Women at Work (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes
Women at Work
Introduction to women in the Soviet workforce
Female participation in the Soviet workforce became a defining feature of Soviet society, particularly from the 1930s onwards. By 1955, 49 per cent of all Soviet workers were women, a statistic that Soviet leaders frequently cited as evidence that gender equality had been achieved. However, this headline figure masked significant inequalities in the reality of women's working lives.
While the Soviet Union achieved remarkably high female workforce participation rates by the mid-1950s, the statistical success story concealed persistent structural inequalities that affected women throughout the entire Soviet period.
Throughout the period 1917–85, women faced several persistent challenges in the workplace. Promotions were rare for female workers, and substantial pay gaps existed between men and women doing identical work. Moreover, women's experiences varied dramatically depending on whether they worked in urban or rural areas. City-dwelling women generally had access to far more opportunities than their counterparts in the countryside. Finally, despite their growing presence in the workforce, women continued to play only a minor role in government and Party leadership throughout the entire period.
Women in urban employment
Civil War and the early Soviet period (1917–1928)
During the Civil War, Zhenotdel – the women's department of the Communist Party – actively recruited women from urban areas to fill essential positions in nursing and food distribution. Alexandra Kollontai, who led Zhenotdel, believed this reflected what she saw as a natural division of labour: men were suited to combat and industrial reconstruction, whilst women were better placed in caring and nurturing roles.
However, when the Civil War ended, this brief expansion of female employment was quickly reversed. Women who had been working in factories during the conflict were dismissed en masse to make way for returning male workers who were given priority for industrial positions.
Under the New Economic Policy (NEP), opportunities for women in factories remained severely limited. The NEP led to widespread unemployment, which affected women disproportionately. During this period, female prostitution became widespread as it was legal and represented one of the few ways women could earn money. Estimates suggest that approximately 39 per cent of urban men used prostitutes during the 1920s, indicating the scale of this phenomenon.
Industrialization and the Five-Year Plans (1928–1945)
The introduction of Stalin's Five-Year Plans dramatically transformed women's participation in industry. The urgent demands of rapid industrialization led to the mass recruitment of female workers. The growth was remarkable: in 1928, the final year of the NEP, only 3 million women worked in Soviet industry. By 1940, this figure had soared to 13 million – more than a fourfold increase. By 1940, women constituted 41 per cent of workers in heavy industry.
Soviet authorities recognized that women were essential to their industrialization plans and responded by increasing access to education. The proportion of places in higher and technical education allocated to women rose from 20 per cent in 1929 to 40 per cent in 1940.
Despite dramatic increases in female workforce participation during industrialization, significant inequalities persisted throughout this period. Women performing identical work to men received only 60–65 per cent of male wages. The workplace environment was often hostile: women faced both verbal and physical abuse in factories. Some male workers refused to work on teams that included women, claiming that working alongside women brought bad luck.
The foundation laid during the Five-Year Plans enabled even greater female participation during the Second World War. In some towns during wartime, women comprised 75 per cent of the workforce, keeping Soviet industry functioning whilst men fought at the front.
Post-war developments (1945–1985)
After the war, new patterns emerged in urban female employment. During the 1960s, approximately 45 per cent of industrial jobs were held by women. However, women became increasingly concentrated in particular types of work:
- Production line work in light industry – This was intensive but required low skill levels, such as textile manufacturing
- Heavy manual labour – This was also low-skilled work
This represented a significant shift from the period 1928–41. Under Stalin, women had tended to do all kinds of factory work but receive lower pay. In the post-war period, women were channeled into low-skill sectors whilst men dominated high-skill sectors. Consequently, women earned less not simply because of direct pay discrimination, but because they were systematically directed toward less skilled, lower-paid work.
Even within light industry, senior positions almost exclusively went to men. Between 1959 and 1965, less than one per cent of factory foremen in the textile industry were women, despite women forming the overwhelming majority of textile workers.
