ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to an analysis of Soviet policies related to the education of women and their influence on women's employment over the past 40 years. This is one of the issues explored in my book Women 's Work and Wages in the Soviet Union (McAuley, 1981), where further evidence in support for the arguments advanced in this chapter will be found. (For additional reading, see Atkinson et ai, 1977; Lapidus, 1978; Lapidus, 1982; Scott, 1976.)
Soviet policy has always emphasized the importance of education for both men and women. Education and the acquisition of skills have been held to be necessary if women are to achieve economic independence; they are necessary for the enjoyment of a full cultural life; they are a prerequisite for the economic expansion that underpins the building of socialism. And the figures cited below show that this official commitment to education has borne fruit : the average level of education among the Soviet population has risen markedly in the past half century. Also, differences between the educational attainments of men and women have
virtually disappeared. But elimination of sex-linked differences in the amount of schooling has not resulted in a reduction of occupational segregation; nor has it brought about any marked fall in earnings differentials.
