Janese & Vica

• 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

Earliest ViewsHousehold

responsibilitiesPreparation of food,

completing mundane tasks

Marriage Bearing/ raising childrenFew opportunities for

independent life (outside the family)

Kasimir Malevich, "The Reaper" 1913

Early ViewsThe Bolsheviks, in theory

stood for women’s liberationPromised 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

Women in Politics Only 3 women had been members in the highest

committees before the revolutionAfter the revolution they were outnumbered 50:1 in

the Central CommitteeNone were in the Politburo

Alexandra KollontaiAppointed 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

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

• 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.

Established RightsMaternity leaveEight-hour work daysState-supported day careHigher education (availability) Easy divorce (in principle)

IndustrializationMost crucial agent for increasing rights:

process of industrializationWomen were compelled to join the work

force They became an economic necessityAble to join the “lower” professional

positions

The traditional women’s jobs or lower level positions73% worked in education, 98% in nursery, kindergarten, boarding schools.In elementary schools, 80% of women are principals. 99% as typists and stenographers 95% office workers94% cashiersThe higher the managerial rank the fewer the women.

EvaluationEven though women worked, nothing changed at homeAll 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 supplyVery limited amounts of adoption and foster care were allowed as wellInduced Abortion banned in 1936.

Discussion

What does this poster represent?

What kind of emotions or feelings

is it meant to stir?

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

Discussion

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

SourcesChatterjee, 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, revolutionaryRussia, 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 howeconomic transformation depended on women’s labor.On the History of the Movement of Women Workers in Russia - Alexandra Kollontaihttp://libcom.org/library/history-movement-women-workers-russia-alexandra-kollontaiAlexandra Kollontaihttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl

=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Alexandra_Kollontai.jpg&imgrefurlMaira 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/&usgKasimir Malevich, "The Reaper" 1913 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.history.neu.edu/women/Image32.jpg&imgrefurlUnit 6: The New Soviet Womanhttp://web.uvic.ca/geru/Russ%20161/unit6.htmlDorothy Atkinson and others, eds., Women in Russia (Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1977).