Women under Lenin Flashcards
the change in the position of women can be considered ?
one of the greatest social changes to take place after 1917
what was the key to the fundamental changes in the position of women in the new communist state?
economic independence = women should be able to have a job outside of looking after a home and a family
(e.g Alexander Kollontai pushed for this)
what was the role of prominently peasant women before the revolution ?
- to attend to household tasks and children
although they had also been expected to play their part in farming and small-scale domestic economy - they had been without legal privileges (e.g had no inheritance rights)
What did Lenin regard the traditional bourgeois marriage?
as akin to slavery, with the woman the property of her husband and subjugated to his will
- argued it was economic and sexual exploitation
what did freeing women from their domestic role require, and how did Lenin feel about this requirement?
- required large-scale provision of facilities such as canteens, laundries, kindergartens ( in other words the socialisation of domestic services)
- this was a requirement which Lenin understood and supported
in November 1917, the new government decreed against?
sex discrimination and gave women the right to own property
further decrees allowed :
(Church)
church influence was removed by recognising only civil marriage
decree (divorce)
divorce was made easier and less expensive
in 1920 what happened to abortion?
it was legalised, to protect against the high mortality rates produced by illegal abortions
what was provided for women?
free contraceptive advice
a new family code in 1926 gave ?
women in ‘common law’ marriages, the same rights as those who underwent the civil ceremony
when was wedding rings banned?
1928
changes to women’s role in the home also implied a fundamental change in ?
the relationship between men and women
once freed from the constraints of bourgeois marriage there would be?
more equality between the sexes and sexual liberation because people would be freer to choose their partners
(thus laws were passed immediately to make divorce easier)
the bolsheviks had set?
the socialist dream for women in motion
what year did USSR have the highest marriage rate?
in 1919
by the mid 1920s, USSR had? How many times higher than Britain?
the highest divorce rate in Europe, 25 times higher than in Britain
negatives of easy divorce
divorce being readily available= women were abandoned when they became pregnant
due to the housing shortage = divorced couples often lived together = domestic violence and rape were common
survey of broken marriages from the end of 1920s indicated how many cases of divorces were initiated by men and how many by mutual consent?
indicated 70% of cases were initiated by the men
only 7% of cases by mutual consent
by 1927 how many marriages in Moscow ended in divorce?
2/3 of marriages ended in divorce, across the country the figure was 1/2
advertised ‘equality’ disguised reality as
most women found themselves not only working on the land or increasingly in factories but also attending to all housework tasks and family’s needs e.g spending considerable time in food queues
girls were given?
same educational rights as boys, enabled a minority to obtain qualifications and careers previously not open to women
- for most dual burden of work and home still existed
limitations of state provision for creches, kitchens and laundries
when this was costed, it added up to more than the entire national budget, reality for many Russian children not network of socialist kindergartens but live in gangs, stealing etc
estimated how many orphans in the 1920s
between 7 million and 9 million orphans, most under 13
