The Status of Soviet Women in the Countryside (Edexcel A Level History): Revision Note

Summary

• This note will examine how far Soviet policies changed the lives of women in the countryside from 1917 to 1985.

• Although the Bolsheviks promised equality, rural women experienced little genuine liberation.

• Agricultural work, domestic labour and community duties created a constant 'double' and often a 'triple' burden.

• Collectivisation, male migration and low-paid farm work meant that women carried the heaviest responsibilities but received the fewest rewards.

• Historians disagree over whether women’s status in the countryside significantly improved, or whether traditional gender roles and the agricultural hierarchy continued to block real equality.

Women's role in the countryside in 1917

• From 1917 to the 1940s, many women worked in agriculture

• Performing the 'triple shift', as they would

  • Work on the farms

    • All except for the ploughing, which was completed by a man

  • Complete household chores

  • Produce handicrafts to supplement the household income

• Women did not have the same social or political standing as men

  • Even after the 1917 revolution, decisions about land and politics remained with men

    • Bolshevik authority remained weak in the countryside in 1917-1918

The impact of collectivisation on women in the countryside

• Collectivisation had a significant impact on women in the countryside as they became the backbone of the Kolkhoz workforce due to

  • Dekulakisation

    • Many men were arrested, executed, or deported, leaving women to run households alone

  • Famine

    • Women received less food because they earned fewer work points, so they were more vulnerable to starvation

  • Male migration removed many men from the countryside

    • This increased women’s workload because they had to replace male labour in the fields

• Women were given jobs that were

  • Low-paid

  • Non-mechanised

    • Such as weeding, milking, and potato harvesting

    • These tasks earned very few trudodni, so women received less grain at the end of the year

• The trudodni work-unit system rewarded women poorly

  • Skilled or mechanised jobs earned more points, and men almost always did these

  • Men dominated the decisions made by the Kolkhoz and the Machine-Tractor Stations (MTS)

    • This meant women had little influence over access to machinery or the distribution of resources

• The social consequences which collectivisation had on women were severe as

  • Households were broken up

    • By deportations and arrests

    • Women were left as single heads of families

  • The 'double burden' was intensified by their 'triple burden'

    • Women worked in the fields and held domestic responsibilities

  • Women were expected to perform community tasks for the collective

• As time progressed, many women working on collective farms gained a high social status

  • Female tractor drivers earned a good wage

• During the New Economic Policy (NEP), there were only eight female tractor drivers in the Soviet Union

  • In 1940, this rose to 50,000

    • Female tractor drivers made up 0.5% of the rural population

• Most women had unskilled jobs

  • They were often poor and had no social status

The Virgin Lands

• From 1954 to 1974, women were recruited to work on the Virgin Lands

  • They were required to act as

    • Milkmaids

    • Gardeners

    • Manual labourers

    • Carers

• By August 1958, 6,400 women were recruited

  • Fewer than 450 women were in well-paid professions

  • Approximately 15% were tractor drivers

• Women were also chosen to start families

  • Recruitment focused on women aged around 25 years old

    • To encourage young men to move to the Virgin Lands

  • Women aged 26 and over and single mothers were rejected from the scheme

• Women from the cities, such as Moscow, complained about the living conditions

  • As they were used to the comfortable living of the cities

    • Very few women from the cities remained in the Virgin Lands

• Female farm workers were often raped and suffered sexual abuse

  • Farm managers blamed the women

    • Women were often forced to marry their rapists

Had the role of women in the countryside changed by 1985?

Historians debate whether women in the countryside experienced genuine improvements in status or whether they continued to face structural disadvantages and traditional expectations.

The Soviet state improved women's status in the countryside

• Farming was meant to modernise through mechanisation

  • Promised under the Five-Year Plan and Seven-Year Plan

• Women gained more responsibility in agricultural work

• Some women took on skilled or supervisory roles during labour shortages

• Education for rural girls gradually expanded

• More women were employed in teaching and rural services by the 1970s–80s

Key historian

"Despite the gains that women have enjoyed under the Soviet government, many observers are struck by the reality that female labour in both agriculture and industry remains heavily concentrated in unskilled, often manual work, at the bottom of job pyramids where pay is relatively low... Rural women did assume more position of responsbility during World War II to replace absent men at the front. Yet, once the war was over a dramatic reduction in the number of women holding leadership posts on collective farms came about (Hough, 1971). This familiar pattern shows both a lack of acceptance at finding women in positions of authority and also reflects reluctance on the part of women to keep high positions which they initially gained through expediency ... One main reason behind the male/female achievement gap throughout the Soviet economy is that women are perceived as unstable participants in the labour force. Their productivity tends to be lower than that reached by men. They more frequently fail to meet output quotas and have a high rate of absenteeism since they are the ones who stay at home when their children are ill (Kotliar and Turchaninova, 1975: 126-7). It is partly because women constitute a less efficient labour resource than males that men, rather than women, have been placed in positions of greater responsibility. Traditional attitudes toward capabilities of women reinforce this trend. Furthermore, many women strive for top positions due to the costs in time and energy they would spend serving only to accentuate the female 'double burden'. " - Mary Buckley, Women in the Soviet Union (1981)

The Soviet state did not improve women’s status in the countryside

• Mechanisation failed to transform rural women’s lives

  • By 1964, machinery on farms remained scarce

  • Men received priority for skilled, mechanised jobs

• Women were concentrated in the lowest-paid agricultural work

  • By 1970, 72% of the lowest-paid farm workers were women

  • By 1983, 65% of farm work remained unmechanised

• Many men left collective farms for industry

  • Leaving women with heavier labour burdens

• Leadership opportunities declined

  • By 1980, women were 80% of rural teachers but only 2% of farm managers

• The “double burden” remained entrenched

  • Women managed domestic labour as well as farm work

Key historian

“Far from disappearing with the advent of an ostensibly more enlightened administration, the media emphasis on women as wife and mother intensified as the decade progressed. Legislation introduced from the mid-1980s extended maternity leave and increased provision for part-time work and even for the introduction of homeworking. Both the legislation itself and the considerable amount of discussion on women’s roles which accompanied it underscored the notion that a woman’s primary responsibility lay not in the workplace but in the home, uniting the family, caring for husband and children… Throughout the period, the message that women bore ultimate responsibility not merely for marital stability and the good behaviour of children, but also for the entire gamut of male activity continued to be remorselessly rammed home in the press and on television.

Yet far from shirking their responsibilities in their pursuit of emancipation, women had consistently been found to be the victims of gross domestic inequality. Throughout the previous two decades, Soviet sociologists had been documenting this phenomenon within both urban and rural families and observing the stress this could place on marital relationships. Studies of the rural family carried out during the 1980s showed little change. The majority of rural newlyweds, though considerably fewer than city couples, declared that they would do housework and budgeting together. In practice, a 1988 study found half the young married women in their survey preparing food single-handedly, whilst around 40 per cent received no help at all with the everyday cleaning or washing.” - Sue Bridger, The return of the family farm: a future for women? ( 1996)