During the 1960s, clerical and administrative work emerged as another major form of female employment. By the mid-1960s, 74 per cent of people employed in clerical positions in health services and education were women. In towns, approximately 50 per cent of working women held clerical positions, whilst the other half worked in industry. Finally, 90 per cent of able-bodied people who did not work outside the home were female in the mid-1960s.
The BAM recruitment campaign (1974)
The mid-1970s witnessed another major campaign to recruit female workers. In 1974, Brezhnev initiated construction of the Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM), a 4,324-kilometre railway line across northern Soviet Union. Brezhnev recognized that the male workers and administrators staffing this project would desire female company, prompting a campaign to recruit women from urban centers.
The BAM campaign exemplified contradictory Soviet attitudes toward female liberation. The publicity claimed that building the BAM offered women an opportunity to achieve "true liberation through work" and establish new homes in the north. Simultaneously, the recruitment materials emphasized that finding male partners would be easy, as BAM construction was male-dominated. The implication was clear: bamovkas (female BAM workers) would have their pick of men – a stark contrast to Soviet society as a whole, where men were in the minority.
The campaign targeted women in their mid-20s and presented contradictory messages about female liberation. BAM publicity also stressed traditional aspects of Soviet womanhood. Bamovkas were expected to preserve their femininity by being caring and wise, and by maintaining what BAM advertisements called their "delicate female features". Whilst some bamovkas performed important construction work, many others were employed in low-paid positions such as waitressing.
The BAM recruitment campaign exemplified the Soviet attitude toward urban women: they were expected to be independent and equal, but always in ways that served male interests.
Leisure activities in urban areas
Outside work, women in cities had access to various leisure activities. During the 1950s and 1960s, dancing became an enormously popular urban pastime. According to Soviet films and magazines, women enjoyed dancing far more than men. Dancing grew so popular that the government produced etiquette manuals advising men on how to ask women to dance and how to handle rejection. Significantly, official guidance stated that only men could initiate dancing; women could not ask men to dance. However, women could dance with other women if male partners were unavailable.
Official festivals were organized in major urban centers to showcase the latest women's fashions. The "Holiday of Girls", for example, was an event where the headquarters of the Soviet Army was transformed into a venue for fashion shows, cookery demonstrations, and a grand ball. This event celebrated female beauty and domestic skills, establishing ideals for Soviet women. Crucially, the emphasis was on beauty designed to please men. The "Holiday of Girls" actively discouraged young women from discussing or engaging in sex. The Soviet Ministry of Health even published reports claiming to "scientifically prove" that women felt no sexual desire until their mid-20s.
Education and professional opportunities
Education became widely available to women in cities. By the 1960s, women made up half of all Soviet university graduates. As a result of expanded access to education, by the 1970s women came to dominate certain professions. By 1985:
- Approximately 70 per cent of medical doctors were women
- About 75 per cent of university employees were women
- Around 65 per cent of people employed in art and culture were women
The paradox of "feminized professions"
Significantly, pay scales in these "feminized" industries were substantially lower than in factory management, which remained dominated by men. This pattern reveals how increased access to education and professional opportunities did not automatically translate into economic equality. Women could become doctors, teachers, and cultural workers, but these careers paid less precisely because they became female-dominated.
Women in rural employment
Agricultural work in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s
During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, a high proportion of women worked in agriculture. Women in the countryside performed what became known as the "triple shift":
- Agricultural labour on farms
- Household chores
- Handicrafts to supplement family income
Some women on collective farms achieved relatively high social status. Female tractor drivers, specifically, could earn a comparatively high wage. During the NEP period there were only eight female tractor drivers across the entire Soviet Union. That figure had risen to 50,000 by 1940. However, this seemingly impressive increase must be understood in context: female tractor drivers made up less than 0.5 per cent of the total rural female population. The vast majority of women performed unskilled jobs and therefore had little wealth or social status.
