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How Did Women's Rights Change Between The 1920s And 1930s

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While family structure in the Soviet Union did change significantly during the first two decades of Communist government following the social revolution, there were also many ways in which it did not change, and some ways in which there was a return to traditional family structure during this time. Although there were changes to marriage and divorce laws, the role of women in the workplace, and the social ideas of male and female roles, inequality was still a significant issue. The attempts to create a new model of family life throughout the 1920s and 1930s, without traditional boundaries but with respect for individual rights, was unsuccessful in many ways, as women were still viewed as responsible for household duties and for raising children while men had much more sexual freedom than women. The early 1920s and the revolutionary concepts and laws which it introduced resulted in social disorder, with marriage breakdown, homelessness and poverty leading to a backlash against the changes in gender roles. Rather than blaming the lack of social services, many claimed that women needed to return to traditional roles and supply stability to the family, rather than considering the nation’s economic situation and the lack of social services as being the central issue. While …show more content…

Even during the years of Stalinist conservatism it was common to find the symbolic dismemberment of male supremacy in stories about Stalinist heroines. But it is important to remember that Bolshevik ire was reserved for the local, the consanguinal male. The Bolsheviks made no attempt to dismantle the patriarchy per se, but they tried to replace the authority of the local male, of fathers, brothers and husbands, with that of the absent, omnipotent male of socialist patriarchy (Chatterjee, 2002, p.

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