(f) Women

What is the old Russian proverb that suggests sexism?

‘The more you beat your wife the better the soup will taste’

What was Zhenotdel and why was it created?

Zhenotdel was the women’s department of the Bolshevik Central Committee, created in 1917 to promote gender equality and improve women’s status in line with communist ideology.

Why did the Bolsheviks support women’s emancipation?

It was driven by communist ideology, which promoted equality between the sexes and argued that collective childcare and housework would free women from domestic oppression.

What legal changes to marriage were introduced in 1917?

Divorce was made easier, abortion was legalised, and laws forcing women to obey their husbands, live with them, or take their surname were abolished.

How did Bolshevik reforms affect women’s independence?

Women no longer needed their husband’s permission to work or access further education, significantly increasing legal independence.

What labour and welfare reforms benefited women?

What labour and welfare reforms benefited women

What role did Lenin play in promoting women’s rights?

Lenin publicly supported women’s equality, addressing a women’s congress in 1918 and condemning the derogatory term baba.

What did the 1918 Soviet Constitution say about women?

It declared men and women equal under the law, placing women on the same legal footing as men.

Why did legal equality not guarantee real equality for women?

Despite legal reforms, women’s social and economic status often changed slowly, and traditional attitudes persisted.

How did the Civil War affect women’s involvement in the military?

Over 70,000 women fought in the Red Army, but very few reached senior ranks.

How did the Civil War change women’s role in industry?

Millions of women were recruited into factories to replace male labour lost to the war.

What problem did working women face during the Civil War?

Childcare provision was inadequate, making it difficult for women to balance factory work and family life.

Why did childcare provision fail during the Civil War?

Although the regime wanted to provide crèches for all young children, it lacked the financial and organisational resources.

What happened to women’s jobs after the Civil War?

Many women lost factory jobs when soldiers returned, as men were usually more skilled and prioritised for employment.

How did attitudes towards women’s work change after the war?

Traditional views persisted that women were unsuitable for heavy manual labour.

How did pregnancy affect women’s employment prospects?

Employers viewed women as unreliable workers due to pregnancy and maternity leave, limiting job security and promotion.

How did war and famine affect women’s living conditions?

The Civil War and the 1921–22 famine left many women homeless and destitute.

What social consequence reflected women’s desperation after the war?

Prostitution increased sharply among urban women as a survival strategy.

Which areas were most resistant to changes in women’s status?

Muslim regions of Central Asia, where polygamous, male-dominated family structures were deeply entrenched.

What was the traditional position of women in Central Asian Muslim society?

Women were veiled, kept out of public life, and often denied education.

How did the Bolsheviks try to change attitudes toward Muslim women?

Through young female activists promoting unveiling and teaching contraception, hygiene, and childcare.

What was the 1927 unveiling campaign and how effective was it?

A Bolshevik campaign encouraging women to remove the veil; it had some success in increasing opportunities for women.

How did the regime promote new female role models?

Female brigade leaders and tractor drivers were celebrated in propaganda, films, and posters.

How did traditional communities respond to these reforms?

Resistance was often violent; Zhenotdel meetings were attacked, including an assault in Baku.

What risks did women face for rejecting traditional dress?

Some were killed by family members in so-called “honour” killings.

How did Soviet policy change by the 1930s?

The government adopted a softer, more gradual approach to reforming attitudes toward Muslim women.

Why was Zhenotdel closed in 1930?

The Party claimed women’s issues had been solved, reflecting the male-dominated Party’s half-hearted support for women.

Why did closing Zhenotdel not mean equality for women?

Despite legal equality, women continued to bear major social and economic burdens, especially during collectivisation and industrialisation.

How did collectivisation affect rural women?

Men left for towns, deserted families, or sent limited support; women became the backbone of agricultural labour.

Why was women’s status lower in rural areas?

Agriculture was low-paid and low-status, services were poor, and traditional attitudes to women were deeply entrenched.

How did the Second World War intensify women’s rural burden?

Men were conscripted, leaving women as the main workforce while machinery and animals were requisitioned by the Red Army.

What was the post-war gender imbalance in the countryside?

Many men moved to cities; war losses meant some villages consisted entirely of women and children even by 1950.

What extreme conditions did rural women face after the war?

Severe labour shortages forced some women to pull ploughs themselves due to lack of livestock.

How did rural women’s status change under Khrushchev and Brezhnev?

How did rural women’s status change under Khrushchev and Brezhnev?

Slowly improved through expanded healthcare, maternity benefits, and limited social provision.

