Soviet Women

It would be unfair not to give credit the Soviet system for its achievement in gender issues. Even with all the misgivings and errors that have occurred, Soviet women developed social and civil rights earlier than most of the countries of both developed and developing world. Although officially abolished, religious and cultural diversity of the country played a substantial role in shaping the attitude towards women. In the second half of the 20th century it became evident that the communist ideology was not capable of subduing cultural differences in a country with 100 nations living within its borders. The Russian language and culture being predominant in most republics of the USSR, it should be acknowledged that several decades would not

The Soviet pedagogical system praised spiritual and nonphysical beauty, emphasising the absolute necessity for young girls to have a kind heart and rich inner world. Naive as it may sound, but it also discouraged any demonstration of physical beauty or feminine behaviour in young girls. It is obvious that this kind of policy was doomed to fail as it opposed the nature in its core values, trying to reduce the differences between boys and girls. Despite the above mentioned efforts, the women in the Soviet countries did their best to follow the Western fashion style and look as feminine as possible. The mass production of makeup, perfumes and other cosmetics as well as the society’s relative well-being afforded women to pay attention to their clothes, look, manners and behaviour. The common trend was to accentuate men’s attention on the fact that being a woman did not solely mean a mother and a housewife. For the first time in decades urban women started realizing that there were many other things to do in life apart from giving birth to children and washing their families’ clothes. The young generation’s ideas varied from extreme liberal to radical conservative, however the mere fact that such ideas emerged was an unknown novelty for a society where there was no room for any other ideas than those dictated by the government. The mass expansion of Western

It was on of the first countries in the world to grant equal right, at least on paper, to both sexes. This kind of breakthrough in the law seemed promising to the Soviet women and promoted women’s active participation in social life and production. The USSR also made education free and available for everyone and encouraged women to work after graduation providing equal rights with men in production and even favouring positive discrimination which manifested in social benefits and privileges for