State Ideologies, State-led Gender Policies and the Role of Zhenotdel in the Soviet Society Experiences of the 1930s

Abstract

This study discusses gender equality appearances in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the time period between 1928 when the first five-year plan was implemented and the end of the 1930s. Investigating to what extent gender equality goals were achieved in the Soviet society gives us the relationship between gender perspectives and ideology, state-led policies, and women’s and men’s experiences in the stated period. The Zhenotdel, the women’s department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party, is one of the most crucial institutions to conduct state-led gender policies in the USSR. The study, therefore, starts with the Zhenotdel’s gender policies and further investigates the Zhensektor, a woman section of the Party. The aims of both institutions are not only women’s issues but also matters concentrated on state-led policies and ideologies in the Soviet society. However, Stalin’s declaration of “Socialism in One Country” brought harsh masculine policies and a state-led ideology prioritized that women’s emancipation and gender equality. Therefore, in that period, gender equality in Soviet society could not be achieved.