The Virgin Lands campaign (1954–1974)
Women were specifically targeted in the campaign to recruit volunteers to work on the Virgin Lands – Khrushchev's ambitious scheme to bring vast areas of previously uncultivated land under agricultural production. The recruitment campaign, which ran from 1954 to 1974, focused on specific roles for women: they were required to act as milkmaids, gardeners, and to start families. Women were not recruited to work with machinery or drive tractors; instead, the emphasis was firmly on women as manual laborers and carers.
The official slogan for recruiting women was revealing: "Your caring hands are needed everywhere." Government officials specifically wanted to recruit "girls" – young women around age 25 – rather than older women. Officials believed that young women would entice men to relocate to the Virgin Lands. A famous slogan summarized this aspect of the campaign: "Join us, girls, in the Virgin Lands." Single women over the age of 26 were rejected for the scheme, as were single mothers.
The reality of Virgin Lands recruitment (August 1958)
Of the 6,400 women recruited in August 1958, fewer than 450 found work in well-paid professional positions. The majority became haymakers and milkmaids, earning approximately 15 per cent of what male tractor drivers earned.
Women from Moscow were most likely to complain about conditions because they were accustomed to a much more comfortable life in the capital. Meanwhile, local women were often horrified by what they perceived as the "immorality" of women from Moscow, who enjoyed dancing and singing Western songs. Few women from cities remained in the Virgin Lands for long.
Sexual violence in the Virgin Lands
Tragically, female farm workers in the Virgin Lands were often subject to sexual abuse and rape. Although exact figures are unavailable, sexual violence was apparently common. Farm managers typically blamed the women victims and on occasion forced rapists to marry their victims.
This horrific reality starkly contradicted the recruitment campaign's promises of liberation and opportunity for young women.
Mechanization and its limitations
The mechanization of farming was an important goal of the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1956–59) and the Seven-Year Plan (1959–65). This mechanization was supposed to make life easier for women on farms. However, even by 1964, machinery on farms remained scarce. Moreover, collective farms tended to give men priority when allocating access to machines. In this way, mechanization failed to make a meaningful difference to the lives of women in rural areas.
Farming in the 1970s and 1980s
Women continued to work in low-status, poorly paid jobs in farming throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By 1983, approximately 65 per cent of farm work remained unmechanized. As industry expanded, men increasingly left collective farms to secure factory jobs, leaving women over-represented in the lowest-paid agricultural positions. By 1970, 72 per cent of the lowest-paid Soviet farmers were women.
Professional opportunities also reflected widespread prejudice that women were suited to nurturing roles rather than leadership positions. By 1980, 80 per cent of teachers in rural schools were women, whereas only 2 per cent of farm managers were women.
In summary, the overwhelming majority of women in Soviet agriculture worked in low-status, poorly paid roles. In the worst cases – notably the Virgin Lands Scheme – women were recruited specifically to marry men and were subjected to sexual violence. Professional opportunities for women on Soviet farms were extremely limited, and those that did exist reflected pervasive stereotypes about women's roles.
Women in the armed forces
Women played a central role in the Soviet armed forces during the Second World War. In 1941, fighting was still considered exclusively a man's responsibility, and women who attempted to enlist were turned away. However, by 1945, 800,000 women had served in combat roles.
Female fighters included those in the three female flying regiments. Initially, female pilots were regarded with disdain by their male counterparts. However, as the war progressed, the achievements of some women became extraordinary. For example, Lydia Litvyak shot down 12 German planes before being killed in combat. One female squadron earned the nickname "Night Witches" due to their deadly effectiveness.
According to most accounts, female soldiers and pilots earned the respect of their male colleagues. Reports of sexual harassment during the war are rare.
Post-war demobilization and exclusion
However, after the war, gender equality in the military proved short-lived. Whilst many male soldiers went on to enjoy long military careers, women were demobilized and denied entry to Soviet military academies. The brief period of wartime equality quickly ended.
