

what percent of women worked in administrative positions in 1960?

Answer 20

74%

Question 21

what was BAM?

Answer 21

• the mid 1970’s publicity campaign to recruit women to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM)
• brezhnev initiated the campaign to recruit women from urban centres in their mid-20’s to keep the men ‘company’
• posed as an opportunity for women to gain liberations through work and building new homes in the north of the USSR
• construction was male dominated
• BAM also emphasised other traditional aspects of womanhood

Question 22

what was education like for women in the 60’s

Question 23

What was the gender pay gap from 1920 - 1940?

Answer 23

60% of a mans wage

Question 24

Gender pay gap in 1980’s under Brezhnev?

Answer 24

32% of a mans wage

Question 25

What was the absent mothers campaign?

Answer 25

Brezhnev’s belief that the rise in juvinile crime is the mothers fault
- posters used to encourage women to ‘stay in their place’