Feminism Survey
Harold Takooshian, PhD
Fordham University
Ani Sanentz Kalayjian, PhD
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Few nations so early and fully recognized the legal equality of a women and men as did the U.S.S. R in 1917. Still, the voluminous research on soviet women shows a mixed picture. Despite de jure egalitarianism, soviet women increasingly bemoan their de facto inequality with me. What is the current status of women in the USSR?
Although the picture given is of a Soviet society that is a sort of pioneer in the world movement towards feminism, it is probably an error to equate so easily the Soviet economy’s need for female labor with the ideological liberation of women. In this presentation, the four-fold aim is to offer: (1) The official view of soviet women. (2) The unofficial view, expressed n recent writings by and about Soviet women. (3) An analysis of the subtle cultural evolution contributing to this large gap between the official and unofficial views. (4) A prognosis of the likely future of soviet feminism as a change agent within the soviet system, based partly on quantitative and qualitative data in the USSR separately collected by the presenters in Soviet Armenia between 1987-1990.
The official view of women is shown statistically. Soviet women reportedly have unusually long life expectancy (75 years), high participation in the labor force (71%) with 49% of all soviet workers being women; low fertility (2.4 births); remarkably high adult literacy (98%); exactly 1:1 ration of women to men enrolled in higher education. There is, however, a look of facilities for child care and housing. Women are paid less for the same jobs, and are discriminated in selections and promotions. In addition, there are no women representatives in the executive branch
of government.
A standardized Feminism Survey is used to compare the responses of 102 “nonethnic” New York women, with 115 women in Erevan, the capital of Soviet Armenia. Women in Soviet Armenian score significantly lower than the American women on the Feminism Survey.