Collective workers gained freedom to move to towns, potentially improving women’s opportunities.

Why did the passport reform not fully help rural women?

Young men were more likely to leave, reinforcing the feminisation of low-status agricultural work.

Why did women’s work change meaning under the Five-Year Plans?

Labour shortages meant women had little choice but to work; employment became a socialist duty rather than a symbol of liberation. Economic hardship in the 1930s forced women into work, increasing female workers from 3 million (1928) to over 13 million (1940).

Where did women work in the Soviet economy during the 1930s?

Women dominated light industry (especially textiles) but increasingly entered construction, lumbering, engineering and transport. Major projects, including parts of the Moscow Metro, used female labour. Role models like tractor driver Praskovia Angelina were promoted through propaganda.

How did education and Party involvement affect women’s status?

Urban women benefited most: 20% of higher-education places were reserved for women in 1929, rising to over 40% of engineering students by 1940. Higher education and Party activism offered social mobility, though women remained underrepresented in skilled and managerial roles.

What limits remained on women’s workplace equality?

Women clustered in lower-paid sectors like health care and education, which expanded but stayed male-dominated at senior levels. Skilled and management positions increased for women but remained disproportionately low.

Who were the privileged women of the 1930s and what role did they play?

Wives of the Soviet elite often avoided paid work and instead undertook unpaid “social work” (hygiene classes, dormitory improvements, cultural activities). The magazine The Socially Active Woman reinforced class divisions among women.

How did WWII transform women’s roles in work and the military?

Women replaced conscripted men in industry and agriculture. About 800,000 women served in the Red Army—mainly medical roles, but also as pilots, gunners and tank crew. 89 women became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

What happened to women after wars ended?

After both the Civil War and WWII, many women lost jobs or were pushed back into unskilled work as men returned. Despite this, boundaries between male and female work became more blurred than in Western capitalist societies.

What was the long-term impact on women by the 1950s?

By the 1950s it was widely accepted that women should work across many occupations. However, women were still expected to manage the home and childcare, creating a heavy “double burden” that limited career progression.

How far did women gain political power after 1917?

Women gained the vote in 1917, but real political participation stayed limited. Even in the Communist Party, women were heavily under-represented at all levels despite claims of gender equality.

What proportion of Communist Party members were women in the interwar period?

Women were significantly under-represented. In 1932, they made up only 16% of Party membership.

How well were women represented at Party congresses before 1939?

Female delegates never exceeded 10% at Party congresses before 1939.

Were women represented at the highest levels of Party leadership?

Very rarely. Only seven women were members of the Central Committee before the Second World War.

Who was Alexandra Kollontai and why was she significant?

She was the first female people’s commissar (Commissar for Public Welfare, 1917–18) and later the first female ambassador in history, though her role was exceptional.

Which other woman was prominent in the Party leadership before WWII?

Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife, was one of the few women to reach senior Party positions.

Who was the first woman to become a full candidate member of the Soviet Party’s top leadership body?

Ekaterina Furtseva, who became a member of the Presidium (renamed Politburo) in 1957.

Why did Ekaterina Furtseva’s political career decline?

She was closely associated with Khrushchev, and her career declined after his dismissal in 1964.

When did another woman next reach the top body of the Communist Party after Furtseva?

Not until September 1988, when Alexandra Biryukova became a member.

What does the slow inclusion of women in the Party leadership show?

Political power in the Soviet Union remained overwhelmingly male-dominated, despite official claims of gender equality.

Role models: ballerinas

There was a long line of famous ballerinas, including Natalia Bessmertnova, at the Bolshoi Ballet company

Role models: actress in war and peace

The actress Ludmila Savelyeva became famous for her role in the Soviet film War and Peace (1967).

Role models: sports

• Sport was given high status by the Soviet government and this included putting resources into the development of women's sport

• Notable figures included the pairs figure skater, Irina Rodnina, who with different partners won ten successive world championships and three successive Olympic titles

• In gymnastics, Ludmilla Tourischeva won nine Olympic medals between 1968 and 1976, and Olga Korbut captivated audiences at home and abroad with her routines at the Munich Olympics of 1972.

Role models: space

• Valentina Tereshkova became the first women in space after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in 1961

• She was treated like a soviet hero

• she had an impeccable proletarian background and became a prominent member of the communist party

• she is still revered as a hero in present day Russia and many few women could meet her status

What is the problem with role models?

There was no doubt that Soviet women could excel, but often this was within a field that was restricted

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: 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.