This pattern mirrored what happened to women in urban factories after the Civil War – female contributions during emergencies were valued, but women were expected to return to traditional roles once the crisis passed.
Women in government and Party politics
The early Soviet period (1917–1928)
Women were consistently under-represented at the highest levels of the Party throughout Soviet history. Immediately following the revolution, women tended to receive government positions that reflected traditional stereotypes about their role.
During the Civil War, female Party members typically worked in the Commissariat of Social Welfare, the Commissariat of Health, or the Commissariat of Education. Meanwhile, male Party members dominated government departments dealing with the economy or the military.
Significantly, female communists did not play a substantial role in the Party's most senior committees. In 1918, for example, only 5 per cent of delegates to the Party Congress were women.
During the 1920s, it was common for senior female Party members who had children to employ nannies so they could continue their political work. Generally, however, female participation in politics stagnated during the first decade of communist rule. Around 10 per cent of Party members in 1918 were women; by 1928 that figure was 12 per cent – only a marginal increase.
The Stalinist era (1930s–1953)
Female Party members were expected to play a homemaking role during the 1930s. Party members were no longer encouraged to employ nannies. Instead, they were expected to be exemplary wives and mothers devoted to creating and managing "a well-ordered communist home".
Female Party members who married were expected to give up work and join the obshchestvennitsa movement – the "movement of wife activists". Wife activists were expected to help organize nurseries, engage in charity work, and supervise factory canteens. Generally, wife activists were expected to play a mothering role for the whole of Soviet society. At home they were expected to be perfect examples of "order, warmth and feminine comfort", providing for all the needs of their husbands and families.
The post-Stalin era (1953–1985)
From 1953, women played a slightly larger role in Soviet politics. However, as in the 1920s, women were expected to contribute to political work concerning health, social services and education – areas that reflected their supposed "natural" role as nurturers.
Women played a significant role in local soviets (councils). Between 1959 and 1984, the proportion of women in the soviets grew from 27 per cent to 33 per cent. However, soviets played a very limited political role, and in the most senior parts of the Soviet system, women never constituted more than 10 per cent of deputies.
Larger numbers of women joined the Party after 1953. Between 1956 and 1983, the proportion of women in the Party increased from 19.7 per cent to 26 per cent. However, women were never more than 4 per cent of the Central Committee between 1953 and 1985.
The political representation paradox
Clearly, increased participation of women in the workforce and an increasingly educated female population did not lead to a rise in the proportion of women in government. Despite making up half the workforce and half of university graduates, women remained largely excluded from positions of real political power.
This disconnect between workforce participation and political representation persisted throughout the entire Soviet period, from 1917 to 1985.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember
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Workforce participation grew dramatically: Women's participation in the Soviet workforce increased from 3 million in industry (1928) to 13 million (1940), reaching 49% of the total workforce by 1955. However, this headline figure masked persistent inequalities.
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Urban-rural divide was stark: Urban women had access to industrial work, clerical positions, education and professional careers (though often in lower-paid, "feminized" sectors). Rural women faced harsh conditions, performed the "triple shift" (farm work, household chores, handicrafts), and were largely confined to low-status, poorly paid agricultural labour.
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Pay discrimination persisted throughout: Women doing identical work to men earned only 60–65% of male wages. Even when women entered professions in large numbers (70% of doctors, 75% of university staff by 1985), these "feminized" professions paid less than male-dominated sectors.
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Political representation remained minimal: Despite their workforce participation, women never exceeded 4% of the Central Committee (1953–85) and made up only 26% of Party membership by 1983. Women were channeled into government roles in health, education and social welfare – reflecting stereotyped nurturing roles.
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Recruitment campaigns exploited women: From the Virgin Lands scheme to BAM construction, recruitment campaigns targeted young women with contradictory messages about liberation whilst emphasizing their roles as potential wives and mothers. Women often faced sexual violence and were systematically placed in the lowest-paid positions.