Women Under Socialism: Role Definitions of Soviet Women

Abstract

Occupational inequality of women in the Soviet Union is comparable with womens status in capitalist countries. The absence of institutional and ideological supports for womens equality explains the persistence of inequality in the Soviet Union. Although the goal of the Soviet Union has always been to encourage women to combine work and family activities there has never been a corresponding attempt to encourage men to combine the two. Traditional familial roles have been maintained. Sex role differentiation is present in pre-school activities for example and this is then reinforeced in primary and secondary school education. In consequence approximately 83% of males and 45% of females enter technical-mathematics-physics occupations (higher than in the United States) while 30% females and 7% males enter a course of study or occupation in humanities. Women constitute 73% of those working in education; 98% of nursery kindergarten and boarding school teachers are women. Over 80% of elementary school principals are women but only 30% of the principals in 8-year schools are women. In public health physical culture and social welfare women constitute 85% with 99% of the nurses and orderlies being women. In trade and public catering women constitute 76% but 91% of the sales clerks are women. Women continue in such traditional occupations as typists and stenographers (99%) office workers (95%) and cashiers (94%). ONly 13% of the heads of enterprises are women. In general women in the labor force earn less than men; promotion in professions takes longer. Moreover low fertility (18.4 per 1000) threatens the majority status of the Russians reinforing pronatalist policies and womens traditional status.